This made-for-TV movie dramatizes the historic boycott of public buses in the 1950s, led by civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Acting
Wright's King is human, exhausted, strategically brilliant — not a statue
Writing
Shows the mechanics: carpool systems, fundraising, internal disagreements
Production
Shot on location in Georgia with shoestring authenticity
Director
Clark Johnson
Jeffrey Wright
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Terrence Howard
Ralph Abernathy
CCH Pounder
Jo Ann Robinson
Carmen Ejogo
Coretta Scott King
Reg E. Cathey
E.D. Nixon
Brent Jennings
Rufus Lewis
Iris Little Thomas
Rosa Parks
Shawn Michael Howard
Fred Gray
Aaron Neville
Angry Neighbor
Erik Dellums
Bayard Rustin
Mike Hodge
Daddy King
Whitman Mayo
Reverend Banyon
Walter Franks
Reverend Fields
Tom Nowicki
Commissioner Sellars
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made for HBO with a $6 million budget — tiny for period drama. Director Clark Johnson later became a TV heavyweight on The Wire and Homeland.
This premiered in 2001, months before 9/11, in a completely different protest culture. The 'economic boycott as direct action' messaging hit different then vs. now.
US
