Join KIOS in February for a celebration of America's Black History. All this month, on each Friday from 1pm to 3pm, KIOS brings you the stories and struggles of Black women and men who helped shape and breathe life into American culture and civil rights.
On Friday, February 5th at 1pm, we begin with Say It Loud: Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity. The hour-long program traces the last 50 years of black history through stirring, historically important speeches by African Americans from across the political spectrum. With recordings unearthed from libraries and sound archives, and made widely available here for the first time, Say It Loud includes landmark speeches by Malcolm X, Lorraine Hansberry, Angela Davis, Martin Luther King Jr., Henry Louis Gates, and many others.
Immediately following Say It Loud on the 5th at 2pm comes Jump for Joy: Duke Ellington's Celebratory Musical. This hour-long documentary tells how, as the United States warily regarded a world war that seemed to be edging ever closer to home in the summer of 1941, Duke Ellington staged what he would later call "the first 'social significance' show," Jump for Joy. The production was an all-Black musical revue that Ellington said "would take Uncle Tom out of the theater and say things that would make the audience think." The show featured Ellington and his orchestra at the peak of their powers with up-and-coming African American performers like actress Dorothy Dandridge, blues singer Big Joe Turner, and comedian Wonderful Smith.
On February 12th, the 19th, and the 26th, from 1pm to 3pm, KIOS presents the 25th anniversary edition of the landmark series Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was, hosted by the legendary singer, songwriter, and actor Lou Rawls with new narration from original producer Jacquie Gales Webb. The series details the story of radio’s role in the 20th century transformation of the African American community. Through interviews, historical airchecks, comedy, drama, and music, the series reveals the remarkable correlation between milestones of Black radio programming and African American culture. Among other topics the series explores the role of radio during the great migration of Blacks from the South, trail-blazing Black DJs and stations, and Black radio during the Civil Rights movement.
