PBS is planning a weeklong commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The special lineup of shows planned for broadcast in late August includes a new documentary, The March, co-executive produced by Robert Redford. It debuts Aug. 27, the eve of the anniversary.
The next day, the PBS Black Culture Connection website will host an online screening of the documentary and interactive chats with participants of the historic event. The site also will premiere The March @50, an online series to run over the following five weeks, exploring how far America has come in delivering on the original demands of the activists. Local PBS stations will contribute to Memories of the March, a video series of vignettes, also running on the website.
Additional programs scheduled for broadcast include the American Masters biography “James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket,” profiling the famous author; In Performance at the White House with “A Celebration of Music From the Civil Rights Movement”; and the Independent Lens presentation of “The Powerbroker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights,” a profile of the activist who turned the Urban League into a tool to fight unemployment among minorities.