[NARRATOR:] In August 1963,
Edward R. Murrow, head of the United States Information Agency,
began producing a documentary
about the upcoming March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The propaganda agency sent camera teams
to film marchers in seven states and Washington, D.C.,
over the course of three days
and gathered more than 11 hours of footage.
But as the project neared completion,
Murrow was losing a battle with cancer.
And the film's political opponents
wanted to make sure it would never be seen.
President Lyndon B. Johnson tasked a groundbreaking diplomat, Carl Rowan,
with seeing the project through.
[CULL:] But almost immediately,
there is controversy over how USA talks about civil rights,
and Carl Rowan is put in the middle of this dispute
over whether or not this documentary film should be shown overseas.
[ROWAN:] There were southern senators, in particular, who felt,
'how can you put out this,
it's so critical of the United States.'
[Marchers chant "Freedom! Freedom!"]
[NARRATOR:] In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower
established the United States Information Agency
to produce and distribute American propaganda around the world.
[CULL:] As a one stop shop for American foreign policy information,
U.S.I.A. has an astonishing range of outlets.
It had Voice of America radio.
It had a global publications network.
They have distribution deals
so that when a major Hollywood film was released,
a U.S.I.A. film would accompany it
onto one of the international screens.
[U.S.I.A. Film Narrator] It is ideas that change the world for good or ill.
The U.S.I.A. deals in ideas
U.S.I.A. tells the world about peace
and the dignity of the individual...
[FRAZIER:] At the heart of the Cold War were struggles over narrative
Struggles over what kinds of societies
did people want to live in
and participate in?
[CULL:] The Soviet Union focuses on race
as one of the principal issues
in its representation of the United States.
They understand this is America's Achilles heel:
How can you be the land of liberty
when there is violence against African Americans,
when there are two levels of citizenship?
One citizenship for white people
and a different second class citizenship
available to African Americans.
[NARRATOR:] Murrow hoped a film about the March on Washington
would make the case abroad
that the government supported the civil rights movement.
[The March film narrator] The Constitution of the United States
guarantees every American the right to protest peaceably.
200,000 Americans then,
were going to use this right.
[NARRATOR:] But as Murrow's film about the march was being completed,
he was losing a battle with cancer.
To replace him as U.S.I.A. director,
President Lyndon Johnson chose Carl Rowan.
Rowan had made his name as a journalist
reporting on racism in the South.
[ROWAN:] In 1948, I got a job with the Minneapolis Tribune
at a time when very few daily newspapers
were hiring Negroes as writers.
In 1951, I suggested to the editors
that we had a responsibility to tell the people of this state
something about the Negro citizens of this nation.
[LENTZ-SMITH:] Rowan, as a journalist was —
he was a chronicler.
In covering those 50s years,
he came to realize how long and difficult the road was
that civil rights activists had before them.
And so making readers see that and understand it,
the urgency of it became central to his project.
[Narrator] During the 1960 presidential campaign,
Rowan wrote a series of articles on Democratic candidate John F. Kennedy,
that Kennedy found surprisingly fair.
In 1961, the new President offered the journalist
the job of Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.
Three years later, President Johnson appointed Rowan
to succeed Murrow as head of the U.S.I.A.,
a job that made him the highest ranking African American
in the U.S. government.
[CULL:] Carl Rowan came into the position of U.S.I.A. director
with a lot of knowledge of how public diplomacy worked.
I think he will have also known
that representation of civil rights internationally was a hot issue.
But almost immediately, there is controversy
over this amazing documentary film.
[The March narrator] By the end of August 1963,
in some places of the United States,
a Negro could not go to school where he chose,
eat where he wished,
build his home where it pleased him
or find jobs for which he was qualified.
He had been insulted, beaten, jailed,
drenched with water, chased by dogs.
But he was coming to Washington, he said,
to swallow up hatred and love
to overcome violence by peaceful protest.
[NARRATOR:] Anticipating a backlash,
the U.S.I.A. invited reporters to view the film.
There were immediate objections.
Carl Rowan is put in the middle of this dispute
over whether or not this documentary film should be shown overseas.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Carl T. Rowan,
As the new director of the United States Information Agency,
I have the privilege to present to you
a dramatic document...
[CULL:] In the end, Rohan himself speaks a preface to the film,
explaining that this is the way in which
free men in a free country make the country even better.
It is a film about the great civil rights march in Washington,
a moving exercise of one of the most cherished rights in a free society.
[Cull] Part of Rowan's approach to civil rights
is to emphasize the value of the United States government.
I believe that this demonstration of both whites and Negroes
supported by the federal government
and by both President Johnson and the late President Kennedy,
is a profound example of the procedures unfettered man use
to broaden the horizons of freedom
and deepen the meaning of personal liberty.
[LENTZ-SMITH] By the time Rowan becomes director of the U.S. Information Agency,
a lot of the bloom has come off the rose.
He is more aware of what he's up against.
I don't think he was ever naive to think
that these were easily fixable problems,
but he's aware of how embedded white supremacy
is in American foreign policy.
[NARRATOR:] American embassies around the world
approved of the new version of the film with Rowan's introduction.
[FRAZIER:] It's difficult for us to fully conceptualize
both what it meant to be Black,
you know, in spaces of government during that time period.
The role that he's supposed to play
is supposed to create a very safe, nurturing,
idyllic impression of the U.S.
To have to go out and represent U.S. interests
and help cultivate the kind of narrative
of U.S. freedom and democracy
for non U.S. publics.
I'm sure he had misgivings about his role
as the salesman for policies that he didn't always agree with.
that he didn't always agree with.
Absolutely.
[Marchers chant "Freedom"]