In 1966, Stokely Carmichael’s call for Black Power marked a collective shift in the Black Freedom Movement. As a new wave of youth activists came to the fore frustration and anger with the systems of oppression so long used to deny Black people their inalienable human rights was fomenting.
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“This shift towards a more direct action agenda made it more difficult for the US government to ignore the demands of Black people in the US,” says Christine Acham, Ph.D, who co-curated the exhibit, Televising Black Politics in the Black Power Era: Black Journal and Soul!.
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Recognizing Fredrick Douglass’s dictum, “Power concedes nothing without a demand,” a new generation understood it was time for Black people to tell their stories on their own terms.
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In the wake of uprisings in more than 100 cities across the United States following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., National Educational Television (NET), the precursor to PBS, launched Black Journal, the groundbreaking national public affairs show produced for, about, and by Black Americans. Largely unseen since it first aired between 1968-1977, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting has brought all 59 episodes back to stream online.
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