Duty of the Hour
A documentary film about Benjamin L. Hooks, Memphian and civil rights hero.
A production of the Benjamin L. Hooks Institute for Social Change at the University of Memphis.
The story of Benjamin L. Hooks is an exploration of this nation's long, complex, and difficult history of race. Equally as important, the story of Hooks highlights how our nation was, and can be, transformed by committed visionaries like Hooks, who were determined to make every second of their lives count to fulfill their Duty of the Hour.
The true measure of our lives is not determined by the number of years we live, but in how we positively shape the lives of others and our communities in those years. As a minister, activist, father, husband, and friend of many, Dr. Hooks recognized that the span of one's life is relatively short compared to the passing decades and centuries that created the backdrop of history into which each of us is born. Nevertheless, he recognized that even one lifetime, dedicated to the right causes (in Hooks' case, the advancement of civil rights), can change the face of history and a nation.