Miles Woodman

### Quote

"When you're living in color, sports and entertainment are the only sure bets for making the big time."

### Voice Actor

Robert Ri'chard

**Miles Woodman** is the main protagonist of *Our Friend, Martin*.

## Personality and Traits

* Physical appearance
* Personality
Miles' skin is brown. His eyes are brown, and his hair and his eyebrows are black. He wears a jersey outfit which is blue, white, and red, and it has the number, 44. He even wears blue jeans and white and red sneakers.

Miles is a carefree, wise-cracking 12-year-old, African-American baseball fan who is having trouble in school. His teacher Mrs. Clark is threatening to make him repeat 6th grade if he doesn't start raising his grade for history.

## Role in the Film

Miles is first seen getting ready for school until his mother stops him to give him his lunch and permission slip for the field trip to Martin's home. She even threatens Miles to lose his baseball privileges if he doesn't get any good grades. On his way to school, Kyle comes out to chase him, but he manages to beat him and get on the bus.

At Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, Miles, Kyle, Randy, and Maria get assigned to work on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s project. He was just about to get on the bus to go on the field trip when he was stopped by Mrs. Clark, who tells him that he was falling history. She tells him that she was recommending to Mr. Harris that he would repeat a grade if he doesn't get his grades up.

At the Martin Luther King Jr. museum, Miles and Randy sneak into Martin's bedroom and Mrs. Peck winds the wind, taking him to Martin's youth once they touched his baseball bat.

The boys land in the past, meet little Martin Luther King, Jr., and become friends. The friends start to get along by playing baseball until Sam and Skip's mother tells them to come home since she thinks their skin is darker than hers. Miles and Randy state that they would hate her back if she criticizes their skin again. After Martin left with his pops, they start to time travel again with Martin's baseball mitt.

On the train in 1944, they find a 27-year-old Martin and decide to talk to him, who tells them that he spent the summer in Connecticut picking tobacco for college. He was only 15, but he graduated early. When they make it to Martin's house, Miles and Randy have dinner with Martin and his family and meet Daddy King. He tells them that he could have dinner with them while he does rounds. Miles winds the watch again in Martin's room and he and Randy land themselves in 1956 in Montgomery, Alabama where Martin was working at a ministering church and was 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 at all. They later 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 later return to the museum and rejoin their class at school the next day. They recall one of Martin's memories during these events and the class watches a videotape of Martin's work. Back at the museum, Miles, Randy, Maria, and Kyle travel to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and meet Martin in his 30s along with a young Mrs. Clark and listen to his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. In the present, Miles and friends discover that Martin was assassinated so they decide to try and save his 12-year-old self from 1941, but things get messed up when Martin and Miles land at an alternate time.

The next day, Martin discovers that it created an alternate timeline where his civil rights work never happened so he says goodbye to Miles and goes back to his own time. Back at the museum in real time, Miles reunites with Randy, who is friends with him again, Maria, who can speak English again, and Kyle, who is still his classmate at school, and Mrs. Peck tells him that he can change the future for the better instead of changing the past. Back at school, Mrs. Clark gives Miles an A and lets him progress to 7th grade. In the end, he and his friends decide to continue Martin's work.

## Memorable Quotes

* *"No! Martin, wait! Please, Martin!"*
* *"Besides, who's gonna know?"*
* *"Huh? (chuckles) Very funny, Kyle. Quit kidding around."*
* *"What's to spill, Maria? I love baseball. Mrs. Peck said I can come in here and check out this old mitt again. It's a classic."*
* *"Maria, it's me, Miles. What are you doing?"*
* *"Hey, Randy, where did you guys land?"*
* *"What's up, people?! Miles is in the--!"*
* *"The March on Washington."*
* *"Next stop, the future!"*
* *"Mrs. Peck, you're here, you're back! The museum's here!"*
* *"Kyle, do you know who I am?"*
* *"Maria, speak to me! Say something!"*
* *"Yes! As a matter of fact, I am wonderful!"*
* *"Randy, we are still best buds, aren't we?"'*
* *"Later Mom, I'm history!*
* *"Again!? Man, you're a total slave for that business of yours."*
* *"Martin Luther King? What's there to know? He’s famous for doing a bunch of good stuff for African-Americans back in the day, and now we get his birthday off, right?"*
* *"Why is it roped off?"*
* *"Mrs. Peck said the house was magic, right?"*
* *"I wanna check it out, first hand."*
* *"No, no, Martin, it's us. The kids from the sandlot, and the train and..."*
* *"Guess it's time to fess up. I'm not sure how, but were sort of time traveling through your life.”*
* *"But it was Rosa's seat first.”*
* *"Man, she hates us and she doesn't even know us."*
* *"Well if she hates me, I'll hate her back."*
* *"We can't let this happen.”*
* *"We gotta bring Martin to the future, and we can save him. But remember, we're not gonna tell him about what we just read.”*
* *"Mr. Willis, clean your glasses, it's me, Miles."*
* *"You mean, you know?"*
* *"But if Martin were only here now. We still need him so much."*
* *"Yes, I did it! seventh grade, here I come."*
* *"what's with the you people again?"*
* *"Mr. Harris, it's me. Miles."*
* *"Yeah, I learned, that every one of us has the power to make the world a better place, and all we need, is a dream, and the courage to make it happen."*

## Trivia

* In the present, Miles' room has a stereo, computer, video games, a fish bowl (with his unnamed fish), and posters.
* In the future, his mother has to put food on the table because she is a maid.
* His favorite sport is baseball.
* His favorite color is blue.
* He and Randy are best friends.