Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment
During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. As Wallace has promised to personally block the two black students from enrolling in the university, the JFK administration discusses the best way to react to it, without rousing the crowd or making Wallace a martyr for the segregationist cause.
Witness the high-stakes political maneuvering behind a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. This vérité-style documentary immerses you in the urgent, tense atmosphere of the Oval Office as the nation grapples with desegregation.
