The purpose of society, when based on social contracts, is to control the people and force them to work in society the way you want them to. To avoid any or all confrontation in society and allow society to go on even with injustice and inequality. In society to be a full citizen you have to be important in the way society runs, Which mostly entails that you need to be someone that has historically been in power or has the most influence in society. That means that in most cases you would have to be white or in other words someone that is apart of a majority within the society that makes you the number one priority of that society.
The project James Baldwin undertook was about describing the history of racial injustice in a way that highlighted its key movements and historical figures that are foundations for the future to work upon. I think Baldwin chose to write about Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, and Medgar Evans because all three of these figures had made a huge impact on society as a whole in such a short period of time, and they all were young men that had passed in similar ways. All three figures had not even made it to the age of forty and they all died violently which is key to describe when talking about how society viewed these men, for all of them to killed in such ways it shows the danger and threat that came with what they were doing. These were men that figured against the popular outright prejudice in society at the time so that they were fighting for making the majority of the nation angry and despise them.
My reaction to the film was that is was like watching a famous story told again and again, the message put in the film is a message taught to me countless times and not to mention it is a message that has transcended hundreds of years. Films like this just make it more prevalent than this fight for equality has been going on for more than any of us in the present-day have lived to see and will most likely live beyond even if it is on a smaller scale. Watching scenes of protests and the governments respond to them almost 60 years ago goes to show that now with protests like that happening a few months ago that this fight is still as hard as ever, that the anger and pain are still extremely prevalent and not enough work has been done. That history has been repeating itself endlessly and is at this point a common routine for society and the government.
I agree that including the fights of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Medgar Evers and how they died was very helpful in showing the perspective most white people had of participants in the civil rights movement at the time. The utter disrespect and terror white people felt towards these three incredibly influential figures is a demonstration of the absurd and skewed morality of the country at the time.