1968: Marlon Brando on Supporting the Civil Rights Movement

On 14 May 1968, Hollywood superstar Marlon Brando spoke to ITN's Keith Hatfield about his support for the civil rights movement in the United States. Just over a month before the interview, Martin Luther King Jr, civil rights leader and figurehead of the entire movement, was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. In response to King's assassination, the method acting pioneer dropped out of production of The Arrangement, a film in which he was to play the lead, and announced that he was devoting himself entirely to supporting the civil rights movement. In his interview with Hatfield, Brando called for those who were able to donate 1% of their salary to the Martin Luther King Jr Foundation, stating that he himself was pledging $100,000.

Brando had been a supporter of the civil rights movement since the early 1960s, having taken part in the 1963 March on Washington as well as a number of "Freedom Rides" through the segregationist southern states. He had been an early donor to the Black Panther movement, though he later distanced himself from the movement as both its aims and the methods it advocated for their advancement became more radical. An active and vocal defender of the rights of Native Americans, Brando took part in a number of "fish-ins" to defend the fishing rights of Indigenous communities. His commitment to racial justice was not confined to the US either; he was also a high profile member of the international movement opposing South Africa's apartheid policy.

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