Celebrate Black History Month on KLRN

Martha Jasso

• Published on January 26, 2021 • Last modified on February 10, 2021

In celebration of Black History Month, KLRN will broadcast a lineup of new and encore presentations honoring and exploring African-American history.

Thanks to presenting sponsor Bank of America, the Carver Community Cultural Center, St. Philip’s College, and San Antonio River Authority for their support of KLRN Black History Month Educational Resources.

MONDAY, FEB. 1|10:30PM - FANNIE LOU HAMER: STAND UP: The documentary FANNIE LOU HAMER: STAND UP examines the life of civil rights legend Fannie Lou Hamer, offering first-hand accounts by those who knew her and worked side by side with her in the struggle for voting rights.

TUESDAY, FEB. 2 & Feb. 9|8PM - LIVING IN MY SKIN: The documentary is a collection of stories told by Black men living in San Antonio. These men range from ages 10 to 90 and represent a wide range of income levels and lifestyles.

**TUESDAY, FEB. 2 & TUESDAY, FEB. 9|8:30PM - AFRO-LATINO TRAVELS WITH KIM HASS: SAN JOSE:** We travel to Costa Rica's capital city, San Jose. In the capital, we meet with one the country's most renowned writers, whose career spans more than 50 years and is responsible for introducing the Afro-Costa Rican experience in Costa Rican literature.

**WEDNESDAY, FEB. 3|10PM - KORLA:** Korla is the amazing story of John Roland Redd, an African American from Columbia, Missouri who migrated to Hollywood in 1939 and reinvented himself as a musician from India. As one of early television's pioneering musical artists, Korla Pandit's life was one of talent, determination, ingenuity and racial passing, a story not fully realized until after his death in 1998.

**FRIDAY, FEB. 5|8PM - IN CONCERT AT THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL: GUSTAVO AND FRIENDS:** Watch a few of Gustavo Dudamel's favorite performances from throughout the years: "Swan Lake" with American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland, Dvorak's Cello Concerto with Pablo Ferrandez and the finale to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

**MONDAY, FEB. 8|8PM - AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: GOING BACK TO T- TOWN:** Hear the extraordinary history of Greenwood, a successful Black community in segregated Tulsa. In a nostalgic celebration of old-fashioned neighborhood life, Black residents of "T-Town" relive their community's remarkable rise and ultimate decline.

**MONDAY, FEB. 8|10:30PM - THE EDUCATION OF HARVEY GANTT:** On January 28, 1963, a young black man from Charleston named Harvey Gantt enrolled at Clemson College, making him the first African American accepted to a white school in South Carolina. The absence of drama or violence surrounding Gantt's enrollment - the result of nearly two years of detailed preparation and planning on the part of college administrators, state politicians and business leaders - made headlines at the time, but soon it faded from the public consciousness.

TUESDAY, FEB. 9|8:30PM - AFRO-LATINO TRAVELS WITH KIM HAAS: LIMON COSTA: We travel to Limon, Costa Rica, on the Caribbean coast. This sun drenched coastal city is steeped in African Diasporic history including a legacy by Pan Africanist Marcus Garvey. We also learn about the role thousands of Jamaicans, Afro-Costa Ricans and other Caribbean islanders played in the construction of the country's railroad more than a century ago.

**TUESDAY, FEB. 9|10PM - HISTORYMAKERS ON... SUCCESS:** Success is the first in The HistoryMakers series of documentaries, focused on the achievement of success in the face of adversity. Through a series of real life stories and experiences, this documentary chronicles the long road to success that many well-known and unsung African American history-makers have had no make along with the many obstacles that have stood in their way.

**WEDNESDAY, FEB. 10|10PM - HOLLYWOOD'S ARCHITECT: THE PAUL R. WILLIAMS STORY:** Nicknamed "Architect to the Stars," African American architect Paul R. Williams had a life story that could have been dreamed up by a Hollywood screenwriter. From the early 1920s until his retirement 50 years later, Williams was one of the most successful architects in thecountry. His list of residential clients included Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, Barbara Stanwyck, William Holden, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

**SATURDAY, FEB. 13|11:30PM - SUN STUDIO SESSIONS: ALVIN YOUNGBLOOD HART:** Described as the "cosmic American love child of Howlin' Wolf and Link Wray," Grammy-winning singer and guitarist Alvin Youngblood Hart is a revered. While steeped in the blues, Hart creates his own unique genre-defying sound.

**SUNDAYS BEGINNING JAN. 31|9PM - LONG SONG ON MASTERPIECE: EPISODE 3:** Facing labor unrest and financial ruin for the plantation, Robert's sanity starts to unravel, with devastating effects on July. Years later, she makes a remarkable discovery.

MONDAY, FEB. 15|8PM - AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: VOICE OF FREEDOM: Hailed as a voice that “comes around once in a hundred years” by maestros in Europe and widely celebrated by both white and black audiences at home, Marian Anderson's fame hadn’t been enough to spare her from the indignities and outright violence of racism and segregation.

**MONDAY, FEB. 15|10PM - AMERICAN MASTERS: CHARLIE PRIDE:** Explore the complicated history of the American South and its music through the life of country star Charley Pride. Raised in segregated Mississippi, his journey shows the ways that artistic expression can triumph over prejudice and injustice.

**TUESDAY, FEB. 16|7PM - FINDING YOUR ROOTS: WRITE MY NAME IN THE BOOK OF LIFE:** Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps musician Pharrell Williams and filmmaker Kasi Lemmons uncover extraordinarily rare first-person accounts of their enslaved ancestors.

**TUESDAY, FEB. 16 & WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17|8PM - BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG: EPISODE:** Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of African American religion beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary ways enslaved Africans preserved and adapted faith practices from the brutality of slavery to emancipation.

TUESDAY, FEB. 16|10PM - HISTORYMAKERS ON... FAITH: Faith is the second volume of The HistoryMakers series centered on the importance of faith in both oneself and a higher being to achieve the impossible. Through a series of real-life stories and experiences, this documentary explores the strength of faith in the African-American community and the role it plays in achieving success.

**FRIDAY, FEB. 19|8PM - DRIVING WHILE BLACK: RACE, SPACE AND MOBILITY IN AMERICA:** Discover how the advent of the automobile brought new freedoms and new perils for African Americans on the road in this deep look into the dynamics of race, space and mobility in America over time.

**MONDAY, FEB. 22|9PM - INDEPENDENT LENS: MR. SOUL!:** Premiering in 1968, SOUL! was the first nationally broadcast all-Black variety show on public television, merging artists from the margins with post-Civil Rights Black radical thought. Mr. SOUL! delves into this critical moment in television history, as well as the man who guided it, highlighting a turning point in representation whose impact continues to resonate to this day.

TUESDAY, FEB. 23|10PM - HISTORYMAKERS ON... COURAGE: Courage is the third volume of The HistoryMakers documentary series, focused on possessing the courage to fight for your dreams. Through a series of real life stories and experiences, this documentary illustrates how taking stands against social, economic, and racial barriers, were amongst the many courageous actions taken by these History Makers to achieve their aspirations.

FRIDAY, FEB. 26|8PM - INDEPENDENT LENS: MR. SOUL!

**FRIDAY, FEB. 26|9:30PM - INDEPENDENT LENS: RECORDER: THE MARION STROKES PROJECT:** Activist Marion Stokes secretly recorded American television 24 hours a day from 1975 to 2012, creating an invaluable comprehensive archive of the media. Her 70,000 VHS tapes reveal how television shaped - and continues to shape - our world.

KLRN WORLD 9.2

MONDAY, FEB. 1 | 8PM – INDEPENDENT LENS: THE FIRST RAINBOW COALITION:In 1969, the Chicago Black Panther Party began to form alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latino group the Young Lords Organization and the southern whites of the Young Patriots organization. Banding together in one of the most segregated cities in postwar America to collectively confront issues such as police brutality and substandard housing, they called themselves the Rainbow Coalition.

TUESDAY, FEB. 2 | 9PM – EVENING WITH B.B. KING: An Evening With B.B. King is a must see interview that provides a rare look into the life and times of the King of the Blues.

FRIDAY, FEB. 5 | 8PM – JAZZ: SWING: PURE PLEASURE (1935-M1937): Big band jazz, "swing," becomes the most popular music in America. Clarinetist Benny Goodman, whose band creates a sensation on radio broadcasts and in live performances, becomes the first white bandleader to hire black musicians and presents the first integrated public performances of jazz.

FRIDAY, FEB. 5 | 9:30PM – HARPIST’S LEGACY: ANN HOBSON PILOT AND THE SOUND OF CHANGE: A Harpist's Legacy: Ann Hobson Pilot and the Sound Of Change profiles the inspirational life and distinguished career of the revered harpist. This compelling documentary follows Ann Hobson Pilot's trailblazing journey as the first black female principal player in a major symphony orchestra and also as an international soloist, teacher, mentor and driving force behind music-education programs for underserved minorities. A HARPIST'S LEGACY uses her professional journey to explore the increasing racial diversity and shift in attitudes toward musicians of color in the classical music world.

SATURDAY, FEB. 6 | 7PM – THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE: Hear the story of five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem - told from their perspectives -- who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park in 1989 in this documentary from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns.

SUNDAY, FEB. 7 | 9PM – FINDING YOUR ROOTS: THE VANGUARD: Author Ta-Nehisi Coates, filmmaker Ava DuVernay, and author and activist Janet Mock see their basic assumptions about their families challenged, placing their ancestors - of all colors - into the greater context of black history.

SUNDAY, FEB. 7 | 10PM – MR. CIVIL RIGHTS: THURGOOD MARSHALL AND THE NAACP: Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP incorporates rare archival film and extraordinary interviews to explore Marshall's life in the years leading up to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling, including his upbringing in Baltimore, his education at Howard University Law School ("the West Point of the civil rights movement"), his status as a rising star within the NAACP, his skill as an orator and storyteller, his relationship with his mentor Charles H. Houston, and his high-profile segregation cases involving voting, transportation, housing, labor and the military.

MONDAY, FEB. 8 | 8PM – INDEPENDENT LENS: TELL THEM WE ARE RISING: THE STORY OF BLACK COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES:Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities is a documentary and interactive project that explores the pivotal role historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have played in American history, culture, and national identity. Today, over half of all African American professionals are graduates of HBCUs. More than 50% of the nation's African American public school teachers and 70% of African American dentists earned degrees at HBCUs. The film brings to a broad national audience for the first time the story of HBCUs and the power of higher education to transform lives and advance civil rights and equality in the face of intolerance and injustice.

TUESDAY, FEB. 9 | 9PM – LIVE FROM LINCOLN CENTER: LESLIE ODOM JR. IN CONCERT: Winner of the 2016 Tony for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his legendary performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton, Leslie Odom Jr., a jazz vocalist with an actor's ear for a lyric, brings his remarkable talent to this intimate performance.

FRIDAY, FEB. 12 | 8PM – JAZZ: SWING: THE VELOCITY OF CELEBRATION (1937-1939): As the Great Depression deepens, jazz thrives. The saxophone emerges as an iconic instrument of the music; the episode introduces two of its masters, Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young. Young migrates to Kansas City, where a vibrant music scene is prospering.

SATURDAY, FEB. 13 | 7PM – AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: GOING BACK TO T- TOWN: Hear the extraordinary history of Greenwood, a successful Black community in segregated Tulsa. In a nostalgic celebration of old-fashioned neighborhood life, Black residents of "T-Town" relive their community's remarkable rise and ultimate decline.

SUNDAY, FEB. 14 | 9PM – FINDING YOUR ROOTS: BLACK LIKE ME: Bryant Gumbel, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Suzanne Malveaux discover a tapestry of the unexpected in their ancestry, revealing slaves and free people of color, Civil War legacies and forgotten European origins.

MONDAY, FEB. 15 | 8PM – DAVE CHAPPELLE: THE MARK TWAIN PRIZE: The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts presents the 22nd annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor to Dave Chappelle.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 17 | 8PM - BOSS: THE BALCK EXPERIENCE IN BUSINESS: Learn about the untold story ofAfrican American entrepreneurship, where skill, industriousness, ingenuity and sheer courage in the face of overwhelming odds provide the backbone of this nation’s economic and social growth.

FRIDAY, FEB. 19 | 8PM – JAZZ: DEDICATED TO CHAOS (1940- 1945): The infectious music of the swing bands sets the mood for soldiers going off to fight in World War II. Gifted trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, in after-hours jam sessions with other young rebels, including the drummer Kenny Clarke and pianist Thelonious Monk, take jazz in startling new directions with their complex music -- bebop.

SATURDAY, FEB. 20 | 7PM – THE BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG: EPISODE 1: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of African American religion beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary ways enslaved Africans preserved and adapted faith practices from the brutality of slavery to emancipation.

SATURDAY, FEB. 20 | 9PM – AMERICA REFRAMED: BADDDDD SONIA SANCHEZ: For 80-year-old Sonia Sanchez, writing is both a personal and political act. She emerged as a seminal figure in the 1960s Black Arts Movement, raising her voice in the name of black culture, civil rights, women's liberation, and peace as a poet, playwright, teacher, activist and early champion of the spoken word.

SUNDAY, FEB. 21 | 8PM – FINDING YOUR ROOTS: WRITE MY NAME IN THE BOOK OF LIFE:Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps musician Pharrell Williams and filmmaker Kasi Lemmons uncover extraordinarily rare first-person accounts of their enslaved ancestors.

SUNDAY, FEB. 21 | 9PM – FINDING YOUR ROOTS: FREEDOM TALES: Host Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delves deep into the roots of two African American guests, actor S. Epatha Merkerson and athlete and television personality Michael Strahan. Both discover unexpected stories that challenge assumptions about black history.

MONDAY, FEB. 22 | 8PM – CHARLEY PRIDE: AMERICAN MASTERS: Explore the complicated history of the American South and its music through the life of country star Charley Pride. Raised in segregated Mississippi, his journey shows the ways that artistic expression can triumph over prejudice and injustice.

TUESDAY, FEB. 23 | 8PM – AMERICAN MASTERS: HOW IT FEELS TO BE FREE: Explore the lives and trailblazing careers of iconic African American entertainers Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier, who changed American culture through their films, fashion, music and politics.

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24|8PM - BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of African American religion beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary ways enslaved Africans preserved and adapted faith practices from the brutality of slavery to emancipation.

FRIDAY, FEB. 26 | 8PM – JAZZ: RISK (1945- 1955): Jazz becomes the official symbol of American democracy abroad. At home, the music splinters into different camps: white and black, cool and hot, East and West, traditional and modern. Television supplants radio, but offers fewer opportunities for jazz to be heard. Most big bands are forced to dismantle. The rhythm and blues phenomenon further erodes the audience for jazz. Charlie Parker dies of pneumonia and cirrhosis of the liver at age 34; Dizzy Gillespie carries on the innovations of bebop as a teacher and leader, forms a big band and blends modern jazz with Latin rhythms.

SATURDAY, FEB. 27 | 7PM – THE BLACK CHURCH: THIS IS OUR STORY, THIS IS OUR SONG: EPISODE 2: Discover how the Black church expanded its reach to address social inequality and minister to those in need, from the Jim Crow South to the heroic phase of the civil rights movement, and the Black church's role in the present.

SATURDAY, FEB. 27 | 9PM – AMERICA REFRAMED: WHERE THE PAVEMENT ENDS: Where the Pavement Ends transports viewers to Missouri towns Kinloch and Ferguson, examining the shared histories and deep racial divides affecting both. Through archival audio recordings, photographs and the recollections of residents from what was then all-Black Kinloch and the all-white community of Ferguson, director Gillooly, a Ferguson native, draws parallels between a 1960s dispute over a physical barricade erected between the towns and the 2014 shooting death by police of Michael Brown which brought her town national attention.

SATURDAY, FEB. 27 | 10:30PM – JUSTICE IN CHESTER: During the 1990s, residents in Chester, Pennsylvania, a predominantly poor, African American community, organized a movement to stop the ongoing permitting of waste treatment facilities in their city. Between 1986 and 1996, the PA Department of Environmental Protection issued seven permits for commercial waste facilities in the county, and five of them were in the 4.8 square miles of Chester.

SUNDAY, FEB. 28 | 9PM – FINDING YOUR ROOTS: HOMECOMINGS:Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps actor Sterling K. Brown, comedian Sasheer Zamata and musician Jon Batiste discover the unexpected places their ancestors called home, providing new insight into the people and places that made them who they are today.

SUNDAY, FEB. 28 | 10PM – FINDING YOUR ROOTS: THIS LAND IS MY LAND:Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals the unexpected family trees of entertainer Queen Latifah and actor Jeffrey Wright, redefining their sense of the black experience -- and challenging preconceptions about America's past.