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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.
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.
Jan 16, 2009 · Called “Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment,” the hourlong film shot over a two-day period in June 1963, broadcast on ABC four months later and now available on DVD is worth the new...
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
Attorney General Robert Kennedy had to move mountains to overcome the crisis. He advised the president and developed a strategy for Alabama, and Drew filmed this as well. We learn what Wallace thought about racial segregation and follow the two students in question right up to the moment of truth.
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.
Directed by Robert Drew, Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment features vintage footage of Wallace and Kennedy, as well as James Hood and Vivian Malone, the two African-American students refused admission to an otherwise all-white school by Wallace.
