Say Brother was WGBH-Boston’s answer to America’s racial crisis. On April 4, 1968, as the news of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, murder touched off major unrest in other cities, Boston Mayor Kevin White considered a dilemma: White feared that a concert scheduled for the following day, April 5, by R&B icon James Brown would, by gathering thousands of young African-Americans in the city center, create a potentially-explosive situation. But canceling the concert risked angering Boston’s black citizens anew. City officials approached the leadership of Boston’s educational television station, WGBH, with a proposal to broadcast the concert live on television, and encourage fans to stay home. WGBH’s executives readily agreed, and the vast majority of fans did choose to stay home and watch the broadcast. The streets of Boston saw little of the violence that raged elsewhere, and city officials–and national media–gave credit for the city’s relative calm to the broadcast and, of course, to Brown’s considerable influence.

Ultimately, the recognition given to WGBH for televising the concert spurred the production of Boston’s first Black public affairs television program, Say Brother.

WGBH was far from the only public or commercial station to launch a black-oriented program in the aftermath of the assassination.

Initially, Say Brother’s African-American staff was able to set an editorial agenda with little input from the station about the program’s message and style. In an interview, Stan Lathan, Say Brother’s first director, surmised that their free reign came from a mix of white fears about black militancy and liberal hopes about the potential for black self-expression:

…we had absolute freedom for the first year; I think there was a tolerance that came about because of the time at that time we were able to say “You don’t get it because you’re not black.” (Lathan 2005)

At a loss to find African Americans with media experience, the station took Lathan’s suggestion to recruit from the ranks of Boston’s vibrant theater scene and from local colleges. Ray Richardson, the first permanent producer, was hired, like Lathan, from Boston University’s cooperative work-study program. In addition, the station recruited college students from Northeastern University. Other staff members were drawn from filmmaking and the black press. Henry Hampton, whose production company Blackside Productions later created the landmark civil rights documentary television series Eyes on the Prize, appeared regularly in the early years as a commentator.

Say Brother’s staff resisted creating a stark division between “hard news” and reporting on cultural happenings. For example, in the early episodes, Stewart Thomas, Say Brother’s “teen reporter,” was a regular on-air presence, offering insights and disseminating information on new cultural practices in Boston’s black community. In one episode, Thomas invited a friend onto the program to discuss an African-themed wedding the pair had recently attended together. Thomas described in rich detail the Nehru jackets of the ushers, the African headdress of the bride, and the music of Hugh Masekela that served as the wedding march. These kinds of reports emphasized that cultural transformation was an important part of black liberation—as important as the political protest and legal victories of the Civil Rights era.

The program’s original theme song, “Say Brother,” accompanied a film montage that celebrated Black Boston as a fashionable and lively scene, in stark contrast with prevailing media images of African Americans. The song itself, strident and upbeat, reflected the sense of urgency many felt at the time, addressing the transition in African American politics from civil rights themes to a new militancy. It also offered a vision of Black power in which men and women have mutually-supportive roles, with a call and response between male and female singers. (Women: “You’re looking outta sight.” Men: “Your natural looks are tight.” Together: “‘Cause Black is beautiful you know.”) [ed Note: the theme on the program was performed by the group The Crowd on the Street; it was written by an group with both black and white members, the Stark Reality--you can hear the intro here:]

In the second season, Say Brother’s producers did not limit their biting criticism to the outside world; they also challenged WGBH directly for what the staffers considered to be their token status. Their escalating assertiveness came to a peak in July 1970 when the staff produced a ninety-minute special covering a week-long uprising in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Richardson’s narration critiqued the news media for focusing on “incidents” instead of probing deeper to explore “the real issues” behind the events, saying sarcastically: “We all know how it sounded—Black folks have gone wild again, you know, like we do every summer?”

To create the episode, the Say Brother staff spent six days in New Bedford filming interviews with groups of men, women, and young people in the street. It was a tense situation: groups of people were clustered in the streets in New Bedford’s two segregated Black neighborhoods, the south end and west end. While the small Say Brother staff was overwhelmed, and at times frightened, they were galvanized by the extent of the economic and social oppression that they saw and heard about. And the black residents of New Bedford, who had never had an audience for their experience before, had a lot to say. Everywhere the TV crew went, people gathered around the cameras to share their perspective, and the ninety-minute episode was packed with forceful critiques of racial conditions in New Bedford, as residents described wasted federal aid money, overt discrimination, stunted employment opportunities, broken promises, and third-world living conditions. This kind of analysis offered by “rioters” was unlike the way other news shows represented riots and rioters—typically as chaotic scenes of inarticulate rage. Ultimately, Say Brother’s special episode on New Bedford delivered exactly what the Kerner Commission Report had called for in the wake of the mid-sixties uprising: African American points of view during civil unrest. For those living in the abysmal conditions of Black New Bedford, the episode offered their first public hearing. For those claiming to be mystified by Black frustration and despair in this era, the episode offered some very clear answers.

While some New Bedford residents tried to speak to Say Brother’s staff without using profanity, most people were unable to contain their rage into language “appropriate” for television. Richardson chose to air the program unedited, despite direct instruction from WGBH not to do so. This choice to broadcast the comments with profanity was in flagrant violation of FCC regulations that kept such language off the air. After the episode aired the program director of the station, Michael Rice, and the general manager, Stanford Calderwood decided to cancel Say Brother. Immediately after the cancellation was announced, sixty protesters converged on the station. On August 12, 1970, Say Brother staff members released an open protest letter, which was published in the Bay State Banner, criticizing the cancellation. In the letter, the staff members charge the station with using the profanity in the New Bedford special as a subterfuge; they claim the program was canceled because of its content. After continuous and vocal protest from prominent community groups, the program was reinstated–without Richardson, who had been tragically killed in a swimming accident. Most of the original staff chose not to return, and the program took on a more national approach to covering African-American issues for a time, which were less controversial locally.

After the New Bedford episode, it was the strength of community response that brought about the reinstatement of the program. In 1969, Black audiences could still accomplish this, in no small part because governments and business owners were still terrified of Black rebellion. The workers who created the show were aware that the license they had been given to represent Black interests was a unique window of opportunity. Audience letters and protest shows that audience understood that local television could address their interests when national networks often ignored them. In its initial years, Say Brother sought to create an entirely new representation of Black Boston, a city with a white, liberal self-image that would shortly become known for its violent resistance to school integration. Without the “national spasm of remorse” provoked by King’s death, and the Black uprisings throughout the sixties a show like Say Brother never would have come about. Its legacy offers a powerful example of the cultural and political transformations of the Black Power era.

Devorah Heitner is an assistant professor of Media Studies at Lake Forest College, where she teaches African American media, television and cinema studies and US cultural history. Her book, Black Power TV: A Cultural History of Black Public Affairs Television 1968-1980, is forthcoming from Duke University Press. The book chronicles the history of programs such as Say Brother, Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant, Black Journal, and Soul! as well as the history of the struggle for Black employment in the television industry in the Black Power era.

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Black public affairs television began in the late sixties as African-Americans took control of the streets — and the airwaves. After decades of unfair representation in the media, a new generation of African-American producers, writers, and editors brought their news and views to programs like Black Journal, Soul!, Say Brother, and many others.

Black public affairs television was born of turbulent times, a product of America’s great societal upheaval in the 1960s. The passage of federal legislation to prohibit discrimination at the lunch counter and the voting booth (the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, respectively) did little to address the everyday indignities of economic and racial discrimination for most African-Americans. Urban schools remained woefully underfunded and overcrowded. Banks made it nearly impossible for black families to purchase homes and businesses, so African-Americans were segregated into low-cost, low-quality housing in urban ghettos. Poverty, powerlessness, and police brutality became the norm for many urban African-Americans. From 1964 on, in cities as far-flung as Watts, New York, Baltimore and Chicago, African-Americans took to the streets to violently protest racial and economic inequality.

ENTER THE KERNER COMMISSION
In response to race riots in Newark, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Minneapolis and Detroit during the “long, hot summer” of 1967, President Lyndon Johnson created the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, also known as the Kerner Commission. The Kerner Commission was tasked with finding out why the riots happened, and what could be done to prevent future “civil disorders”. The commission concluded that

“Segregation and poverty have created in the racial ghetto a destructive environment totally unknown to most white Americans.

What white Americans have never fully understood—but what the Negro can never forget—is that white society is deeply implicated in the ghetto. White institutions created it, white institutions maintain, and white society condones it.”

The Kerner Commission recommended an overhaul of the educational, employment and law enforcement systems in America’s cities. In particular, the Kerner Commission took the news media to task for its portrayal of African-Americans, claiming that the media

“failed to report adequately on the causes and consequences of civil disorders and on the underlying problems of race relations. They have not communicated to the majority of their audience–which is white—a sense of the degradation, misery and hopelessness of life in the ghetto.”

The Commission recommended that the news media recruit and train African-American journalists in print and television media, and that the media should provide better coverage of African-Americans and issues in their communities.

ASSASSINATION AND AFTERMATH
In 1968, the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. set America’s cities ablaze once more. Race riots ravaged Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and more than 100 other American cities in April of 1968. This new wave of unrest, coupled with the Kerner Commission’s report, spurred the news media to act. Local and national television stations began recruiting and training African-American journalists and created black-themed shows like Soul!, Say Brother, and Black Journal. But instead of merely accepting assignments, these new African-American journalists demanded more editorial control, increased funding, better broadcast times and a distinctly “Black” aesthetic for their programs.

These shows marked a turning point in the portrayal of African Americans in the media. For the first time, black producers, editors, writers and on-air talent took control of the way blacks were portrayed on TV. Here’s a look at some of the groundbreaking programs that changed the representation of African-Americans –- and the face of television –- forever.

SOUL!

Soul! aired on WNET (Thirteen) in New York from 1968-1973. The show was the brainchild of Ellis P. Haizlip, at the time the sole African-American producer working at WNET (then NET, National Educational Television). After Dr. King’s assassination in 1968 and the subsequent riots, Haizlip was approached by station management to consider the creation of a new arts program, along the lines of a black ‘Tonight Show’.

Instead, Haizlip created a black arts showcase more akin to Showtime at the Apollo, featuring both mainstream and avant-garde acts – from Stevie Wonder, Curtis Mayfield and Patti LaBelle to Max Roach, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Haizlip orchestrated charged interviews with Louis Farrakhan, Stokely Carmichael, James Baldwin and more. As a producer, he juxtaposed artists like singer Bill Withers with poet Mae Jackson; author Toni Morrison with Junior Walker and His All-Stars; and singer Jerry Butler with Muhammad Ali. Soul! stepped away from the “minstrel show” portrayal of African-American artists, instead creating a sense of black ownership and community. As Haizlip himself said on the show in 1972:

“We’re trying to create programs of black love, of black encouragement … hope that you agree with what’s going down.”

Say Brother

After Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on April 4th, 1968, riots swept through more than 100 cities across the country. But one major city remained relatively calm – Boston. Public television station WGBH teamed up with the legendary James Brown to broadcast the soul singer’s concert live from Boston Garden on the evening of April 5th. And instead of rioting, Bostonians stayed at home, glued to their TV sets. (see WGBH’s documentary on the event, “The Politics of Soul” and listen to entire 1968 James Brown concert)

The huge success of the James Brown concert at keeping the peace in Boston prompted WGBH to hastily put together their Black public affairs television program Say Brother. The show debuted on July 15, 1968, and is still aired on WGBH today as Basic Black. The African-American staff of Say Brother was younger than other shows like NET’s Black Journal; every staffer, even the show’s director, Stan Lathan, was an African-American in their teens or early twenties. Consequently, Say Brother took on controversial issues like Black Power, school integration, youth uprising and police brutality. As Ray Richardson, one of the Say Brother’s first producers, said on the show’s first anniversary in 1969:

“We attempted to create an outlet for many of the viewpoints that exist in our community and to deal with political, educational, and cultural activities relevant to black people. We have had successes, occasional failures, and many memorable incidents.”

Clip: Intro to Say Brother, from 1968, theme by The Crowd on The Street

For even more clips from Say Brother, check out:
Muhammad Ali
Ron O’Neal from “Superfly”
Bobby Seale

Black Journal

Black Journal was produced by NET in New York, beginning in 1968. The program was initially helmed by white professionals, but after African-American staff members went on strike in protest, NET hired filmmaker William Greaves to produce the show. This hour-long program was distributed nationally, featuring coverage of African-American news, arts, and editorial commentary. Watch the first episode of Black Journal

Unlike NET’s Soul!, which brought together artists in the studio in New York, Black Journal had the operational budget to send out film crews to cover African-American communities in Atlanta, Detroit, New Orleans, and Los Angeles, and even Ethiopia. By 1970, the show won an Emmy, Peabody and Russwurm awards.

Black Journal struggled financially at WNET for years before moving to commercial television in 1977, with the controversial Tony Brown as producer and host. Brown moved the show back to public television in 1982, where it aired until 2008 as Tony Brown’s Journal.

Colored People’s Time (CPT)

Detroit was especially hard-hit by racial violence in 1967 – a riot that summer lasted five days, claimed forty-three lives and resulted in over 7,200 arrests and 2,000 burned buildings. In 1968, Detroit public television station WTVS started production on an African-American news and public affairs show called Colored People’s Time. The show’s original mission was to build more community involvement among Detroit’s largely African-American urban population.

CPT was originally hosted by Tony Brown, who went on to host WNET’s Black Journal. The program covered local and national news and events pertinent to Detroit’s African-American community, as well as the arts, fashion and culture. Sample topics from early episodes of the program included the controversial Black Power salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics and the lack of African-American representation among Detroit’s politicians. The show is still airing today on WTVS as American Black Journal.

Watch a “public service announcement” from “Colored People’s Time”.

© Detroit Public Television; courtesy Michigan State University / MATRIX

Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant

On April 4, 1968 – the same day as the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – New York commercial TV station WNEW announced the creation of Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant. At the time, the Bed-Stuy neighborhood of Brooklyn was one of the largest African-American communities in the country – 400,000 strong. Despite its size, however, the neighborhood was virtually ignored by the mainstream media – and if Bed-Stuy was in the news, it was only in reference to crime and poverty.

That all changed when Robert Kennedy’s Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation, the first community development corporation in the United States, conceived of Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant. BSRC brought in Charles Hobson to produce the show with an initial budget of $45,000. In contrast to the in-studio production style of programs like Soul! and Black Journal, Hobson and his crew went out into the streets to film the real Bed-Stuy, good and bad. Hosted by Roxie Roker and Jim Lowry, celebrities like Harry Belafonte, Eubie Blake, and Cleon Jones came on the program, but most of the show’s “stars” were simply people from the neighborhood, and, with the exception of only a few episodes, the entire show was filmed outdoors. Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant ran for 52 episodes from 1968-1970 before sponsorship money dried up, but the show painted an indelible portrait of a time and a place long forgotten.

Watch Leroi Jones Young Spirit House Movers and Players put on a spoken-word performance on “Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant”.

* Report Of The National Advisory Commission On Civil Disorders (1967) (pdf)
* Devorah Heitner, “Black Power TV: A Cultural History of Black Public Affairs Television 1968-1980″ (2007)
* Gayle Wald, “‘It’s Been Beautiful”: Recovering Soul!”
* Sarah-Ann Shaw, “The History of Say Brother”
* American Black Journal online archive
* Jim Yardley, “Black America Made Visible: TV Show Illuminated Culture Through Lens of Bed-Stuy” (New York Times, 1998)
* Jake Austen, TV a Go Go (Chicago Review Press, 2005)
* Christine Acham, Revolution Televised: Prime Time and the Struggle for Black Power(U. of Minn. Press, 2004)

The post A History and Overview of Black-Identity Public Affairs TV appeared first on Broadcasting While Black.

Moses Dillard, Jim Boling, and the band Lovejoy on Job Man Caravan from South Carolina public television

National Programs on Public Television

Black Journal/Tony Brown’s Journal (1968-2008) (transitioned from PBS – to commercial network – back to PBS)
Black Perspectives on the News, WHYY Philadelphia (1974-1979)
Soul!, WNET New York (1970-1973)
Say Brother, WGBH Boston
Talking Black, Eastern Educational Network, Boston (one-off program, 1968)
Another Voice, WHYY Philadelphia
The National Black Political Convention, WTTW Chicago (poss. 1973)

National Public Affairs Programs on Commercial Television

For You Black Woman (syndicated, 1978-79) (hosted by Freda Payne)
America’s Black Forum (1989-2003)
Black Omnibus (1972-73), (hosted by James Earl Jones) (episode list)
Clip: Black Omnibus, Taj Mahal plays the banjo and talks to JEJ:

Black Public Affairs Programs, 1968-on, by Region

Northeast

NYC
Like It Is, WABC (1968 – present)
Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant, WNYW (1968-1970) (more about producer Charles Hobson, 2009 interview with Hobson)
Black Pride, WPIX
Positively Black, WNBC
Black News, WNEW

Syracuse, NY
Black on Black

Schenectady, NY
Black Telethon

Boston
Mzizi Roots, WBZ-TV
Black News, WHDH-TV
On Being Black, WTBH
Third World, WCVB Channel 5 (later City Streets, now CityLine)
Say Brother (later renamed Basic Black), WGBH (1968-present)

Philadelphia
Another Voice, WHYY (also Black Perspectives on the News; more about host Chuck Stone)
New Mood, New Breed, WCAU
Soul Scene, WCAU
Tell it Like It Was, WCAU
Black Book, WFIL

Pittsburgh
Black Horizons (1968-present), WQED

Connecticut
Lookin’ Better, CPTV

Washington DC
Harambee, WTOP (1969-?)
Black News, WTTG
Petey Greene’s Washington, WDCA-AM
Clip: Petey Greene’s immortal ‘How to Eat Watermelon’ segment, from Petey Greene’s Washington, 1982:

Midwest

Detroit
Go Tell It–Ben Hooks Reports, WDIV-TV
Colored People’s Time/CPT (later renamed American Black Journal), WTVS (1968-present)
Haney’s People, WXYZ (1967-1981)
For My People, WKBD (1970-) (more about producer David Rambeau)

Chicago
Our People, WTTW (1968-1972)
A Black’s View of the News, WCIU (1968-?)
For Blacks Only (renamed Face to Face), WLS (1968-1979) (article about host Werner Saunders)
Common Ground, WBBM Channel 2 (1972-?)
Clip: A roundtable discussion on black radio, featuring Tom Joyner (1982)

Cleveland
Black on Black
Black Peoplehood, WVIZ

Cincinnati
Right On, WCET

East Lansing, Michigan
Perspectives in Black, WKAR (1974-1977)

Milwaukee
Black Nouveau, MPTV (1991-present?)

Kansas City, KS
Dimensions in Black (renamed Dimensions), KMBC
Minority Matters, (later Urban Affairs), KCTV (1968-1997)
Go Tell It

Omaha
Black on Black

St. Louis
Heads Up, KMOX

Minneapolis
Black Voices, KTCA/KTCI (1969-?)

West

Los Angeles
Innervisions, KCET

San Francisco/Bay Area
Black Dignity, KGO
Vibrations for A New People, KPIX
Black on Black, KNXT

Seattle
Face to Face, KING TV (1965-70) and KCTS (1971-72) (Biography of the host, Roberta Byrd)

South

New Orleans
Perspectives in Black, WWL-TV

Atlanta
Ebony Journal, WXIA
Kaleidoscope, WAGA TV

Louisville
I Am Somebody, WLKY
Bridge, WHAS

Jacksonville
Kutana, WJXT (article on the host, Betty Bullock)

South Carolina
Job Man Caravan, SCETV (1968-?) (article about William Terrell, exec. producer)
For The People, SCETV (1971-?) (also see Terrell article)
Clip: Listervelt Middleton, who hosted the show from 1977 – on.

View a list of African-American news, public affairs and culture programs that have won Peabody awards.

We welcome additions, corrections, links to videos or any more information about any of these programs. Please let us know in the comments.

Devorah Heitner

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Charles Hobson was a producer for WBAI radio when he was approached to produce a news program about Bedford-Stuyvesant. Robert F. Kennedy conceived a television series that would show the ‘real’ Bed-Stuy -– a neighborhood of working families, students, artists and professionals. “Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant” came to New York’s airwaves in 1968.

On “Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant”, Charles Hobson captured his neighborhood in black and white — local celebrities, activists, musicians, and regular residents all made appearances on the weekly show. The program ran for two years, and Hobson moved on to produce shows like “Black Journal” and “Like It Is”.

Watch Hobson Interview (7:45)

* Interview with Actor/Musician/Activist Harry Belafonte
* Interview with Community Welfare Activists
* Interview with Author Julius Lester
* Interview with Boys High seniors
* Interview with NY Philharmonic violinist Sanford Allen
* The Leroi Jones Young Spirit House Movers performance

Today, Charles Hobson works at Thirteen as a producer on Great Performances. His next project is “Harlem in Montmartre”, a 90-minute performance documentary, telling the compelling story of the impact of the American jazz age on Paris between the great wars, exploring a fascinating yet often neglected era of African-American cultural history. PBS Engage recently interviewed Hobson about his old and new projects.

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These kids, from Bed-Stuy and Brownsville, deliver a powerful protest about race relations in America.

Watch the Leroi Jones Young Spirit House Movers and Players (9:33), introduced by Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant host Roxie Roker:

The young players embody the activist spirit of their driving force, poet and Black Arts Movement originator LeRoi Jones (Amiri Baraka). Using synched movements and poetry, the kids address various issues from inequality to the lack of a well-rounded black history curriculum in the schools. One girl states affectingly: “We are taught to hate ourselves…America, why did you bring us here?” But the underlying message from Jones through these kids is the importance of pride and self-empowerment. As one of the children says near the end: “Today is ours/Let’s take it.”

Watch the Leroi Jones Young Spirit House Movers and Players (9:33), introduced by Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant host Roxie Roker:

Read more about Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant:
* Interview with producer Charles Hobson
* Overview of Black-produced television from 1968, including Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant
* Article on the show from the Brooklyn Rail

(Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant was originally broadcast on WNEW in NYC. Clips provided by Charles Hobson).

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In this 1968 segment, singer/actor/activist Harry Belafonte talks to the Bed-Stuy community in a local Brooklyn park, and takes a Q&A from Bed-Stuy residents.

Belafonte had always been active in civil rights–Five years before this interview, he joined the historic March on Washington, D.C. with Martin Luther King, Jr. In this video, the entertainer, surrounded by a group of adults and kids in a park, discusses his problem with the inaccurate representation of blacks in the media. He later fields questions from several spectators on issues of poverty, education and politics affecting the black community.

Harry Belafonte interview(11:33)

To this day, Belafonte continues to speak on behalf of human rights. In 1987, he became a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, and has traveled to countries such as Senegal, Rwanda and South Africa. Most recently Belafonte received the 2006 Black Entertainment Television Humanitarian Award.

Read more about Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant and Belafonte’s activism:
* Interview with producer Charles Hobson

* Overview of Black-produced television from 1968, including Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant

* Harry Belafonte’s biography on UNICEF Web site

* Harry Belafonte Web site

* A photograph of Harry Belafonte with actors Sidney Poitier and Charlton Heston at the 1963 March on Washington

* Harry Belafonte with his 2006 Black Entertainment Television Humanitarian Award

Inside Bedford-Stuyvesant was originally broadcast on WNEW. This clip provided to the web courtesy the producer.

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Before it became Tony Brown’s Journal, Black Journal was a weekly newsmagazine originating from NET (National Educational Television–pre-WNET) and airing nationally. The tone was a mixture of serious, educational, and irreverent– in news stories, interviews (2 Black Panthers in this episode alone), profiles, and skits.

Hosted by Lou House and William Greaves, initially the staff on Black Journal, and, in fact, for this first episode, were NOT all black producers, directors, etc… but between when the first episode was being prepared and its airdate, the black staff of the show went on strike (more about this later, when we interview producer Charles Hobson, spokeperson for the group). The goals of the strike? For the staff, at the very least the senior staff, to be all black. These goals were met by the time the show, and this first episode, launched.

Segments:

* Open: actor Godfrey Cambridge, playing a maintenance worker, paints the screen black.
* Harvard Class Day: Coretta Scott King speaks to the graduating class at Harvard.
* Graduation ’68: interviews with graduating students at Harvard, Southern University, Morehouse and Spelman.
* Press Roundup: history of the black press and review of stories in the news, from the 1800s to today.

Time: 21:00

* Poor People’s Campaign: footage of shantytown built on the mall in Washington, DC, and an update about the status and effect of the movement.
* New Breed Fashions: profile of the all-black clothing design firm, including a runway show. New Breed was the company who basically invented the dashiki in 1967–they adapted an African garment and gave it the name–and then heavily promoted it as the black-identity garment to have.
* Profile of a Jockey: Ronnie Tanner, an apprentice jockey, and a short history of black jockeys in horse racing.

Time: 39:25

* Black Panthers: Review of the Panther-police conflict in Oakland, California.
* Interview with Huey Newton, from prison
* Interview with Bobby Seale
* Dateline: brief news update
* Mass Media Satire: a skit, spoof of the media and how they approach black issues or characters at the time. Lots of semi-veiled ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’ jokes.

Running time: approximately 1 hour.

The post Debut Episode of Black Journal, 1968 appeared first on Broadcasting While Black.

This episode of “Black Journal,” one of the earliest black-produced newsmagazines on television, features:

* A profile of L.A. grassroots empowerment organization Operation Bootstrap, including one of their components, a factory that produces black dolls and babydolls.
* A skit about racial disharmony, featuring actor Antonio Fargas.
* A segment on the challenges faced by elected black public officials (including an interview with Shirley Chisholm).
* The words and music of singer Nina Simone, including a performance by Ms. Simone at Morehouse University.

It is one of two episodes of Black Journal nominated for a Peabody Award. It originally aired in 1969, and is hosted by Lou House and William Greaves.

Episode Segments:

* “Fire”: a short film, in which a white man tries to convince a black man (Antonio Fargas!) on the street to give him a pay phone to report an emergency: serves as a larger discussion about race relations.

Time: 7:05

* Operation Bootstrap: a feature on the grassroots, self-help organization in South Central L.A. –includes a sub-story on Bootstrap’s subsidiary Shindana Toys, a company that makes toys for black consumers.

Time: 23:41

* Elected Black Officials: a discussion of the issues facing American black officials who gathered at a conference in Washington DC Representatives Julian Bond, Shirley Chisholm and John Conyers are among those featured, with commentary by Columbia University’s Dr. Charles Hamilton.

Time: 42:36

* Nina Simone: The jazz and soul singer is interviewed and seen performing at Morehouse College, including “To Be Young, Gifted and Black.”

* “Nightcall”: A news story about the cancellation of this national call-in radio show about race relations.

The post Black Journal in 1969 appeared first on Broadcasting While Black.

Starting in 1968, Detroit public TV station WTVS produced an African-American news and public affairs show called Colored People’s Time, abbreviated as CPT. The show’s original mission was to build more community involvement among Detroit’s largely African-American urban population.

CPT was originally hosted by Tony Brown (picture at right), who went on to produce WNET’s Black Journal, and later helm his own show for over 30 years, Tony Brown’s Journal. CPT covered local and national news and events pertinent to Detroit’s African-American community, as well as the arts, fashion and culture, including live performances from musicians, dancers, more. The show is still airing today on WTVS as American Black Journal. Many shows from the archives are online.

This episode was originally aired in 1969.

Episode Segments:

Time: 0:00
*“Git White Overnight”: A public service announcement about how skin-lightening creams don’t work – “black don’t wear off.” (Length: 0:58)

Time: 1:04
* “The Making of a Rioter”: a feature that finds the roots of the 1967 Detroit riots in the poor condition of Detroit’s public schools. The segment includes interviews with students at Detroit’s Northeastern High, and concludes with commentary by Tony Brown about urban schools in Detroit and beyond. (Length: 5:45)

Time: 6:53
* “The Grapevine”: a segment on black Detroit’s fashion, entertainment and celebrities of the day, including Florence Ballard of The Supremes and Motown star Kim Weston. (Length: 2:49)

© Detroit Public Television; courtesy Michigan State University / MATRIX

Other highlights from the CPT/Detroit Black Journal/American Black Journal archives:

* 1977 interview with Alex Haley
* 1978 interview with James Brown on his 45th birthday.
* 1978 interview with Bobby Seale
* 1978 interview with Eartha Kitt
* 1981 interview with Sun Ra, after he was given the key to the city.
* 1985 show on Blacks in Corporate America
* 1989, “Old Hastings Street”, a history of black neighborhoods in Detroit

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