Browse shows on: Education and Families
De facto segregation persisted to varying degrees throughout the period covered by ABJ, even as landmark court decisions removed the legal props to the system. ABJ shows illustrate the black community's unwavering commitment to education as the pathway from poverty to prosperity and social justice. They examine the struggles over policy, access, curriculum, and resources at the heart of the black community's efforts to revitalize public education and infuse it with values drawn from neighborhood, church, and family.
Colored People's Time 5: "The Making of a Rioter" (December 31, 1969)Guests:
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Description: This segment examines public education in Detroit. Highlighting the unsafe infrastructures, lack of adequate resources, and substandard curriculum inner city youth grappled with everyday. The staff reporters interviews students at Northeastern High School to gain insight into their thoughts about the situation. The interview reveals the students' frustration, anger and disillusionment with a system that has all but forgotten them. The students have staged a walkout and formed a Black Student organization to address their concerns.
Colored People's Time 5 (December 31, 1969)Guests: International Gospel Choir, Black Students Association, Arthur Ashe Jr, George Kirby, Bill Murphy, Gwen McKinney, Kim Weston, Marcus Belgrave, Thomas Bowles, Diane Carol, Hal McKinney
Host : Tony Brown
Producer : Gilbert Maddox, Tony Brown
Duration: 56:53:9
Description: The program opens with Hal McKinney's jazz band performing "Freedom Jazz Dance," featuring Hal and Gwen McKinney on vocals. Although they are not individually credited, it appears that at least two prominent jazz musicians, trumpeter Marcus Belgrave and saxophonist Thomas "Beans" Bowles, are members of McKinney's band...
Colored People's Time 5: "Free Your Mind" Public Service Announcement (Skin Lightening Cream) (December 31, 1969)Guests:
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Description: One of the creative aspects of the show is the incorporation of "Public Service Announcements," that take a satirical look at Black identity. This "Free Your Mind" clip tackles the issues surrounding the use of beaching and whitening creams. Since the late 1800s Blacks who were unhappy with their skin complexion or thought they could change their social status by lighting their skin, engaged in the process of skin bleaching. Critics of the process argue that internalized racism and self-contempt have caused such individuals to accept degrading and negative images associated with Blackness, thus causing them to over identifying with Eurocentric standards of beauty. While skin whitening is one the most obvious forms of negating Blackness is discussions have also focused on hair styles, chemical process that are used to straighten hair, colored contacts, and cosmetic surgery that alters characteristically African features like the nose and lips. Skin bleaching creams are still sold and used today.
Bobby Seale (Part 1) (1978)Guests: Bobby Seale
Host : Ron Scott
Producer : Ron Scott
Duration: 0:28:20
Description: Bobby Seale was a key figure in the development of African American consciousness and radical political activism in the 1960s. Seale was one of the founders of, and an important spokesman for, the Black Panther Party. In this program from 1979, Seale talks with host Ron Scott about his role with the Black Panthers, his recently published autobiography, and his new sense of direction for the 1980s.
Bobby Seale (Part 2) (1978)Guests: Bobby Seale
Host : Ron Scott
Producer : Ron Scott
Duration: 00:29:30
Description: Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, talks with host Ron Scott about his role with the Black Panthers, his recently published autobiography, and his new sense of direction for the 1980s. This is the second part of a two part interview in 1978.
Ossie Davis (1980)Guests: Ossie Davis
Host : Gene Elzy
Producer : Deborah Ray
Duration: 0:28:55
Description: This features an interview with actor Ossie Davis about his career and his upcoming PBS television series, "Ossie and Ruby," which he has created with his wife, actress Ruby Dee.
To Be Woman, Gifted, and Black: From One Generation to Another (1980)Guests: Lena Horne, Nikki Giovanni
Host : Gene Elzy
Producer : Alfa Harrison, Deborah Ray
Duration: 0:28:57
Description: This show features interviews with Lena Horne and Nikki Giovanni about their careers, work, and what it means to be a black woman in modern-day society.
Detroit School Board (1984)Guests: Clara Rutherford, Alonzo Bates
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Bob Rossbach, Dianne Atkinson-Hudson
Duration: 0:28:51
Description: In the early 1980s, the Detroit Board of Education became a lightning rod for criticism over some of its financial dealings and budgetary practices. The district was under increasing pressure because of public concerns over safety in the schools and the quality of education in the district, and district officials were seeking to draw attention to inequities in school funding statewide.
Teen Gang Violence (1985)Guests: Hartford Smith, James Younger, Emeral Crosby
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Dianne Hudson
Description: In this special, hour-long presentation from late 1985, host Ed Gordon explores the impact and causes of teen violence with a panel that includes a police official, a high school principal, a social work expert and a former teen gang member.
Black Relationships I (1986)Guests: Dr. Donnie Smith, Dr. Rosalind Griffin
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: In this first of two related programs from 1986, host Ed Gordon talks with Dr. Rosalind Griffin, a psychiatrist, and Dr. Donnie Smith, a family therapist, about the troubled world of relationships between black men and black women.
Black Relationships II (1986)Guests: Dr. LaMaurice Gardner, Dr. Rosalind Griffin, Susan Watson
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: In late 1986, several months after Detroit Black Journal first addressed the state of relationships between black men and women, an outpouring of viewer interest prompted host Ed Gordon to return to the topic with the help of two Detroit area psychiatrists.
Dearborn Boycott 1986 (1986)Guests: Joe Madison, Howard Simon, Arthur Featherstone
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: In 1986, a move by the Detroit suburb of Dearborn to restrict access to city parks sparked an intense controversy. Many saw this as a racist attempt to keep black Detroiters out of the predominantly white suburb. The Dearborn City Council's action prompted a legal challenge and opponents of the new ordinance organized a boycott of Dearborn businesses, particular the Fairlane Mall, which had been a very popular shopping center for black Detroiters.
Jesse Jackson (1) (1986)Guests: Jesse Jackson
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Ed Gordon, Carol Gibson
Duration: 0:28:47
Description: A Baptist minister, Jesse Jackson spent decades as a civil rights and community activist before a pair of campaigns for the presidency made him a prominent political figure. In this 1986 program, Jackson appears primarily in the role of minister and community activist as he and host Ed Gordon discuss the problems facing black youth in America. (A second program with Jackson, to be aired the following week, would address the situation in South Africa.)
School Crisis (1987)Guests: Teola Canty, George Vaughn, Arthur Jefferson
Host : Ed Gordon
Producer : Ed Gordon, Trudy Gallant
Duration: 0:28:18
Description: This program, broadcast live in the spring of 1987, was organized by WTVS as a public forum in response to the fatal shooting of a student at a Detroit high school. The panel discussion, led by host Ed Gordon, with Detroit Schools Superintendent Dr. Arthur Jefferson, school board member George Vaughn, and PTA President Teola Canty, illuminates the struggle of a major city to come to grips with violence in its schools and broader community.
Jackie Joyner-Kersee (1989)Guests: Jackie Joyner-Kersee
Host : Trudy Gallant
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: Jackie Joyner-Kersee was one of the most successful women athletes of the 20th century, winning a total of five Olympic medals in track and field events spread over four consecutive Olympic Games. The peak of her Olympic career was in 1988, when she won gold medals in both the heptathlon and the long jump.
Joe Clark (1989)Guests: Joe Clark
Host : Trudy Gallant
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: In this special broadcast from 1989, host Trudy Gallant, presents a brief introduction to an extended (24-minute) excerpt from a speech by New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark. The speech had been recorded earlier during an appearance by Clark at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Old Hastings Street (1989)Guests: Dorothy DeMorcia, Wardell Polk, Siliva Williams, Lyman Woodard
Host : Trudy Gallant
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: This program from February 1989 crosses a range of categories as it explores the history of Detroit's black neighborhoods in the first half of the 20th century. Host Trudy Gallant discusses that history with a panel which includes two Detroiters who grew up in the Black Bottom/Paradise Valley area on the city's near east side, and the curator of a new exhibit about the period on display at the Detroit Historical Museum.
The Endangered Black Family (1989)Guests: Dr. Nathan Hare, Dr. Julia Hare
Host : Trudy Gallant
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: The Crisis in Black Sexual Politics, a book by Dr. Nathan Hare and Dr. Julia Hare, is the focus of this program from 1989. The coauthors, who were husband and wife, were both psychologists practicing in the San Francisco area. Nathan Hare had been the original chair of the Black Studies Department at San Francisco State University in 1968, which was the first Black Studies program established at a predominantly white university in the United States.
State of Black America (January 1989)Guests: Dr. Leon Chestang, N. Charles Anderson, John E. Jacob
Host : Trudy Gallant
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: This program, broadcast in January 1989, discusses a report recently issued by the National Urban League assessing the economic and social challenges facing African Americans.
Reparations (1990)Guests: Ray Jenkins, Christopher Alston
Host : Trudy Gallant
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: In early 1865, shortly before the end of the Civil War, General William T. Sherman began distributing parcels of land confiscated from Confederate supporters to former slaves along the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. He also loaned army mules to the former slaves to help them farm their newly acquired land.
Black Colleges (1991)Guests: Alvin O. Jr. Chambliss, Dr. Marjorie Harris, Dr. Anthony Ingram, Ed Vaughn
Host : Greg Mathis
Producer : Tony Mottley
Duration: 00:28:20
Description: This program from the first months of 1991 is interesting, both for the subject matter and for some of the personalities involved in the show.
Black Youth Perspectives (1991)Guests: Vincent Calles, Wenona Bryant, Chris Lee, Jasminder Grewal, Diona Smiley, Neeme Jarvi
Host : Randy King
Producer : Tony Mottley
Description: This program from the early fall of 1991 is the second of two special broadcasts focusing on city youth.
Afrocentric Education (1992)Guests: Katherine Blackwell, Baba Inshangi
Host : Cliff Russell
Producer : Carlota Almanza
Duration: 0:26:29
Description: This program, broadcast in 1992, is hosted by Cliff Russell. Divided between a music-dance performance by the Ishangi family from West Africa, and a presentation by Katherine Blackwell, an African American storyteller, the show illustrates the efforts of African Americans to explore - and to transmit to their children - the African roots of American culture.
Race Relations on Campus (1992)Guests: John Telford, Darryl Dawsey, Byron Williams, Tomeka Mingo
Host : Cliff Russell
Producer : Carlota Almanza
Description: In this program from mid-1992, host Cliff Russell leads a panel discussion, with a studio audience, about the problems that black students face in dealing with racism on college campuses and in high schools. The discussion was an outgrowth of a similar forum conducted a few weeks earlier in the wake of the verdict in the Rodney King beating case and the subsequent rioting in Los Angeles.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute (1993)Guests: Coretta Scott King, Young people from Detroit and across the country
Host : Cliff Russell
Producer : Carlota Almanza
Duration: 0:29:07
Description: This program, produced to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday in January 1993, is an intriguing exploration of the continuing legacy of King and his principles of nonviolence.
Jesse Jackson (3) (1995)Guests: Lois Williams, Deborah Franklin, Jesse Jackson
Host : Darryl Wood [bio]Darrell Wood hosted the show for ten years from 1988 to 1998 under the title American Black Journal. His shows sought to focus on the skills and talents of many of the nation's leading African-American business people to public television.
Click for full biography
Producer : Tony Mottley
Duration: 0:27:47
Description: This 1995 program, most of which consists of an interview of Jesse Jackson by host Darryl Wood, is fascinating because of the light it sheds on the political atmosphere of the mid 1990s.
Cornel West (1998)Guests: Cornel West
Host : Darryl Wood [bio]Darrell Wood hosted the show for ten years from 1988 to 1998 under the title American Black Journal. His shows sought to focus on the skills and talents of many of the nation's leading African-American business people to public television.
Click for full biography
Producer : Tony Mottley
Duration: 0:25:49
Description: In this program, from 1998, host Darryl Wood interviews highly regarded African American scholar Cornel West about the publication of his recently published book, "Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America." The book explores the meaning of community for African Americans and ideas for building a more hopeful future through a series of interviews with important public figures, such as Maya Angelou, Harry Belafonte, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Bill Bradley and Wynton Marsalis.
