Our Friend, Martin

Miles Woodman, an African-American boy who is a fan of Hank Aaron and attends Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, is performing academically poorly. His teacher Mrs. Clark tells him he could repeat 6th grade if his grades do not improve. Miles and his class visit Martin's childhood house, which has now become a museum dedicated to him. He and his white best friend Randy explore Martin's bedroom but are caught by the museum's curator Mrs. Peck, who winds up an old watch.

The boys hold Martin's baseball glove and are transported back to 1941, encountering a 12-year-old Martin playing with his two white friends Sam and Skip Dale until their mother arrives and reprimands her sons for integrating with "colored". Martin explains to Miles and Randy that her hatred of black people is that she regards them as "different", but violence would only worsen things. The boys travel three years forward in 1944 and meet a 15-year-old Martin on a segregated train, who explains that blacks and whites are unable to integrate and must be kept separate at all times. They later have dinner with Martin's family. While he goes to do rounds with his father, the boys look in his room and travel 12 years forward in 1956 and meet Martin in his 20s working as a minister at a church. He is holding a meeting about the Montgomery bus boycott set off after Rosa Parks was imprisoned for refusing to give up her seat on a bus; now, black people are refusing to ride buses. Martin is alerted that his house has been bombed; he races home where his wife and newborn daughter have escaped unharmed. His friend Turner announces they'll attack the perpetrators with weapons in retaliation, but Martin stops him, reminding the crowd of Mahatma Gandhi peacefully standing his ground to exile the British colonies from India and of Jesus teaching love for his enemies. Miles and Randy travel to the Birmingham riot of 1963, witnessing firemen and police officers spraying black protesters with firehoses and releasing German Shepherds on them on the order of Bull Connor before arresting them.

The boys are transported back to the museum and rejoin their class at school the next day. They tell Miss Clark about the events before Martin's work before the class watches a videotape of Martin's work. After school, the boys' classmates, Latina girl Maria and another white boy Kyle, decide to investigate for themselves how Miles and Randy got the information. When the boys arrive at the museum, Mrs. Peck lets them stay but warns them that when one messes with the past, this can affect the present. Maria and Kyle follow and catch them in Martin's bedroom. The four are transported to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and meet Martin in his 30s along with a young Mrs. Clark. When they return, they discover Martin was Assassinated. To save him, they travel back to 1941 and bring 12-year-old Martin to the present; however, only Miles and Martin return together, and the present is now different: the museum is burnt down; Randy and Kyle are racists and no longer friends with Miles or even know him; Miles' school bus driver, Mr. Willis, is also now racist and refuses to allow black students to ride the bus, their school is segregated and instead named after Robert E. Lee (Jefferson Davis' military advisor in the American Civil War, which ended slavery); the principal, Mr. Harris, is also racist and mistreats Mrs. Clark; Maria works as a maid who cannot speak English; and Miles' and his mother now live in poverty.

The next day, Martin surmises that because he left his own time, it created an alternate timeline where his civil rights work never happened. Realizing he must go back to his own time, Martin bids Miles farewell despite the latter's attempted warnings of his assassination. Martin gives Miles his watch before returning to his time, where he is shot dead at the motel and the timeline returns to normal. Miles reunites with Randy, Maria, and Kyle. Mrs. Peck knows about his time traveling and tells him that while they cannot change the past, they can change the future for the better. Miles receives an A on his history project, allowing him to progress to 7th grade. He and his friends then vow to continue Martin's work.

Motown Records released a soundtrack album, including the talents of Diana King, Sheryl Crow, The Jackson 5, Salt-N-Pepa, Montell Jordan, 702 and Stevie Wonder. The soundtrack also features a cover of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Debelah Morgan, which combined the Marvin Gaye/Tammi Terrell and Diana Ross versions.

• Civil rights movement in popular culture

Wikiquote has quotations related to Our Friend, Martin.

• Our Friend, Martin at IMDb
• Our Friend, Martin at AllMovie