Black Studies in Video

The updated material in Black Studies in Video includes:

1) Over 30 hours of exclusive material from Tony Brown’s Journal, the longest running of all national public affairs TV series on PBS. Picked by the New York Daily News as a top 10 program representing the black image, the weekly series aired for nearly four decades (1968-2008).

This is just the first installment of Tony Brown’s Journal content, with at least 370 more hours of the series to come in future updates. Here are some of the highlighted episodes from this upload (all fully transcribed):

The President and Black America (1982) Tony Brown interviews President Ronald Reagan about the status of black Americans. Topics discussed include unemployment rates, affirmative action, the administration’s position on South Africa.

In The Words of Frederick Douglass (1999) In the 1960s, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was the premier spokesman for the Black community, articulating the struggle for freedom and equality. Rev. King carried on the tradition of another eloquent voice for Black progress, Frederick Douglass.

Are Black Gays Part of the Family? (2004) In this episode, Tony interviews two Black religious leaders who express their opposition to homosexual marriage and civil unions, voicing their criticisms of homosexual activists who claim the right to marry as a civil right.

Did History Miss Emmett Till? (2004) Author Clenora Hudson-Weems examines the 1955 lynching of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. She also challenges the widespread belief that Rosa Parks’ refusal to surrender her seat on a segregated bus precipitated the modern civil rights movement. Instead, she believes, it was Till’s murder that was the catalyst of the movement in the 50s and 60s.

Origins, Part I (2001) Dr. Khalid Al-Mansour, author of numerous books on Black history and culture, discusses the origin and achievements of the Black African Diaspora.

2) Additionally, two new documentary titles were added to the collection:

Julian Bond: Reflections from the Frontlines of the Civil Rights Movement: This enlightening portrait joins African American social activist Julian Bond as he traces his roots back to slavery. A leader in the Civil Rights Movement, Julian Bond was among the founders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a leader of the 1963 March on Washington, and a Georgia legislator for twenty years.

The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights The Powerbroker portrays the life of Whitney Young, once called “the inside man of the black revolution.” As Executive Director of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971, he helped thousands of people struggling against discrimination.