The History Channel 2003 Black History Month

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The History Channel honors the African-American experience throughout
February.

February 1:

MLK: March on Washington and End of the Dream

8 am ET/PT

Mike Wallace reviews this crucial time in the history of civil rights,
with classic CBS News footage from the March on Washington and from Martin Luther King's landmark speeches. This program chronicles the events that made the march necessary, and looks at the legacy of the march on the civil rights movement.

February 2:

African American Historical Sites

8 am ET/PT

James Horton of THC's History Center leads viewers on a tour of famous as well as little-known African-American landmarks. From the Underground Railroad to the Civil Rights Movement, these landmarks help bring to life the story of the African-American experience from the 18th century to the present.

WORLD PREMIERE!

HISTORY CENTER: AFRICAN AMERICANS IN WORLD WAR II

9 am ET/PT

Host Steve Gillon is joined by leading scholars, historians and
journalists as they look at the role of African Americans in World War II and racism, prejudice and segregation in the military.

February 4:

The 54th Massachusetts

7 am ET/PT

The story the first black fighting unit to be assembled in the North
after the Emancipation Proclamation and its heroic but fateful assault on Ft. Wagner, South Carolina.

February 8:

George Wallace and Black Power

8 am ET/PT

Alabama was the most violent battleground in the struggle for civil rights in the U.S. and leading the resistance was feisty governor George Wallace, who rode a populist platform to national prominence. Meanwhile, fed up with the slow progress of the civil rights movement, the Black Power movement was formed to use more extreme means for racial justice.

THC PREMIERE!

MOVIES IN TIME: A SOLDIER'S STORY

8 pm/12 am ET/PT

Howard E. Rollins stars as a military attorney sent to a 1944 Southern army base to investigate the murder of an unpopular black sergeant. Denzel Washington, Adolph Caesar and Patti LaBelle costar in this 1984 drama nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Caesar) and Best Adapted Screenplay. Based on Charles Fuller's award-winning play.

February 9:

WORLD PREMIERE!

HISTORY CENTER: JULIAN BOND ON CIVIL RIGHTS

9 am ET/PT

Host Steve Gillon is joined Julian Bond as they discuss the struggles and successes of the civil rights movement and where things stand today.

February 11:

WORLD PREMIERE!

ALCAN HIGHWAY

10 pm ET/PT

The two-lane, 1,500-mile long Alaska Highway is an unrivaled
engineering feat. It took 11,000 soldiers, nearly 4,000 of them black, only eight months to build this highway in 1942. Crossing the Canadian Rockies, plowing through thick virgin forests and skirting raging rivers and lakes, the soldiers dealt with long hours, horrible weather, isolation and wild animals to build a highway the equivalent in length to the distance from Washington D.C. to Denver, Colorado.

February 13:

Black Aviators: Flying Free

8 am/2 pm ET/PT

The stories of African-American men and women who defied the odds to fly high as 20th century aviation pioneers.

February 15:

Little Rock and Boston Busing

8 am ET/PT

In 1957 Little Rock, Arkansas, the governor takes on the federal
government to prevent nine black children from entering a formerly all-white school. A generation later in the mid-1970s, the battle over
school segregation moves north. Boston, the cradle of liberty, becomes
home of the most virulent anti-busing movement north of the Mason-Dixon
line.

February 22:

America's Black Warriors

8 am ET/PT

The story of African-Americans in the U.S. military during World War II and the integration of the army. Colin Powell and other prominent black military figures discuss how blacks had to go above and beyond the call of duty to earn the respect of fellow soldiers, how they fought against racism, and their effectiveness on the battlefield.

February 25:

John Brown's War

7 am ET/PT

A profile of the controversial crusader whose 1859 anti-slavery raid on the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia foreshadowed the violence of the Civil War.

February 28:

Mississippi State Secrets

8 am/2 pm ET/PT

In 1956, the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission was formed to spy on people thought to be associated with the Civil Rights movement. Funded by the state through 1972, it sometimes operated like George Orwell's "1984," and other times, the Keystone Cops. Recently-opened files offer
a startling look at some of the violent and bizarre activity that this organization conducted to try to foil the civil rights movement.

Port Chicago Mutiny

9 am/3 pm ET/PT

The story of the biggest home front disaster during World War II and why fifty black sailors were court-martialed in its aftermath when they refused to return to work that was considered too dangerous for white sailors.

BLACK HISTORY MONTH

CABLE IN THE CLASSROOM PROGRAMMING

All shows air at 6 am ET/PT:

February 3

Black Aviators: Flying Free

The stories of African-American men and women who defied the odds to fly high as 20th century aviation pioneers.

February 4

Ships of Slaves: The Middle Passage

The powerful story of the Transatlantic Slave Trade-the 400 years
during which millions of Africans were systematically kidnapped and shipped under inhumane conditions to the New World.

February 5

The Night Tulsa Burned

The Greenwood section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, one of the most affluent all-black communities in America, was the scene of a deadly 1921 race riot sparked by an inaccurate charge that a black man had assaulted a white woman. Despite numerous deaths and millions of dollars of damage, no one was charged with any wrongdoing, no reparations were ever made,
and accounts of the riot were literally cut out of newspaper archives.

February 6

America's Black Warriors

The history of African-Americans in the U.S. military and the
integration of the army. Colin Powell and other prominent black military figures discuss how blacks had to go above and beyond the call of duty to earn the respect of fellow soldiers, how they fought against racism, and their effectiveness on the battlefield.

February 7

Harlem Hell fighters

A look at the 369th Infantry, a Harlem-based New York National Guard unit, whose battles against discrimination were just as difficult as the fight against the Germans in 1918.

February 24-25

The Underground Railroad

Meet the men and women, black and white, who risked their lives to bring slaves to freedom, including Harriet Tubman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Still and John P. Parker. Learn how the railroad was run and where you can find traces of it today.

February 26

Frederick Douglass

A biography of the life and work of the most prominent African-American of the 19th century and his influence on the abolition of slavery and equal rights.

February 27

African American Historical Sites

James Horton of THC's History Center leads viewers on a tour of famous as well as little-known African-American landmarks. From the Underground Railroad to the Civil Rights Movement, these landmarks help bring to life the story of the African-American experience from the 18th century to the present.

February 28

Greatest Journeys on Earth: South Africa

This journey through South Africa takes you on a voyage to the soul of the different nations of this country-black, white, Indian and colored people.