Day Five - AM: Black Americans and the Media

From the schedule:

"Our perceptions of events to be covered in Eyes II are inexorably linked to how the events were covered by the media at the time. In this session, we examine the media's treatment of race and discuss from insider's perspectives what it was like to report the critical events of the day."

Tape 17, Side B (CAS.2134)
Video Tape #14 (VHS.0170)

Newsday columnist and editor Les Payne looks back at the treatment of black journalists and the depiction of blacks in the media in the early 1960's with special reference to coverage of the war in Vietnam.

Tape 18, Side A (CAS.2135)

Les Payne looks at the impact of the 1968 Kerner Commission Report but still believes that there are too few black reporters and editors twenty years later.  Q&A  follows.

Henry Hampton introduces Thomas Winship, former editor of the Boston Globe.

Tape 18, Side B (CAS.2135)

Agreeing with Les Payne, Thomas Winship ranks newspaper editors among "the most reactionary groups in America." Nevertheless, he points to signs of progress at companies like Gannett and The New York Times Company.

Winship talks about the Globe's coverage of the integration of Boston's public schools and figures like Mayor Kevin White and anti-busing advocate Louise Day Hicks. He recalls the influence of community leaders like Ruth Batson and Bryant Rollins.

Followed by Q&A.

Tape 19, Side A  (CAS.2136)
Video Tape #15 (VHS.0171)

Wallace Terry reflects on his experiences covering the civil rights movement and the war in Vietnam.  Although he was employed by the Washington Post, he took an unpaid leave to cover the movement and supported himself by preaching.

At Time Magazine, he established a national civil rights beat.  As a deputy bureau chief he covered the military's efforts to deal with race relations following the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Terry also analyzes what he characterizes as "disturbing trends" in media coverage of the black community.

Tape 19, Side B (CAS.2136)

Q&A  with Wallace Terry

Examining "Blacksploitation" films and television sit-coms of the late 1960's and 70's, Tufts University professor Clyde Taylor offers some interpretive lines in what he characterizes as "the war over black representation."

Day 5 - PM: The Black Cultural Revolution

From the schedule:

"One vital dimension of the civil rights movement lies in the cultural awakening it fostered among Afro-Americans. After the sixties, black people began to look at themselves in a new way; the larger society perceived blacks differently as well. Our focus on cultural change takes us through the concept of black pride, the growth of black institutions and a black theology, the birth of black studies programs, and a new way of seeing."

Tape 20, Side A  (CAS.2137)

Q&A with Clyde Taylor concludes.

Video Tape #16 (VHS.0198)

Theologian Jim Cone discusses the factors and events that shaped Black Theology.  Followed by Q&A.

Tape 20, Side B  (CAS.2137)

Boston Univeristy Afro-American Studies chairperson Adelaide Gulliver traces the roots of the study of African-American life from the work of Carter G. Woodson and W.E.B. DuBois to its place in the university today.

Q&A with Adelaide Gulliver

Tape 21, Side A (CAS.2138)

Q&A with Adelaide Gulliver concludes.

Poet and activist Sonia Sanchez recalls her childhood in Birmingham, AL, an encounter with Malcolm X in Harlem and her role in the Black Arts Movement. Sanchez talks about her work raising and promoting the consciousness of balck women.

Tape 21, Side B (CAS.2138)
Video Tape #17 (VHS.0172)

Q&A with Sonia Sanchez concludes with a plea to her audience to understand the sacrifices made and the lives lost even if producers risk offending some people.

Bernice Johnson Reagon explores the events, influences and evolution of her art from The Freedom Singers to the Harambee Singers to Sweet Honey in the Rock.

Songs include:
"Murder On the Road in Alabama"(Len Chandler)
"Move on Over" (Sung to the tune of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic")
"Burn Baby Burn" (Jimmy Collier)
"Everybody's Got a Right to Live" (Jimmy Collier and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick)
"The Black Magician"
"We Are an African People"
"Fires of Napalm" (Jimmy Collier and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick)
"Hands Off Nkrumah" (Jimmy Collier and Frederick Douglass Kirkpatrick)


Tape 22, Side A (CAS.2139)

Bernice Johnson Reagon concludes her talk  followed by Q&A.

Tape 22, Side B (CAS.2139)

Bernice Johnson Reagon Q&A  concludes.