WKMS celebrates Black History Month with special programming in February. This year, we’re featuring three episodes of the series With Good Reason, produced by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
We’ll hear about one man's quest to free Africa's historical recordings from the colonial archives; discover untold tales of all-black sports leagues; listen to the story of one person who was injured in the Charlottesville attack last August and more.
A schedule and detailed descriptions of the upcoming programs is below.
Thursday, February 8 at Noon
Listen Up - Music & Politics
Since long before Louis Armstrong was sent to Egypt as a representative of the State Department, the United States has been using music as a key part of diplomacy. For Arthur Romano, a consultant on State Department musical missions overseas, music is an important form of conflict resolution. And: Noel Lobley wanted to give colonial musical archives back to the people — so he strapped DJ booths to donkey carts and took to the streets.
Later in the show: The personal and professional lives of musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, and John Coltrane cannot be divorced from the struggle for racial equality. Antonio Garcia says they contributed in significant ways to interracial understanding and social progress. Plus: The composers of the Civil Rights anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing” also created musical theater at the turn of the century. Paula Marie Seniors looks at the lives of the composers Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johnson, and James Weldon Johnson, whose work helped break down stereotypical portrayals of black Americans.
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Thursday, February 15 at Noon
Driving While Black
Most of us have heard of Negro League Baseball, but there were many other all-black sports leagues and teams across America in the 20th century. David Wiggins shares how African-American athletes built their own place for sports in a segregated world. Plus: Poet Kiki Petrosino in her poem, If My Body Is a Text, reflects on a year of tragic outcomes during traffic stops between police and African American drivers.
Later in the show: An animated, online map shows for the first time just how the Ku Klux Klan spread rapidly to all 50 states between 1915 and 1940. John Kneebone says the KKK was far more mainstream than most people realize, with membership of between 2 million and 8 million people. Plus: Revolution has been one of the most important drivers of human activity since its emergence in modern form in the 18th century. In his new book, Jack Censer traces the “evolution of revolutionary ideas”--from the American and French revolutionaries to leaders of the Arab Spring.
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Thursday, February 22 at Noon
“An Outrage”: Reflections on Racism Past & Present
“An Outrage” is a documentary film about lynching in the American South, directed by Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren.Beginning with the end of the Civil War, and well into the middle of the twentieth century, the extralegal and socially sanctioned practice of lynching claimed the lives of at least 3,959 African American men, women and children. Also: Renowned author Ernest Gaines is a descendant of slaves who was raised in on a former Louisiana plantation. Keith Clark says Gaines many novels, including A Lesson Before Dying and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, launched America’s interest in exploring African American history. Plus:We share a series of reflections by Charlottesville residents recorded at the Dialogues on Race and Inequity at the University of Virginia.
Later in the show: For many Americans, August 12th marks a shift in the national conversation about white supremacy and racism. For the people who were injured in the Charlottesville attack that killed Heather Heyer, the 12th marks day one of a long process of recovery. We share the story of one person who was injured that day. And: The Columbia Journalism Review recently convened a panel of journalists for “Race, Racism, and the News” in Charlottesville. We feature an excerpt from the discussion that includes local freelance reporter Jordy Yader, the New York Times' Jenna Wortham, and Slate chief political correspondent Jamelle Bouie.
