As American As Apple Pie: How Segregration And Terror Lost, 1940-54
Sat, Feb 1, 1pm and Wed, Feb 5, 8pm
This absorbing documentary demonstrates that equality under the law became viable for African Americans only after public opinion and federal policy had been turned against the white terror that enforced segregation and the denial of constitutional rights.
The program illuminates the mid-century battle for American hearts and minds with recordings of and recollections by such remarkable participants as A. Philip Randolph and Stetson Kennedy, as well as the better-known contributions of Thurgood Marshall and Paul Robeson.
In 1941 Randolph, head of the all-black Pullman Porters union, boldly threatened a wartime March on Washington to force recognition of the intolerable conditions blacks faced nationwide. His tactic effectively pressured President Roosevelt to back fair employment practices. Later, President Truman ordered desegregation of the Army and the federal government due, in part, to Randolph's threats of mass civil disobedience during the Cold War.
White resistance to blacks' rising aspirations threatened a replay of the bloody "Red Summer" of 1919, which was marked by violence against blacks and leftist-liberals. Kennedy, a journalist, investigator, and labor activist, courageously exposed the Ku Klux Klan and other such groups on their own turf. He recalls ridiculing the Klan by broadcasting Klan passwords on the Superman radio show and wearing Klan robes into the U.S. capitol to embarrass the Committee on Un-American Activities.
American as Apple Pie: How Segregation and Terror Lost, 1940-54 makes it clear that despite ongoing white resistance, the path to change was well prepared by activists, both famous and obscure. In time, the Supreme Court announced the end of America's legally separate and unequal society in its 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Uncommon Courage: The Viola Liuzzo Story
Sat, Feb 8 at 1pm and Wed, Feb 12, 8pm
One-hour documentary on Viola Liuzzo, a valiant hero of the Civil Rights Movement (one-time special).
Viola Liuzzo was a Detroit housewife who became a civil rights icon. A member of the Unitarian-Universalist Church, Liuzzo was committed to the ideals of equality and justice. Knowing full well that she was risking her life, she participated in the celebrated voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery.
Liuzzo's presence so offended centuries-old southern mores that on March 25, 1965, she was murdered by members of the Ku Klux Klan. Historians believe she is the only white woman martyred in the cause of voting rights.
Hosted by David Person, Uncommon Courage: The Viola Liuzzo Story profiles this remarkable woman. In explaining who Liuzzo was, the program thoughtfully considers several, larger questions: What motivated her to go to Selma? What did her efforts mean to the civil rights and women's movements? What impact did her death have on both?
Uncommon Courage features interviews with experts and participants in the Selma experience, including:
Mary Stanton, Pulitzer-nominated author of From Selma to Sorrow: The Life and Death of Viola Liuzzo
Leroy Moton, the young black man riding in the car with Liuzzo when she was murdered
Taylor Branch, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian
Dr. Frederick Reese, pastor, civil rights activist, educator, and Selma resident.
The program also features music that reflects and honors Liuzzo's sacrifice, including some of the Civil Rights Movement's most recognized songs. Ben Harper, Curtis Mayfield, John Coltrane, and the Golden Gate Quartet are among the featured artists.
Destination Freedom/Black Radio Days
Destination Freedom/Black Radio Days restores to radio an exceptional broadcast series created by African American writers in the 1940s and '50s to portray blacks and black life realistically and positively. Again hosted by acclaimed musician, actor, and composer Oscar Brown Jr., three revived editions make up this year's offering.
Housing
Saturday, Feb 15, 1pm and Wed, Feb 19, 8pm
Set in Chicago in the late 1940s, this dramatization exposes how restrictive covenants and outright violence kept millions of blacks trapped in housing conditions guaranteed to produce ill health and wide profit margins. Jack Warren, a black, hard-working family man and WWII veteran, is caught up in -- and manipulated by -- a system designed to profit at his expense.
Diary of a Nurse
Saturday, Feb 15, 1pm and Wed, Feb 19, 8pm
This final program tells the story of Jane Edna Hunter, a nurse and founder of the National Phyllis Wheatly Association. In 1913, Hunter defied social and economic odds to build a housing sanctuary for women in Cleveland. Not only did it offer an impressive range of health, employment, and other social services, it did so without regard to a client's race, creed, or color.
Father to Son
Sat, Feb 22, 1pm and Wed, Feb 26, 8pm
This drama tells the story of Adam Clayton Powell Sr., a sharecropper who escaped crushing poverty in West Virginia to lead one of the largest and oldest churches in America -- Harlem's Abyssinian Baptist Church. It also profiles his son, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., who was repeatedly returned to the U.S. House of Representatives by the people of Harlem. The program features an extended interview with Adam Clayton Powell, III.
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