In the prologue of Four Died Trying, the filmmakers take us back to the fateful 1960's...back to a time when there was still a growing sense of optimism in the US and when a thaw in the Cold War seemed to open up possibilities for a better world.
Assassins' bullets took down the four major US leaders who were looking to channel that energy into democratic action. JFK refused to go to war in Cuba (1961), Laos (1961), Vietnam (1961), Berlin (1962), Cuba again (1962), and Vietnam again (1963). He had secret back-channel communications about peace with Cuba and the Soviet Union. He gave a speech in Summer 1963 calling for peace, disarmament, and a reexamination of the Cold War.
Malcolm X left the Nation of Islam and came to believe that he had been wrong about race. He thought the US could have a peaceful revolution. He worked with African leaders, hoping to embarrass the US into action on racial justice by highlighting the issue at the United Nations.
In 1968, Martin Luther King Jr, at Robert F. Kennedy's suggestion, was organizing a multiracial Poor Peoples Campaign on Washington, demanding that the US move money out of war spending and into social programs. Robert F. Kennedy himself was running for president on a platform for peace and for racial and economic justice. He also wanted to re-investigate his brother's assassination RFK believed that his brother JFK had been killed by the CIA--along with its Cuban exile and mafia friends.
All four of these leaders died trying. With them died that generation's aspirations to succeed where past generations had failed to build a better world. They sought a world not predicated on racism, militarism, and economic exploitation. Now in late 2023, the US and the world must learn this history and use that knowledge to turn us away from the disastrous course we're on. Watch Four Died Trying and tell your friends and family to watch it as well!