Voices of Civil Rights

Voices of Civil Rights, a collection of five documentaries on two discs, captures the scope of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, even if it often fails to plumb the depths of this important chapter in American history. Three of the programs are deeply compelling, putting a human face and anguished voice to the era: the Emmy-nominated Crossing the Bridge, which details the horrific violence that took place when Alabama state troopers assaulted nonviolent protestors at a bridge in Selma; Mississippi State Secrets, which exposes an astonishing state-government-sanctioned surveillance program that spied on up to 80,000 people involved in the Civil Rights movement; and the Peabody award-winning Save Our History: Voices of Civil Rights, a celebration of a 2004 project in which journalists and archivists spanning the country recorded firsthand accounts of the tumultuous struggle from decades earlier. Oddly, the least successful of the titles compiled here are a pair of episodes from the A&E Biography series that profile two major figures—Martin Luther King Jr. and Thurgood Marshall—but reduce their complexities to an almost cartoonish version of sainthood. But even with those shaky hagiographies, this bargain-priced set is still well worth purchasing. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (P. Hall)