Our Friend, Martin
Our Friend, Martin is a 1999 animated childrens educational film about Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American civil rights movement. Two friends travel through time, meeting Dr. King at several points during his life. It featured an allstar voice cast and was nominated for an Emmy award in 1999 for Outstanding Animated Program For Programming More Than One Hour. It marks John Travoltas voice acting debut. It was the final release under the CBSFox Video name.
The boys then travelyears in time and meet a teenage Martin Jaleel White on a segregated train. He explains to them that blacks and whites are unable to integrate and must use separate bathrooms, restaurants and waiting rooms. They later have dinner with Martins family and while he goes to do shut in rounds with his father James Earl Jones, the boys travel forwardyears and meet Martin LeVar Burton, who by now is in his 20s and works as a minister at the church. He is holding a meeting about the Montgomery Bus Boycott, set off after Rosa Parks, a black seamstress refused to give up her seat on a bus and was put in prison for it. As a result, no black adults or children will ride the buses. Just then, Turner Samuel L. Jackson, Martins friend alerts him his house has been bombed. He races home, but fortunately his wife Coretta Scott King and newborn daughter Yolanda escape unharmed.Turner announces that in retaliation, they will attack the perpetrators with bricks, guns, Molotov cocktails and knives, but Martin stops him, reminding the crowd of Gandhi peacefully standing his ground to exile the British colonies from India and of Jesus teaching love for his enemies. Miles and Randy then travel to the Birmingham riot of 1963 and witness demonstrators squirt black protesters with hoses and set German Shepherds on them. The boys are later transported back to the museum and join their class back at school. The following day, Miles and Randy tell Miss Clark about the events prior to Martins work and later the class watch a VHS tape of Martins work. After the class leaves, Maria and Kyle decide to investigate for themselves how Randy and Miles got the information. When the boys arrive at the museum, Mrs. Peck lets them stay but warns them that when one messes with the past, this can affect the present. ........
Source: Wikipedia