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Black Heritage and Culture

Explore the WXXI Black Heritage and Culture site: Your resource and guide to the films, stories, and voices centered around Black history and culture, current events, and issues. And be sure to visit WXXINews.org for coverage of community events and issues that are important to Rochester and beyond. Explore. Watch. Connect! 

Featured Programming

WXXI Celebrates African-American Contributions
Monday, February 1, 2021 - 6:00am
Learn more about the amazing contributions these 40 individuals have made.
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Tina Turner: One Last Time
Saturday, February 27, 2021 - 10:00pm
on WXXI-TV
Blasting out hit after hit and taking the audience through her amazing four-decade career, Turner once again proved herself to be “simply the best.”
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"Kanaval: Haitian Rhythms & the Music of New Orleans" on WRUR
Sunday, February 28, 2021 - 10:00am
Don't miss the final episode of this three-part series that explores the impact of NOLA's Haitian culture. 
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Tina Turner: One Last Time
Tuesday, March 2, 2021 - 8:00pm
on WXXI-TV
Blasting out hit after hit and taking the audience through her amazing four-decade career, Turner once again proved herself to be “simply the best.”
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"Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was" on WRUR-FM
Sunday, March 7, 2021 - 10:00am
This six-part series tells the story of radio’s role in the 20th-century transformation of the African-American community. 
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American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free
Tuesday, March 9, 2021 - 8:00pm
American Masters looks at the lives of trailblazing Black female entertainers Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Diahann Carroll, Nina Simone, Cicely Tyson, and Pam Grier.
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Finding Your Roots: The Vanguard
Tuesday, March 16, 2021 - 8:00pm
on WXXI-TV
Finding Your Roots: The Vanguard of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr airing on WXXI-TV March 16, 2021.
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Finding Your Roots: Freedom Tales
Tuesday, March 30, 2021 - 9:00pm
on WXXI-TV
Finding Your Roots: Freedom Tales : of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr airing on WXXI-TV March 30, 2021.
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Black Heritage and Culture

Teaching Women's Suffrage with PBS LearningMedia
Teaching Women's Suffrage is a PBS LearningMedia collection of video clips, lesson plans, and primary sources details key figures, events, and regional movements of the decades-long fight to win the right to vote for women in the United States. Students will encounter activists including Sojourner Truth, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Grace Abbott, and examine key regional efforts within the movement. Primary source documents offer evidence for a study of the chronology of campaign for women’s suffrage, from the movement's beginnings through the ratification of the 19th Amendment. Go to the Collection > 
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America ReFramed: The Area On-Demand
When kicked out of her own home, Deborah Payne asks the company in charge of her displacement for one thing: Respect. Watch On-Demand: To see her neighborhood's grassroots resistance to get the compensation and respect they deserved. 
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On-Demand The Black Church Virtual Screening and Q&A
ICYMI: Watch On-Demand: Series Host and Executive Producer Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and PBS Chief Programming Executive Sylvia Bugg discuss the upcoming PBS special The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.
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Finding Your Roots: Write My Name in the Book of Life On-Demand
Finding Your Roots: Write My Name in the Book of Life: Episode 5 of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr features the challenges and opportunities of Black ancestry searches. Watch On-Demand
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On-Demand: Part 1 The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song
Watch On-Demand: Part 1 of the two-part series reveals the broad history and culture of the Black church and explores African American faith communities on the frontlines of hope and change.
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On-Demand Part 2: The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song
On-Demand Part 2 of The Black Church: Discover how the Black church expanded its reach to address social inequality and minister to those in need, from the Jim Crow South to the heroic phase of the civil rights movement and the Black church’s role in the present.
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On-Demand GREAT PERFORMANCES: Twilight: Los Angeles:
Observe several real-life individuals — portrayed by Anna Deavere Smith — involved in the Rodney King affair. 
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Finding Your Roots on Connections On-Demand Podcast
Listen On-Demand to the Podcast: Connections with Evan Dawson to discussing the new season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and the challenges for African Americans in tracing their ancestry and the value they find in doing it. From 2/16/21.
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Code Switch Podcast from NPR
Remember when folks used to talk about being "post-racial"? Well, we're definitely not that. The Code Switch Podcast Team are a multi-racial, multi-generational team of NPR journalists fascinated by the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out in our lives and communities, and how all of this is shifting. Listen to Episodes On-Demand and Subscribe to the podcast.
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Race in America: WORLD Video On-Demand Collection
A collection of films by and about individuals in the Black community across the country and around the globe. Watch on-air, stream online and share the voices, the stories on WORLD and from our partners in public media. Watch On-Demand.
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Watch On-Demand Metcalfe Park: Black Vote Rising
Follow a mother and daughter team as they prepare their Milwaukee community for the 2020 presidential election. 
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PBS Digital Studios Playlist: Race, civil rights, and the American justice system on-demand playlist
A playlist of content from PBS Digital Studios and friends that addresses race, civil rights history, and the American justice system.
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The Talk – Race in America On-Demand
Learn how families of color counsel their kids to stay safe if they’re stopped by police.
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PBS Playlist Race & Racism in America On-Demand
PBS continues to provide programming on-air and on-demand regarding race, racism as resources for everyone to educate themselves and continue the conversation on all the ways that inequality in America shows up in everyday life.
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PBS LearningMedia East Lake Meadow: A Public Housing Story Collection
PBS LearningMedia has a wide range of learning resources for students in grades 7-12th grade, focused on public housing and civil rights. East Lake Meadows, the public housing project opened by the Atlanta Housing Authority in 1970 and demolished a generation later, and provides resources to understand housing policy and racism.  
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Resources on Race, Racism, Civil Rights, Current Events, and more
WXXI Education staff collected resources from PBS LearningMedia to support educators and families while discussing the following topics: race, racism, protesting, civil rights, Black history and historical individuals, bias, past and current events, and more. 
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Resources for Young Children on Race, Racism, and more
WXXI Education staff collected the following resources to support families and educators of young children as they talk, watch, read, and learn about race and racism.
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On-Demand: PBS KIDS Talk About: Race and Racism
Watch On-Demand: PBS KIDS Talk About: Race and Racism is a special co-viewing program for families with young children to watch and discuss together. 
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The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special - On Demand
Watch the Sesame Street special The Power of We anywhere, anytime on-demand thanks to the PBS KIDS Video Player.
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Recently Aired

The Black Church Virtual Screening and Q&A
Thursday, February 11, 2021 - 7:00pm
Series Host and Executive Producer Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and PBS Chief Programming Executive Sylvia Bugg discuss the upcoming PBS special The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song.
Read more
Independent Lens: Mr. SOUL!
Friday, February 26, 2021 - 9:00pm
on WXXI-TV
Travel back in time to 1968 with Mr. SOUL! a vibrant documentary that chronicles the public television variety show “SOUL!”
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AKOMA: 25 Years of Gospel Sisterhood
Friday, February 26, 2021 - 8:30pm
on WXXI-TV
Learn more about Rochester's African American Women's Gospel Choir and its history.
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Kindred Spirits: Artists Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell
Thursday, February 25, 2021 - 8:30pm
on WXXI-TV
This film explores the unique relationship between an African American aunt and niece, who became accomplished artists and educators.
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The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song, Part 2 Re-air
Tuesday, February 23, 2021 - 9:00pm
on WXXI-TV
WXXI presents an encore of this two-part series that reveals the broad history and culture of the Black church and explores African American faith communities on the frontlines of hope and change.
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Black Heritage and Culture

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