Burbank, Calif. – Jan. 26, 2015 – KCETLink, the national independent public broadcast and digital network, invites viewers to celebrate Black History Month in February on KCET and Link TV with several riveting programs and documentaries that explore the rich history of African-Americans in the United States.
STAND! Untold Stories Of The Civil Rights Movement
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 9 p.m. PT on KCET
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 8 p.m. PT/ET on Link TV
This film chronicles the key events which led Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to select Birmingham, Ala. as the site for the now famous ‘Project C’ (Project Confrontation) in 1963. Bringing to light often overlooked and unknown facts about the system of segregation in Birmingham, the film features the brave men and women who risked everything to bring about its demise. It also dispels many myths that the Civil Rights movement was all black, exclusively male, and led by ministers who rallied in 1963 and liberated a city.
One Night In March
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 10:30 p.m. PT on KCET
This award-winning film tells the story of a historic college basketball game that captured the national imagination, influenced a state and helped redefine a sport. Interviews, rare footage and archival photos transport viewers back to a tumultuous time in U.S. history, just as the Civil Rights movement began gaining momentum throughout the South.
In the late 1950s and early ’60s, Mississippi State University’s powerhouse basketball program earned several conference titles and national rankings. Despite their success, the Bulldogs could not play in the NCAA national championship due to an unwritten rule prohibiting all-white Mississippi collegiate athletic teams from competing against integrated teams. Mississippi State’s president, its head basketball coach and their players ultimately risked their safety and their futures by defying this rule, as well as the governor and state legislature, in pursuit of a national championship.
This documentary recounts the 1962-1963 season and the events leading up to the team playing in the tournament against the integrated Loyola University (Chicago) club. The film concludes with a return trip to Loyola, where former players reunite and celebrate the landmark game they participated in 50 years earlier.
Wessyngton Plantation: A Family’s Road To Freedom
Wednesday, Feb. 18, 10:30 p.m. PT on KCET
As a child, author John F. Baker Jr. was mysteriously drawn to a photo of Robertson County slaves in his middle school textbook. When his grandmother explained that he was looking at his great-grandparents, he became obsessed with their story. In 2008 his book, “The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantation,” was released. The culmination of more than 30 years of research, details the lives of hundreds of his family members. Baker spent decades combing through countless family and state archives, researching birth and death records, and conducting dozens of interviews with relatives and historians. This moving exploration of family ties brings to life a story of pain and perseverance.
Editor and the Dragon: Horace Carter Fights the Klan
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 10:30 p.m. PT on KCET
Narrated by Academy Award® winning actor Morgan Freeman, this film tells the story of Pulitzer Prize winning publisher, Horace Carter and his bold reporting on the Ku Klux Klan in the pre-Civil Rights era. Carter, the 29 year-old editor of the weekly Tabor City Tribune, stood against the Klan and risked life, livelihood, friendships and his family’s safety to protest the Klan’s racist rhetoric and vigilantism. His courageous reports and the unwavering integrity of his weekly editorials led to the first FBI investigation of the Klan during that era, and to the arrest and conviction of nearly 100 Klansmen. Archival footage and interviews with Carter, his family, Tabor City (N.C.) residents, journalists and historians help piece together this dark chapter in American history.
For find more information on KCETLink’s Black History Month programming and online content, please visit www.kcet.org/heritage.
ABOUT KCETLINK MEDIA GROUP
KCETLink Media Group, formed by the merger between KCET and Link Media, is a national independent, nonprofit, digital and broadcast network that provides high-quality, culturally diverse programming designed to engage the public in innovative, entertaining and transformative ways. With a commitment to independent perspectives, smart global entertainment, local communities, and opportunities for engagement and social action, KCETLink depicts people and the world through a lens unavailable elsewhere in U.S. media. A viewer-supported 501(c)(3) organization, KCETLink content is distributed nationally via satellite on Link TV – DIRECTV channel 375 and DISH Network channel 9410 – and on KCET in Southern and Central California via broadcast and cable, as well as through various digital delivery systems. For additional information about KCET and Link TV productions, web-exclusive content, programming schedules and community events, please visit kcet.org or linktv.org.