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Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment is a 1963 direct cinema documentary film directed by Robert Drew. The film centers on the University of Alabama 's "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door" integration crisis of June 1963.
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment First aired on ABC television in 1963, Robert Drew's cinéma vérité documentary chronicles how President John F. Kennedy and his brother Attorney...
- 71 min
- 13K
- US National Archives
Jan 16, 2009 · The night the crisis was settled, President Kennedy gave a 15-minute speech on national television explaining his action and declaring that the time had come to make all American citizens free.
When Governor George Wallace literally stands in the schoolhouse door to block the admittance of two African-American students to the all-white University of Alabama in June 1963, President Kennedy is forced to decide whether to use the power of the presidency to back racial equality.
President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, work to get two black students enrolled at the University of Alabama despite Gov. George Wallace's ban.
- (488)
- Robert Drew
- Documentary
- ABC News
A.V. Club review (as part of Criterion's Robert Drew set). Now this is more like it. We'll probably never see White House access this unrestricted again, and surrounding a crucial moment in American history to boot.
The president was facing great tension in American politics and society. In spite of a federal ruling, Governor George Wallace was threatening to deny two black students access to the "white" University of Alabama. Attorney General Robert Kennedy had to move mountains to overcome the crisis.
