SAVING MLK

 

“Every man runs, not every man arrives…”

 

Byron Middleton was close to the same age as Emmet Till when the Chicago boy was beaten and thrown into the Tallahassee River. Victimized himself by Klan members while performing in a family doo-wop group, Byron saves himself and that of his elementary school crush, ten-year-old, Marie Rosa. A decade later, the young couple are married by Ebenezer’s Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Destiny plays its hand while drawing together Byron’s placid nature along with MLK’s charismatic power in a exclusive relationship of unassuming bedfellows that would change the course of the world forever.  

 

“Well, first, I didn’t kill Dr. King”… James Earl Ray

 

As a kid, accused assassin, James Earl Ray watched his sister burn alive in a pile of dry leaves. He was taught to lie and steal while scapegoating blacks for a life of emasculation. The road to April 4, 1968 had been well-paved for Ray as well as for King’s traveling attaché Byron Middleton. Fearing MLK would become the nation's “Black Messiah” and consolidate The Black Panthers, FBI’s  J. Edgar Hoover launches a far-reaching counter-intelligence operation (Cointellpro) on King which also targets the reverend’s, travel secretary.

 

While the bureau activates Mob ties, Ray escapes from a Missouri prison. Byron is approached by the bureau’s agents to turn on King while George Wallace's presidential campaign gathers momentum. Violent threats foment, racial rhetoric targets Ebenezer, King and Byron himself.  Wife Marie and family grow frantic from the incoming terrors. Unleashed forces now barrel towards the Memphis Lorraine Hotel.  Byron regretfully resigns his position with King as the Memphis sanitation strike begins to roil.  Alerted by the Ebenezer’s church secretary when King’s reservations are secretly changed, the unassuming Middleton races to Memphis from Atlanta to stop the inevitable.

 

“I’m happy tonight, I’m not fearing anything – mine eyes have seen the glory of the Lord!”… MLK.

 

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