Nicholas Katzenbach

Forty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, more than 80% of Americans still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone. This documentary attempts to separate fact from conspiracy theories to get to the truth, employing stunning forensic technology that makes it possible for the first time to be an eyewitness to this crime of the century – to see precisely what happened that November day in Dallas.

On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.

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.

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.