As the nation inaugurates the 44th president, the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement is once again in the national spotlight. An Oak Park filmmaker is adding to this national narrative by telling the story of the year King spent living and working with civil rights workers in Chicago’s urban slums.

The Windy City’s role in that epic effort has been largely overlooked by modern accounts of the civil rights struggle, according to Seth McClellan, who created the 2008 documentary “King in Chicago” to chronicle the tumultuous events of 1966.

“I grew up in Chicago, and my dad was very active in civil rights work in Chicago,” said McClellan, who also teaches mass communication at Triton College in River Grove. “I realized that nobody had ever made a documentary about the year or so that Dr. King had lived and worked in Chicago.”

“King in Chicago” features dozens of interviews with leading civil rights figures who worked with King over the years. On Feb. 17 the documentary will air on WTTW Channel 11, Chicagoland’s local PBS affiliate station, at 10 p.m.

McClellan, who created the film while pursuing a master’s degree at Governors State University, said the project got off the ground when he attended a 2006 conference celebrating the Chicago Freedom Movement’s 40th anniversary. He spent the day interviewing notable civil rights figures, including Kale Williams, James Bevel and the Rev. Jesse Jackson; these initial interviews resulted in “The New Battle,” a half-hour documentary about King’s work in Chicago.

“That [half-hour film] provided the basis of this much longer film that really goes into much more depth about the work and problems that Dr. King and his colleagues faced,” McClellan said.

While making “King in Chicago,” McClellan gained a deeper understanding of King’s year in Chicago. The Southern civil rights movement, flush with recent successes and King’s receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize, hoped to replicate its triumphs in Chicago’s black ghettos. Instead, King and his colleagues faced a new kind of racism and fear from the city’s ethnic enclaves, as well as a tepid response from Mayor Richard J. Daley.

“It was a controversial time, in that a lot of people saw it as a failure and didn’t think Dr. King succeeded here,” McClellan said. “The way I see it, the Chicago Freedom Movement and the work in Chicago was the beginning of a new battle, a new set of problems. Chicago was the beginning of trying to tackle urban poverty.”

Through in-person interviews and an extensive collection of photography by John Tweedle, McClellan tells the story of the civil rights struggle in Chicago in 1966. He completed the documentary on a shoestring budget, often relying on friends to help out with various tasks. He estimated that his “hard costs” for the film totaled as much as $5,000—but he retained the all-important creative control that filmmakers covet.

“The great advantage of doing it yourself [is] you’re in charge,” he explained. “There are some really good parts of this film, and I did those. And there are also some flaws in it, and I am completely responsible for those, too.”

Since its release in 2008, “King in Chicago” has been featured in 13 film festivals and has been used in classes at several area universities. In addition to his duties at Triton College, McClellan is pursuing number of future projects. Some may come to fruition, but others may not, he said.

“A lot of documentary filmmaking is like reporting, where you get lucky and something works out,” he said. “You keep juggling all these different projects, and hopefully one sprouts wings and begin to fly.”

By Patrick W. Rollens | Triblocal.com Reporter

Image courtesy of Seth McClellan