Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment 1963

During a two-day period before and after the University of Alabama integration crisis, the film uses five camera crews to follow President John F. Kennedy, attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, Alabama governor George Wallace, deputy attorney general Nicholas Katzenbach and the students Vivian Malone and James Hood. 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. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with The Film Foundation in 1999.

Cast:

James Lipscomb
Narrator 

John F. Kennedy
Self 

George Wallace
Self 

Robert F. Kennedy
Self 

Vivian Malone
Self 

James Hood
Self 

• Crisis