The weekend after April 4, 1968,
Black people all over the country
attended memorial services for Dr. King.
It was a time where, just like in life,
he brought people together of all races
to mourn our country's great loss.
To those of us in Montgomery,
where his civil-rights career began,
it was a particularly difficult time.
Families from our neighborhood
gathered together to memorialize the great man.
He was an idol.
He was respected.
He was eloquent.
He was gorgeous.
He looked great in a black dress and stockings.
S-Snap out of it, man.
This isn't the time or place for looking at girls.
This is a memorial for a hero, a noble man, a martyr.
A lying, conniving snake in the grass
who'd kiss the girl you've loved since second grade behind your back!
I couldn't help it.
In spite of this solemn moment,
all I was thinking about was seeing Keisa
kissing my best friend.
Please let there be a lesson
from the pastor's words that will help me.
Let us not give in to anger or revenge...
but remember the words of Dr. King himself...
"Forgive those who inflict evil and injury upon us."
Nope. Nothing.
This is torture.
But I guess it could have been worse.
At least they weren't rubbing it in my face,
being all lovey-dovey and holding hands.
Everyone, please, take your neighbor's hand and pray.
Why, God, why?!
He's just a little sensitive.
While Cory got to caress Keisa's soft, supple hand,
I was stuck next to someone who looked like he'd been atLincoln's memorial.
Be strong.
It'll be over soon.
Let us all rise and sing the Negro National Anthem.
You gotta be kidding me.
Why did songs about oppression have to be so long?
You're still in church clothes.
Shouldn't you be hanging out with Cory by now?
I don't feel like it.
Hey, man, looka here.
That little outburst at church...
- You, um... - Where do you think you're going?
I told you. Out.
- We just came from out. - Sitting in church,
singing "Kumbaya" isn't gonna do anything, but this will.
- We're not letting you go to some riot. - Rally!
That's how all riots start.
Are you serious? I know you are not walking away from me
- while I'm talking. - Hello?
- What else is there to say? - Yeah.
- You want to control my life even more? - She is.
- You haven't seen control yet, young lady... - Just a minute.
but keep talking back and see what happens.
So, who gonna be there?
Mildred, Vesta, Kwame X.
Kwame X?
What kind of stupid-ass militant name is that?
His name is Albert. Albert.
And you're not going.
Mama and Daddy thought Kim's boyfriend was a bad influence.
I think that's why she liked him.
Our house, our rules.
If there were ever a time for us to be eating dinner together, it's now.
That's your solution for everything...
let's eat together.
I just lost my appetite.
The way I saw it,
we should have just been happy somebody liked her back.
Hey, Kwame? You might want to call back.
No, I'm thinking next year.
You're very welcome.
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After a weekend full of heartache over Keisa
and marches and riots on the news,
I actually looked forward to the mundane normalcy of school.
Yep, it'd been like this ever since I stepped off the bus.
Okay, class, pay attention.
Here are last Friday's quiz scores.
A "C"?
My GPA was being assassinated!
And before you say anything, that's a great metaphor.
And the quiz was on metaphors, so how'd I get a "C"?
Right.
It was the night I saw my former friends, Cory and Keisa, kiss.
Dean? May I speak to you?
It's not like you to get a "C."
Do you have an explanation?
Maybe it was unfair of me to expect you to study.
This must be such a difficult time for your people.
Let's just go ahead and make this one an "A."
Wait. What's this, now?
Y-You mean... 'cause of Dr. King?
You must feel so... lost.
Now, I knew that taking advantage of the tragic death
of the greatest civil-rights icon in history
was inappropriate,
but I'd just gotten my heart broken for the first time.
Give me a break.
So lost.
But this helps.
Does this help, too?
Yes.
All the way to the top. And go.
I don't think I can.
Not since Martin Luther King never made it to the mountaintop.
It's all right, son.
I'll give you a pass to see the guidance counselor.
The gym teacher said you might need to talk.
Nah, I'm good.
You might want to freshen these, though.
Any guilt I was feeling about what I was doing
was gone by the time I got home.
Hey, I was dealing with grief in my own way.
So was my sister.
You're not going anywhere tonight, young lady.
- And Mama. - I made dinner.
And we're going to eat tonight together as a family.
Her five stages of grief came
with five pounds of bacon grease.
The other chicken is ready.
Be cool.
Hey. Want to ride bikes later?
Sure.
- Can I come? - No.
I didn't ride bikes with traitors.
Why not?
And where were you this morning? I waited at the bus stop.
I don't know where I was.
Why are you acting so weird lately?
I wasn't gonna show weakness and tell him what I saw.
No. I was gonna deflect with the skill of a great litigator.
- You'reacting weird. - No, you'reacting weird.
Dang it! His litigation skills are as great as mine.
- Both of you. - You would take his side.
What are you talking about?
Dean, Cory, Keisa,
may I see the three of you up front, please?
You all know that talking during class is a demerit.
I'm sorry, Mrs. Hodges.
I've just been really upset about Dr. King.
Dear. I do understand.
This was getting too easy.
It's hit us all pretty hard.
It wasn't enough that he hijacked my girl?
Now he was hijacking my "White Liberal Guilt" card?
I'm sure it hit you both equally hard.
And you, as well, Keisa.
In fact, I think I might have a solution.
Why don't you all give a presentation to the class
about Dr. King's importance?
Help us feel your pain.
I-Is it okay if I do my own?
It's just Dr. King's death was... so personal.
Of course, Dean.
Nothing could hurt worse than working with them.
Thank God we worked on that MLK presentation together
all those years ago.
If Dean hadn't done his own project,
I would never have proposed to you.
I was wrong. This hurt so much more.
I'm sad about Mr. King's death, too.
Nice try, Brad.
You already got out of eight days of homework last Hanukkah.
Seeing Cory and Keisa kissing was still eating me up inside,
and now, because of my own big mouth,
they'd be working on a project together... alone.
Still upset?
What?
You know, like you were at church.
Yeah, Dr. King's dead, and I'm really sad.
- See you at dinner. - Hold up.
you want to talk about anything?
No.
Hop in.
Let's go fishing.
It was an unwritten rule
that my dad's weekday fishing trips were a solo activity.
Hell, Mama covered up being in labor
so as not to interrupt one of them.
I had no choice but to go with him.
Okay. Let's go.
You like fishing, huh?
I love it.
But you don't eat fish.
Hate it.
Think about all those fish out there under the surface
that we can't see.
They have no idea what's going on here,
above the water.
They don't even care.
Their life is simple.
They don't have to wonder why bad things happen to good people
or why there's so much hatred in the world
or why, for some people, life may never be fair.
Nope.
They have no idea.
Maybe that's why I like to fish.
That's when it hit me.
My dad was actually wrestling with the very concerns
he thought I'd been wrestling with this whole time.
Okay.
It's getting late.
I wanted to tell him what was really bothering me
because I knew it would put his mind at ease.
But I was too embarrassed to confess
my stupid, silly troubles to a grown man with real ones.
You got one.
All right, take it slow.
- Take it slow. - And in that moment,
my dad wasn't a Black man in Alabama in 1968
or a father worried about his kids.
He was just a man fishing.
That's when I understood everything he didn't know how to say.
I had a brilliant spark of inspiration
that fueled me to write all night.
And as I've taken you through the entire life of Dr. King,
from his seminary days in Boston
to his Poor People's Campaign,
I summarize with this.
Dr. King is like the fish my dad caught.
And Black people are like my dad.
We don't eat the fish. No.
We appreciate what the fish taught us
and try to live our lives just like he did.
Okay, in hindsight, it was pretty ham-fisted and forced,
but to a 12-year-old, it was brilliant.
Just lovely, Dean.
Cory, Keisa?
Dr. King was very young, a-a very young minister,
when he heard about this man in India.
The man was named G-Gandhi.
G-Gandhi used nonviolence
to bring about change in his country...
of India, which Reverend King...
used in the Civil Rights Movement in America.
Gandhi was from India.
They were bombing.
The world was starting to make sense again.
A's all around.
What?! Are you kidding me?!
Class dismissed.
But my report was better. Now we get equality?
All A's. Give me some.
I deserved an "A." You didn't.
Stop taking everything from me!
What are you talking about?
- This was your idea. - Exactly.
- And because of you, we had to... - I saw you two kissing.
Y-You saw us?
Everything.
So you saw us.
We didn't do anything wrong.
Careful, Dean. Keisa still doesn't know you like her.
It's wrong because...
because friends shouldn't kiss each other.
We'll do what we want to do.
Right, Cory?
His silence said volumes.
I heard enough. I had to strike first.
Fine! I don't care.
I don't want to be friends with you guys anymore.
- Fine! - Fine!
Come on. Let's go.
I don't want to see you ever again.
We still have three more classes together.
And then baseball practice and then...
I said, "Fine!"
Poor thing.
Stayed up all night working on a presentation about Dr. King.
It must be still eating him up inside.
I'll grab the fishing poles.
Actually, why don't you let me handle this one?
You? He's crying enough already.
I'll be nice.
Fine. Go ahead.
Dean, you want to go get ice cream?
What?! Kim being nice to me just when I was at my lowest?
There was no reason to be suspicious at all.
Yeah.
I could go for some Rocky Road.
We're not actually getting ice cream, you drip.
I just told Mom and Dad that so we could get out the house.
They might not know how to help you deal with Dr. King's death,
but I do.
_
Good to see y'all. Power to the people.
Why are we here?
I wanted you to see that some brothers and sisters
are actually doing something to honor Dr. King.
Do I need money?
I have 50 cents in my sock.
There she is. Yeah, come here real quick.
Hi!
You sure he can hang?
He's hipper than you think.
Sure was. I lied before.
I actually had75 cents in my sock.
I ain't no sucker.
All right, listen up.
Someone tipped off the pigs
that we'll be at the shopping center on Fairview,
so be prepared for some company.
Anyone with a car, go ahead and load up on signs.
Growing up in the South, I'd seen plenty of guns,
but always in the woods.
This was a city gun.
What's that for?
In case we need protection.
I told you, no violence.
I want to go home.
We can't leave.
The only way you're gonna feel better is if you do something to make a difference.
Who said anything about making a difference?
I was mad because my best friend
kissed the girl he knew I liked.
Everybody was trying to make it about something important,
but that's all it was.
I know it's stupid to let feelings about a girl
make you do dumb things.
I just want to go home.
You're not stupid.
I could see that Kim didn't want to show how scared she was.
She wanted to impress Kwame and everybody there.
Kim...
I have to go home.
I forgot my medicine.
Yeah.
Dean needs his medicine for...
For my asthma.
Right. You have that asthma.
Man, I told you not to bring the little sissy in the first place.
- Hey, I'm not a si... - He is not a sissy.
He was brave enough to come here.
Now, are you gonna drive us home or what?
Forget it. Don't. We'll walk.
Come on, Dean.
Hey!
His real name... is Albert.
Thanks for taking me to get ice cream.
Thanks for paying.
Never tell people you got sock money
if you want to keep it.
Didn't mean to make you guys fight.
That fight was a long time coming.
He's more into making noise,
and I'm more into making change.
You gonna be okay?
Nothing a Smokey Robinson 45 can't fix.
But you really liked him.
You fought with Mom about him all the time.
I thought he was worth fighting for.
Some boys are.
But not ones who say "liberry" instead of "library."
Don't you dare tell Mama I admitted to that.
I won't.
You know, for what it's worth,
I hope things work out with you, Tommy, and Kasey.
You mean Cory and Keisa?
Yeah, them.
You don't even know my friends' names?
I-I do. Cory, Keisa, and...
Fred, the one who died last year.
Fred was my turtle.
I thought he was one of your buddies from school.
And you didn't say anything for a whole year?
There you two are. Just in time.
Guess what. Your mother caught us dinner.
Since you took Dean with you, I decided to take your mother fishing with me.
You know, I had never gone fishing with your father in all these years.
It felt so peaceful.
Like everything was normal.
It was good to see them laughing again.
I guess Mama needed Daddy's fishing trip as much as I did.
Hope you're hungry.
What?
I am very proud of this catch.
Aren't you supposed to use that to catch bigger fish?
It ain't nothing but eyes and a tail.
Stop it, you two. Mind your manners.
Now, Kim, go get the tiny plates from your dollhouse
so we can eat this thing.
Just as Kim had shown me
that some relationships aren't worth fighting for,
Mama and Daddy were showing me the kind that is,
whether it's a family relationship
or a relationship that's mattered to you since second grade.
I'm sorry I got so jealous.
I'm sorry I acted like a jerk
and embarrassed you in front of the whole history class.
- Listen, Dean... - You have to accept my apology.
This relationship is worth fighting for,
even if that means I have to pretend to be happy for you and Keisa.
- Even if... - Keisa said she doesn't like me.
She doesn't?
She said she only kissed me because she was so upset about Dr. King.
I really thought she liked me, man.
Well, now I know how you felt.
I'm sorry.
When I saw how sad and confused Cory looked,
I didn't feel so bad about how I'd been acting the last few days.
At 12, guys aren't supposed to know
how to deal with that kind of emotion.
Hell, I don't know if we ever know.
Hey, you busy after school?
Yep, just two guys fishing,
content not to have all the answers.
- Dean, this is boring. - I know.
For some reason, it just seems to work when my dad does it.
Daddy didn't tell me that you can't force moments like the one we had earlier.
Unfortunately, he also didn't tell me
that he didn't technically have permission
to fish on Old Man Seagram's lake.
Hey! What are you kids doing here?!
- Run! - I'll skin your teeth!
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