Program Information

"We are disinherited of this land. We who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. Now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality." - Martin Luther King Jr.

The United States Constitution has been the foundation for the United States government and its citizens for over two hundred years. Many people believe it is the “gold standard” for fledgling democracies all over the world. It calls for the citizens to be active and for government to be accountable to those they govern. Many historians believe the Constitution has made our nation as successful and as powerful as it is; however, many of our citizens have not read or do not understand the Constitution and the foundation of our government. “Questioning the Constitution” looks at the development of the constitution, how it has been interpreted and questions whether the constitution should be reformed. This one-hour documentary was produced by WCVE PBS in partnership with the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Transcript

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: We are disinherited of this land. We who have been oppressed so long, are tired of going through the long night of captivity. Now we are reaching out for the daybreak of freedom and justice and equality.

BOND: In the Civil Rights Movement there’s a great moment, it’s December 5, 1955. The first meeting of the Montgomery Improvement Association is being held. This is the beginning of the bus boycott. Rosa Parks has been arrested four days earlier. People have stayed off the buses for one day. Now thousands of them are gathered in a church in Montgomery and so many that thousands are standing on the street outside listening to this on loudspeaker. And this new young minister in town, Martin Luther King, who most of them don’t know, never heard of, don’t know anything at all about him, has been chosen the leader of this group, and he has to give the reasons why we’re here. And in a relatively brief speech, maybe 20-25 minutes, he says something that’s just so powerful. He says, “We’re not wrong because if we are wrong, the Supreme Court is wrong.” And in 1955, no black people think the Supreme Court is wrong. And the year before it has just ruled against segregated schools. How could that be wrong? Then he says, “If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong.” And nobody then, or now, thinks the Constitution is really wrong. And then he says, “If we’re wrong, then Jesus Christ is wrong.” Of course, when you’re speaking in the Holt Street Baptist Church, there’s nobody there who thinks Jesus Christ is, or ever could be, wrong. But it’s his endorsement of the Constitution, this embrace of the Constitution that not only, that King articulates. But that everyone in the room, no matter how unlettered they may be, embraces with him.

MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.: And we are not wrong. We are not wrong in what we are doing. If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. If we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong.

BOND: He knew from that basic American understanding of it, that this is the document that says I’m a person. And as a person, I have all the rights every other person has, no more, no less. And the fact that I now have less means that I’ve got to use this document to make sure I have an equal amount.

It took a long time for the country to come to a consciousness that we’ve been treating a portion of our population badly. We’ve denied them the right to vote, we’ve denied them the ordinary protections of police, we’ve denied them just elemental, basic human rights. And we’ve treated them awfully. A movement arose, and the movement eventually won the hearts and minds of the American people and the hearts and minds of the Congress of the United States. And because of a courageous president, Lyndon Johnson, helped set right what had been wrong for a hundred years. Now, along the way, there’re many, many victories. Court victories won by the NAACP and other organizations. And these court victories depended on forging a new interpretation of the Constitution and new enforcement of what the Constitution said. So the 1960s is when all of what has been wrong is set right.

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