''Black Journal'' is an American public affairs television program on

National Educational Television National Educational Television (NET) was an American educational broadcast television network owned by the Ford Foundation and later co-owned by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It operated from May 16, 1954 to October 4, 1970, and wa ...

(NET) and later

WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as "Thirteen" (stylized as "THIRTEEN"), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the ...

. It covered issues relevant to African-American communities with film crews sent to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the Er ...

. The program was originally an hour-long broadcast each month. In 1971, the journalist Tony Brown took over leadership and later the series transitioned to commercial television under the name '' Tony Brown’s Journal''. The series later returned to public television in 1982 under the new name. Other executive producers included documentary filmmakers

Madeline Anderson Madeline Anderson (born ca. 1923) is an American filmmaker, television and documentary producer, film director, editor and screenwriter. She is best known for her films ''Integration Report One'' (1960) and ''I Am Somebody'' (1970), the latter o ...

William Greaves William Greaves (October 8, 1926 – August 25, 2014) was an American documentary filmmaker and a pioneer of film-making. He produced more than two hundred documentary films, and wrote and directed more than half of these. Greaves garnered many ...

and

St. Clair Bourne St. Clair C. Bourne (February 16, 1943 – December 15, 2007) was an American documentary filmmaker, who focused on African-American subjects and addressed social issues. He also developed projects that explored African-American cultural figures, ...

. The show aired until 2008.THIRTEEN.
A History and Overview of Black Identity Public Affairs TV
" WNET, 2016. ''Black Journal'' offered a close look at the

civil rights movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and Black Power movements of the 1960s and was influential in shaping Black opinion at the time. The show won Emmy, Peabody and Russwurm awards for its coverage of timely issues. WNET and the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The librar ...

digitized episodes and contributed copies to the

American Archive of Public Broadcasting The American Archive of Public Broadcasting (AAPB) is a collaboration between the Library of Congress and WGBH Educational Foundation, founded through the efforts of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The AAPB is a national effort to digit ...

between 2012 and 2018.

Origins

''Black Journal'' was publicly funded in response to the

Kerner Commission The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commission after its chair, Governor Otto Kerner Jr. of Illinois, was an 11-member Presidential Commission established in July 1967 by President Lyndon B. Johnson in t ...

(1967) with a goal of presenting Black urban life and Black issues in order to provide Black Americans with a representation in the media. The Kerner Commission cited inflammatory representation of riots and lack of presence in mass media as sources of Black American discontent. President

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

, concerned with the impact of the long, hot summer of 1967, hoped that programs like ''Black Journal'' would prevent future riots.

Production

On June 12, 1968, ''Black Journal'' debuted on National Educational Television as a monthly one-hour program initially produced by

Alvin Perlmutter Alvin H. Perlmutter, Director of The Independent Production Fund, has produced television programming for over thirty years. Prior to forming his own company, Mr. Perlmutter served as NBC News Vice President and earlier as Director of Public Affa ...

, a white producer. Following a strike in August 1968 by Black staff members, Perlmutter was replaced by African-American documentary filmmaker

, who became the series’ producer, director, and occasional host. Under Greaves’ direction, ''Black Journal'' won an Emmy Award in 1969 for excellence in public affairs programming. In 1971, the journalist Tony Brown took over leadership and in 1977 the series transitioned to commercial television under the name '' Tony Brown’s Journal'' after many

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of ed ...

affiliate stations chose not to carry it, preferring instead to air less-controversial public affairs programs. The series returned to public television in 1982 under the new name. ''Black Journal'' had many technical accomplishments. A special program to provide technical training to minorities allowed for apprenticeships for ''Black Journal'' crews shooting in the New York area and facilitated minorities into the television industry. Episodes spanning 1968 to 1977 of ''Black Journal'' have been contributed to the

by WNET and the

, and features segments on the Black Power Movement, the “black is beautiful” movement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and

Malcolm X Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of ...

, the African diaspora, the

Black Panthers The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Calif ...

, Pan-Africanism, media's representation of black people and more.

Featured Guests

Episodes of ''Black Journal'' feature interviews with activist and author

Angela Davis Angela Yvonne Davis (born January 26, 1944) is an American political activist, philosopher, academic, scholar, and author. She is a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. A feminist and a Marxist, Davis was a longtime member o ...

and basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabber, as well as episodes and segments about the black community in Compton, the role of the black artist, and the importance of education in newly independent Guyana. Subjects included education, employment, American history, incarceration, fashion, religion, racism, music, and dance. Charles Hamilton,

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manha ...

political science professor and co-author of ''Black Power'' with

Stokely Carmichael Kwame Ture (; born Stokely Standiford Churchill Carmichael; June 29, 1941November 15, 1998) was a prominent organizer in the civil rights movement in the United States and the global pan-African movement. Born in Trinidad, he grew up in the Unit ...

, was a frequent guest. He was presented as a genteel intellectual, and clips were shown of him lecturing in his classes. He also provided commentary on electoral politics. Kathleen Cleaver, Communications Secretary for the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Cali ...

at the time, was a frequent guest and often advocated for violence in the role of Black social justice. Historian Richard Moore was featured on the program as one of the few defenders of civil disobedience in the Black freedom struggle, but he was outnumbered by radicals on the panel.

Featured topics

Huey Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadership ...

's imprisonment * School decentralization * Two-part evaluation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (pt 1 and pt 2) * The Poor People's Campaign * CORE Convention (Summer 1968, Columbus, OH) * The civil war in Biafra * The liberation struggles in Mozambique and South Africa * The growth of a Louisiana cooperative * Police-community relations * The assassination of Fred Hampton by police * The assassination of Bobby Hutton by police * Nationalist-Marxist debates * The incarceration of Bobby Seale * The exile of

Eldridge Cleaver Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. In 1968, Cleaver wrote '' Soul on Ice'', a collection of essays that, at the time of i ...

* The election of President Richard Nixon * Housing integration * School busing * Labor struggles from Mississippi to New York *Interview with Minister and Nation of Islam leader

Louis Farrakhan Louis Farrakhan (; born Louis Eugene Walcott, May 11, 1933) is an American religious leader, black supremacist, anti-white and antisemitic conspiracy theorist, and former singer who heads the Nation of Islam (NOI). Prior to joining the NOI ...

Origins

Production

Featured Guests

Featured topics

References

Further reading