Tag Archives: civil rights

Remembering the 42nd Anniversary of the Orangeburg Massacre

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Today marks the 42nd anniversary of the most unknown tragedy in the history of the civil rights movement. On 1968, police opened fire on the campus of South Carolina State University, leaving three young African American men dead and 27 wounded. Unlike a similar incident at Kent State, the incident did not make national headlines and there has never been an official investigation into what occurred that night. The film investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Haven’t heard of the tragedy? Well, be sure to tune into public television this month to watch the ITVS film Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, where filmmakers Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson investigate the continued cover-up of the tragedy and the ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Watch an extended clip of this program below:

Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 airs in February on public television (check local listings).

A co-production of ITVS in association with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).

ITVS Celebrates Black History Month

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Nine-year-old Pricilla from P-Star Rising, airing Feb. 9 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

Mine, premiering Feb. 16 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS.

ITVS and PBS offers viewers the opportunity to explore the rich and vibrant history and cultural contributions of African Americans throughout the year, but this month offers a special slate of new and encore programs in honor of Black History Month.

Independent Lens brings race to the forefront with four new films in February. Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, debuting Feb. 2, explores the often-overlooked legacy of Jewish anthropologist Melville Herskovits, whose ideas in the 40s and 50s challenged the accepted assumptions about race and culture. Then, tune in on Feb. 9 for P-Star Rising, which looks at nine-year-old Pricilla who wants to be the youngest female rap star ever and her single father who is determined to help her make it big. This film also closes out the special line-up of compelling films as part of Independent Lens’s Music Month.

A third film, Mine, premiering Feb. 16, tells the poignant and powerful story of animals left behind during Katrina, and of the struggles of hurricane victims to reunite with their beloved pets. Finally, Behind the Rainbow, airing Feb. 23, unearths once-hidden realities of South Africa’s political obstacles on the path to democracy.

Other ITVS films airing this month on PBS include: February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four, which looks at the pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement when four college students staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960, and Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy of 1968 on the campus of South Carolina State University and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.

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Thousands of hours of PBS programming are available on the PBS Video Portal, including a special collection for Black History Month.

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Watch these video clips of upcoming new Independent Lens programs (check local listings):


Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness, Feb. 2 at 10:00 PM on Independent Lens on PBS

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Reconstructing History: Filmmakers Discuss Objective Storytelling

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This is the companion piece to Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968, which airs in February on public television, and investigates the continued cover-up of the tragedy of 1968 on the campus of South Carolina State University and follows ongoing efforts to seek justice.

Filmmakers Bestor Cram and Judy Richardson discuss how they visually reconstructed a shocking historical event of which there is very little archival footage, without influencing the objective telling of the story.

Scarred Justice: The Orangeburg Massacre 1968 airs in February on public television (check local listings).

A co-production of ITVS in association with the National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC).

Open Call Recipients: Noland Walker and Sharon LaCruise, Filmmakers of IN THE SHADOW LITTLE ROCK

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ITVS’s Open Call provides finishing funds for single non-fiction or animation public television programs on any subject and from any viewpoint. Projects must have begun production as evidenced by a work-in-progress video.

Check out the clip below with filmmakers Noland Walker and Sharon LaCruise, who received Open Call funds for their film IN THE SHADOW LITTLE ROCK: The Life of Daisy Bates, which looks at the life of the African American political activist and newspaper publisher. Learn more about their film and why they thought it was the best fit for public television.

Interested in applying for Open Call? ITVS is looking for single public television programs on any subject, viewpoint or style. We fund programs that bring new audiences to public television and expand civic participation by bringing diverse voices into the public sphere. This year’s deadline is July 31, 2009.

Find more information about Open Call funding >>

American Experience and ITVS Explore Civil Rights in A CLASS APART

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Tonight at 9:00 PM (check local listings), American Experience, in a co-production with ITVS, will present A CLASS APART, a documentary that tells the little-known story of a group of Mexican-American lawyers and their struggle to get a fair murder trial for Pete Hernandez, a Texas field hand.

Houston Chronicle: “…films about Mexican-Americans and other Latinos who struggled and prevailed against segregation and discrimination are few and far between. That scarcity emphasizes the significance of documentaries such as A CLASS APART.”

Check out a preview below:

A CLASS APART premieres tonight at 9:00 PM on American Experience on PBS (check local listings)