Martin Luther King
To mark 50 years since the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968, Trevor McDonald travels to America's Deep South in the hope of getting closer to the man who meant so much to him and so many others. He uncovers new sides to the story, speaks to a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and interviews an expert on the horrors of lynching in 20th-century America. He also asks some of black role models, including Naomi Campbell, General Colin Powell and the Rev Al Sharpton, what Martin Luther King means to them. Martin Luther King by Trevor McDonald could easily have been a paint-by-numbers look at an overfamiliar figure. To mark the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, the former newsreader travelled through the American South in the civil rights leader’s footsteps. But while there was nothing especially revelatory, this documentary was elevated by the quality of the interviewees and McDonald’s evident love of his subject. How many other presenters