Of Black America | |
---|---|
Genre | Documentary |
Country of origin | United States |
No. of episodes | 7 |
Release | |
Original network | CBS |
Original release | July 2 – September 2, 1968 |
Of Black America was a series of seven one-hour documentaries presented by CBS News in the summer of 1968, at the end of the Civil Rights Movement and during a time of racial unrest (Martin Luther King had been assassinated that spring and riots in many cities had followed). The groundbreaking [1] series explored various aspects of the history and current state of African-American community. The executive producer was Perry Wolff, [2] [1] and the series was sponsored by the Xerox Corporation.
The series was presented in prime time at 10:00 PM, on Tuesdays (a slot then usually reserved for CBS Reports documentaries and news shows), except for the last episode which aired on a Monday.
The first installment ("Black History: Lost, Stolen, Strayed") won an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild of America Award for Andy Rooney. [3] Hal Walker, who co-anchored the final segment ("Portrait in Black and White") with Charles Kuralt, was the first African American correspondent for CBS News and one of the first black journalists on national television news. He had just recently joined CBS after winning a local Emmy Award and the Capital Press Club's Journalist of the Year award for his work on "A Dialogue with Whitey", a special report for WTOP about the King assassination riots in Washington, D. C. [4] This final segment featured the results of a large and extensive poll of both African-Americans and whites by Opinion Research Corporation. [1]
Number | Title | Producers | Written by | Hosts / Anchors | Original air date | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | "Black History: Lost, Stolen, Strayed" | Andy Rooney, Vern Diamond, Lloyd Weaver | Perry Wolff, Andy Rooney [2] | Bill Cosby | July 2, 1968 [5] | |
Black American heritage, a psychiatrist analyzes African-American and white children's drawings, characterizations of blacks in film, preparing black children for public school. Amos 'n' Andy appear. | ||||||
2 | "The Black Soldier" | Peter Wolff, Lloyd Weaver | Thomas A. Johnson, Jon Wilkman | Bill Cosby | July 9, 1968 [6] | |
History of the military role of African-Americans, from the American Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War which was then being fought. | ||||||
3 | "Black World" | Lloyd Weaver | Mike Wallace | July 16, 1968 [7] | ||
Kinship and degree of cultural interchange between Black America and Black Africa is covered. Ghanaian figures Tom Mboya and Alexander Kwapong appear, along with African-American leaders. | ||||||
4 | "Body and Soul" | Andy Rooney, Martin Carr, Lloyd Weaver | Andy Rooney [8] | John Mosedale, Harry Reasoner | July 30, 1968 [9] | |
Two parts, one on African-American athletes (including clips of Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Althea Gibson, Arthur Ashe, Bill Russell, and Jesse Owens) and one, featuring Ray Charles, on musicians (including clips of Lester Young, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Nat "King" Cole, and Aretha Franklin). | ||||||
5 | "The Heritage of Slavery" | Peter Davis, Susan Garfield, Lloyd Weaver | Peter Davis | George Foster | August 13, 1968 [10] | |
Current attitudes of white and black Americans toward African-American history are discussed. Explanation of the slave trade, footage shot in Charleston, South Carolina including the Old Slave Mart Museum, interviews with activist Bill Saunders and editor Lerone Bennett Jr. | ||||||
6 | "In Search of a Past" | Lloyd Weaver | Arthur Rabin | August 20, 1968 [8] | ||
7 | "Portrait in Black and White" | Jay L. McMullen, Vern Diamond, Lloyd Weaver | Paul Loewenwarter | Hal Walker, Charles Kuralt | September 2, 1968 [11] | |
Results of a CBS News poll measuring racial attitudes. Walker presents on white racism and changes in white attitudes, Kuralt on African-American extremism and also on black pride. |
60 Minutes is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who distinguished it from other news programs by using a unique style of reporter-centered investigation. In 2002, 60 Minutes was ranked number six on TV Guide's list of the "50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time", and in 2013, it was ranked number 24 on the magazine's list of the "60 Best Series of All Time". The New York Times has called it "one of the most esteemed news magazines on American television".
Howard Kingsbury Smith was an American journalist, radio reporter, television anchorman, political commentator, and film actor. He was one of the original members of the team of war correspondents known as the Murrow Boys.
Raymond William Stacy Burr was a Canadian actor known for his lengthy Hollywood film career and his title roles in television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside.
Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, better known by the stage name Stepin Fetchit, was an American vaudevillian, comedian, and film actor of Jamaican and Bahamian descent, considered to be the first black actor to have a successful film career. His highest profile was during the 1930s in films and on stage, when his persona of Stepin Fetchit was billed as the "Laziest Man in the World".
Andrew Aitken Rooney was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program 60 Minutes from 1978 to 2011. His final regular appearance on 60 Minutes aired on October 2, 2011; he died a month later at the age of 92.
William Samuel Paley was an American businessman, primarily involved in the media, and best known as the chief executive who built the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States. He was awarded the Carlos Manuel de Cespedes National Order of Merit by the Cuban government in recognition of his efforts to foster greater understanding between the peoples of Cuba and the United States of America.
The Jeffersons is an American sitcom television series that was broadcast on CBS from January 18, 1975, to July 2, 1985, lasting 11 seasons and a total of 253 episodes. The Jeffersons is one of the longest-running sitcoms in history, the second-longest-running series with a primarily African American cast by episode count behind Tyler Perry's House of Payne and the first to prominently feature a married interracial couple.
Edward Rudolph Bradley Jr. was an American broadcast journalist and news anchor. He was best known for his reporting on 60 Minutes and CBS News.
Lou Grant is an American drama television series starring Ed Asner in the title role as a newspaper editor that aired on CBS from September 20, 1977, to September 13, 1982. The third spin-off of the sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Lou Grant was created by James L. Brooks, Allan Burns, and Gene Reynolds.
Maria de Lourdes Hinojosa Ojeda is a Mexican-American journalist. She is the anchor and executive producer of Latino USA on National Public Radio, a public radio show devoted to Latino issues. She is also the founder, president and CEO of Futuro Media Group, which produces the show. In 2022, Hinojosa won a Pulitzer Prize.
The 57th Primetime Emmy Awards were held on Sunday, September 18, 2005, and were hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. The ceremony was broadcast on CBS. BBC America received its first major nomination this year.
Studio One is an American anthology drama television series that was adapted from a radio series. It was created in 1947 by Canadian director Fletcher Markle, who came to CBS from the CBC. It premiered on November 7, 1948, and ended on September 29, 1958, with a total of 467 episodes over the course of 10 seasons.
Perry Mason is an American legal drama series originally broadcast on CBS television from September 21, 1957, to May 22, 1966. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner. Many episodes are based on stories written by Gardner.
Emily Rooney is an American journalist, TV talk show and radio host and former news producer. She hosted the weekly program Beat the Press on WGBH-TV. until its cancellation on August 13, 2021.
Sharyl Attkisson is an American journalist and television correspondent. She hosts the Sinclair Broadcast Group TV show Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.
CBS Reports is the umbrella title used for documentaries by CBS News which aired starting in 1959 through the 1990s. The series sometimes aired as a wheel series rotating with 60 Minutes, as a series of its own, or as specials. The program aired as a constant series from 1959 to 1971.
Solly Granatstein is an American television producer and director, formerly with CBS 60 Minutes, NBC News and ABC News. He is co-creator, along with Lucian Read and Richard Rowley, of "America Divided", a documentary series about inequality, and was co-executive producer of Years of Living Dangerously Season 1. He is the winner of twelve Emmys, a Peabody, a duPont, two Polks, four Investigative Reporters and Editors awards, including the IRE medal, and virtually every other major award in broadcast journalism. He is also the screenwriter, with Vince Beiser, of The Great Antonio, an upcoming film, developed by Steven Soderbergh and Warner Brothers.
Shawn Efran is an American filmmaker, journalist, television producer, and media entrepreneur. His work, including as producer for 60 Minutes on CBS, and as founder and executive producer of Efran Films, has garnered critical acclaim, including seven Emmy awards, a Peabody, a Polk, and four Society of Professional Journalists National Distinguished Public Service Award.
A series of 30 Perry Mason television films aired on NBC from 1985 to 1995 as sequels to the CBS TV series Perry Mason. After a hiatus of nearly 20 years, Raymond Burr reprised his role as Los Angeles defense attorney Mason in 26 of the television films. Following Burr's death in 1993, Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook starred in the remaining four television films that aired from 1993 to 1995, with Sorvino playing lawyer Anthony Caruso in the first of these and Holbrook playing "Wild Bill" McKenzie in the last three.
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is an American television film based on the novel of the same name by Ernest J. Gaines. The film was broadcast on CBS on Thursday, January 31, 1974.