Over The Years

May Angelou and Cicely Tyson

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Roots: 30 Years Later.
For eight nights in the deep winter of 1977, America was riveted to its television sets, enthralled by the saga of an African-American family playing out in the mini-series 'Roots.' Those nights of television changed the way Americans thought about slavery and the way African-Americans thought about themselves. 'Roots' broke all the ratings records at the time, with more than 110 million people tuning in. More impressively, it had the impact of changing the television for black people forever; more shows with black heroes and black casts and it introduced a new format to television: the limited-run, nightly mini-series.
Scences From Roots
The TV That Followed

    Speech of the Week

    Malcolm X

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    Malcolm X: The Ballot or The Bullet

    In April, 1964, Malcolm X gave a speech in Cleveland, OH., entitled 'The Ballot or The Bullet,' in which he laid out the struggle ahead for Black people in America. Conspicuously eschewing the all-encompassing non-violence that was the hallmark of Martin Luther King Jr.'s crusade, Malcolm X's essential message that that America had a choice about how to end discrimination against black people -- voting or violence. He stressed the importance of electoral participation and urged African Americans to pursue that avenue, but warned that if blacks were shut out of the electoral process violence would be the natural result. It quickly became, and remains, one of the seminal speeches of our time.
    The Ballot or The Bullet

      Poetry Cafe

      Poetry Cafe Presented by Target

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      African-American Poetry has been a elemental part of the cultural tableau in America since blacks first arrived in North America. With a heavy emphasis on performance and sound -- and song -- black poets have been chronicling and condensing the black American experience for more than 230 years, even before Phillis Wheatley became the first African American to publish a book of poems -- Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral -- in 1773. Over the centuries, the poems have been about slavery, love, God, racism and a lot more. As part of Black History Month, we celebrate some of that poetry and some of those poets.
      Hear For Yourself

      • Poets in the Cafe
      • Saul Williams
      • Gina Loring
      • Malik Yusef
      • Sydnee Stewart
      • muMs
      • Staceyann Chin
      • Langston Hughes
      • Maya Angelou
      • Yusef Komunyakaa
      • Gwendolyn Brooks
      • Kevin Young