
Top left: Jackie Robinson, Courtesy of Hulton Archive Getty Images; Top right: Misty Copeland, Courtesy of Urban Romances, Inc; Bottom left: MERCY STREET's Aurelia Johnson (Shalita Grant), Courtesy of Antony Platt/PBS; Bottom right: THE BLACK PANTHERS Eldridge Cleaver, Berkeley, Courtesy of Jeffrey Blankfort.
From Stanley Nelson's THE BLACK PANTHERS to Ken Burns's JACKIE ROBINSON to Henry Louis Gates' BLACK AMERICA SINCE MLK and more, Programs Reach Into PBS' Fall 2016 Season
In Honor of Black History Month, PBS Features Documentaries of Iconic African Americans and Offers More Than 30 Programs for Viewers to Stream Online Through the PBS Black Culture Connection (BCC)
ARLINGTON, VA - JANUARY 13, 2016 - PBS is highlighting the African-American experience through content on air on PBS member stations, online through the PBS Black Culture Connection and through a series of community conversations that will engage viewers in an exploration of African-American history and culture. In addition to documentaries airing in February featuring those who helped influence integration and inclusion, throughout 2016 PBS will also feature programs about moments in history that helped shape race relations today. See a clip here.
Directed and produced by award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson and recently completing a theatrical run, THE BLACK PANTHERS: VANGUARD OF THE REVOLUTION from INDEPENDENT LENS will air on February 16 and be featured at PBS' presentations during the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, CA, on January 19. The film explores the history of the Black Panthers, a revolutionary political party originally created in 1966 to combat policy brutality towards blacks in Oakland, CA, but which expanded nationwide throughout the late 60s and 70s, paving the way for many of the radical social movements of the time.
Airing the same week that Major League Baseball celebrates a day in his honor, on Monday, April 11, PBS airs Ken Burns's JACKIE ROBINSON, which examines the life and times of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, who in 1947 lifted a nation and an entire race on his shoulders when he crossed baseball's color line. Burns reveals fascinating stories about the legend's life on and off the field, and will be joined by Robinson's widow, Rachel Robinson, during PBS' panel presentation at the Television Critics Association Press Tour on January 18. And this fall, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the last 50 years of African-American history, from the victories of the Civil Rights Movement to the first black president, asking profound questions about the state of black America - and the nation as a whole in BLACK AMERICA SINCE MLK: AND STILL I RISE.
PBS is focused on expanding upon topics related to race, class and the African-American experience, said Beth Hoppe, Chief Programming Executive and General Manager of General Audience Programming at PBS. In December, Ken Burns and Professor Gates launched a national conversation series on race, called American Fault Line: Race and the American Ideal. Ken Burns and Professor Gates will take the conversation to SXSW in Austin in March 12th, Washington, DC on March 14th and the Brooklyn Academy of Music on March 16th. We will add to these conversations through education and engagement, as well as civil discourse and discussion in collaboration with PBS member stations.
To honor Black History Month, and as part of its commitment to celebrating the diversity of America year-round, the PBS programming schedule features documentaries from award-winning producers that shine a brighter light on the different experiences of several notable African Americans who brought about change. INDEPENDENT LENS A Ballerina's Tale on February 8 takes an intimate look at Misty Copeland, American Ballet Theater's first African-American female principal dancer. The documentary examines her emergence as a pop culture star despite the absence of women of color at major ballet companies, while simultaneously dealing with an injury that almost ruined her career. In B.B. KING: AMERICAN MASTERS on February 12, viewers will learn more about the challenges he faced through candid interviews filmed shortly before his death. Also from AMERICAN MASTERS on February 26, a documentary about FATS DOMINO tells how his music helped influence integration during the Civil Rights era.
On February 29, INDEPENDENT LENS presents Wilhemina's War, which shows the devastating toll of the scourge of HIV/AIDS, one of the leading causes of death for black women in the rural south. The film is set against the backdrop of political events in South Carolina.
Returning for its third season, FINDING YOUR ROOTS from Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the genealogy of famous Americans, including Donna Brazile, Kara Walker, Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Sean Combs and LL Cool J, airing through March 8.
Also of note, this month PBS debuts its original series MERCY STREET (January 17 at 10:00 p.m. ET), a Civil War-era drama about the chaotic world of Union-occupied Alexandria, Virginia, and the Mansion House Hospital in the early years of the Civil War. The scripted drama explores, among other topics, the role that African Americans -including slaves, free blacks and contraband (African Americans who fled slavery in the hope of securing their freedom behind Union lines) - played in the hospital and the city.
Among the African-American characters included in MERCY STREET are Samuel Diggs (McKinley Belcher III), a free black laborer, and Aurelia Johnson (Shalita Grant), a contraband laundress, who each experience their own struggles as employees of the hospital. In many ways, their trials parallel issues and topics that African Americans still experience today, such as oppression, violence against wome
Most recent headlines
14/03/2025
BURLINGTON, Mass. Avid has expanded its executive leadership team (ELT) with the appointment of three experienced executives: Tom Sharma as chief technology off...
14/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. TVU Networks, a pioneer in live video production and a leader in cloud-based media solutions, is marking its 20th anniversary at the 2025 NAB ...
13/03/2025
(L-R) Stephanie Suganami, Tatanka Means, John Malkovich, Ayo Edebiri, and Juliette Lewis attend the premiere of Opus at Eccles Theatre in Park City. (Photo by...
13/03/2025
Spotify took center stage at the London Book Fair this week, reaffirming our commitment to the audiobook market and showcasing our impact on the publishing indu...
13/03/2025
At Spotify, we work every day to lift up new voices, giving creators the opportunity to live off their art. Through Spotify Audiobooks, our in-house publishing ...
13/03/2025
Every time airborne law enforcement (ALE) teams fly, they expect their equipment to perform. Whether airborne units are conducting support for ground teams, bor...
13/03/2025
Sunday February 9 saw the annual return of the US' biggest television event, the Super Bowl LIX. Jamie McCombs, Fox Sports Audio Consultant / Sr. Audio capt...
13/03/2025
On Sunday March 2, stars across the film industry gathered at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles for the 97th Academy Awards. Production Sound Mixer Paul Sandweis...
13/03/2025
WUPPERTAL, Germany Riedel Communications will feature its new StageLink family of smart edge devices, Smart Audio and Mixing Engine (SAME) and Virtual Smart Pan...
13/03/2025
TAG Video Systems and Harmonic Partner to Deliver Enhanced Real-Time Monitoring ...
13/03/2025
DigitalGlue Invites NAB Visitors to Experience New Features in Managed Storage P...
13/03/2025
FOR-A America Theme - Connecting the Present, Building the Future - Comes to Lif...
13/03/2025
CTIA, the wireless industry association, has named former FCC Chairman Aji Pai as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective April 1. He replaces Mere...
13/03/2025
he National Association of Broadcasters is urging the FCC to end its investigation of that controversial CBS interview with Kamala Harris stating there is no ...
13/03/2025
MIAMI CBS News & Stations continues to expand its use of augmented and virtual reality technologies with the planned launch of an augmented reality/virtual real...
13/03/2025
Srividhya Srinivasan, co-founder and chief customer success & innovation Officer at Amagi, tells TVBEurope how staying ahead of the latest trends is essential f...
13/03/2025
WASHINGTON FCC Chairman Brendan Carr announced that the agency has launched a massive, new deregulatory initiative that could potentially subject virtually all ...
13/03/2025
SUNNYVALE, Calif. SDVI has announced that it has integrated its Rally media supply chain management platform with the Spectra Vail multi-cloud data management s...
13/03/2025
ATLANTA Gray Media has announced that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has granted a waiver of its local ownership rules to permit Gray Media to acqu...
13/03/2025
TV Tech: What do you anticipate will be the most significant technology trends at the 2025 NAB Show?...
13/03/2025
Watch Student Naomi Soleils Folk Pop Performance on The Voice The songwriting major sang Stars by Grace Potter and the Nocturnals during the blind auditions.
...
13/03/2025
Roku Debuts NWSL Zone' Within Roku Sports to Spotlight Live Games, Content Feature marks Rokus first women's league-branded zone within service By Bra...
13/03/2025
Pixels, Images, Video, AI - and Us: A Perspective on AI from NDI Inventor Andrew...
13/03/2025
SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Lighting Design Group's Steve Brill, Dennis Size ...
13/03/2025
IOC, Comcast NBCU Ink $3B Media-Rights Extension for Olympic Games Through 2036;...
13/03/2025
NCAA March Madness Live Returns with Expanded Availability of MultiView Vertical...
13/03/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Cosm's Devin Poolman on What It Takes To Deliver the Immersive...
13/03/2025
Sky Business, Sky's B2B division, providing connectivity and content to busi...
13/03/2025
Rohde & Schwarz launches R&S NRP140TWG(N) thermal power sensor: A new benchmark ...
13/03/2025
We asked the questions, analysed the answers and now we're excited to share the results of the fifth edition of the ICG Marketing Survey.
Our 2025 survey p...
13/03/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. - March 13, 2025 Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced a breakthrough in video streaming innovation with the launch of new origin capabilitie...
13/03/2025
Haivision Showcases Mission-Critical Video Solutions at SOF Week 2025
Haivision's video wall systems, ISR technology, and DoDIN APL-certified video distri...
13/03/2025
Company Leads the Way with New Software-Based Production Platform, 12G Switcher,...
13/03/2025
A new Apple Immersive concert experience, Metallica, is coming to Apple Vision Pro this Friday, March 14. Filmed in Mexico City during the sold-out second-year ...
13/03/2025
Here is your host, Patrick Kielty!
Shake your Shamrocks, Patrick Kielty will be...
13/03/2025
This St. Patrick's weekend, RT invites you to celebrate all things Irish, showcasing the very best of Irish sport, entertainment and live coverage from the...
13/03/2025
What's next in AI is at GTC 2025. Not only the technology, but the people and ideas that are pushing AI forward - creating new opportunities, novel solution...
13/03/2025
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
By combining T-Mobile's robust network, Thal...
13/03/2025
Bundle up - GeForce NOW is bringing a flurry of Blizzard titles to its ever-expanding library.
Prepare to weather epic gameplay in the cloud, tackling the genr...
13/03/2025
AI is leveling up the world's most beloved games, as the latest advancements...
13/03/2025
PC game modding is massive, with over 5 billion mods downloaded annually. Mods p...
12/03/2025
O Spotify acaba de lan ar o relat rio Loud & Clear deste ano, uma vis o transpar...
12/03/2025
Spotify acaba de presentar el informe Loud & Clear de este a o, una mirada trans...
12/03/2025
Ramadan, a period of profound spiritual significance for Muslims worldwide, is a time for fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. Enrich your experience thi...
12/03/2025
Spotify has just unveiled this year's Loud & Clear report, a transparent loo...
12/03/2025
More than 70% of FAST programming has been produced since 2010, according to new Gracenote report
NEW YORK March 12, 2025 Gracenote, the content data busin...
12/03/2025
GEONA, Nev. Independent digital and linear advertising rep firm Viamedia will adopt cloud-based ShowSeeker Pilot as its primary ad campaign and order management...
12/03/2025
BRUSSELS Mediagenix has announced that Wael Yasin has joined the company as sales director Central Europe....
12/03/2025
LONDON A new study highlights opportunities for shoppable TV and the massive impact online consumer spending is having on the economy, with Omdia predicting tha...
12/03/2025
CUPERTINO, Calif. Interra Systems has announced that Comcast Technology Solutions has integrated recent updates to BATON Version 9 into its operations....