New
PBS NewsHour Weekend Special on
Racial Justice, Policing and Violence,
America in Black and Blue 2020,
Premieres Tonight at 9 P.M. on PBS
Hosted
by Alison Stewart, features interviews with author Roxane Gay, Florida
Congresswoman Val Demings, Minnesota reform advocate Nekima
Levy Armstrong and more
(NEW YORK – June 15, 2020)
America in Black and Blue 2020, a new PBS NewsHour Weekend
special, offers context for and insight into the widespread protests
currently engulfing the nation after the latest display of police
brutality against Black citizens. Premiering
tonight, Monday, June 15 at 9 p.m. on PBS (check local listings), pbs.org/newshour
and the PBS Video app, America in Black and Blue 2020 reports from across the country to explore the struggle for racial justice, accountability, equity and police reform efforts.
“In 2016, we worked with PBS and our producing partners to create
America in Black and Blue, a special report about the
alarming number of Black lives ended by police officers. The deaths of
George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and countless others since
then necessitate a new look at this continued crisis
in America, rooted in our nation’s founding,” said Neal Shapiro,
President and CEO of The WNET Group. “We hope the first-hand accounts,
points of view and reporting in this new special serve as a vital
reminder that the lives and rights of Black people cannot
be ignored, and that we all play a part in bringing an end to
injustice, racism, discrimination and violence.”
Hosted by Emmy- and Peabody Award-winning journalist Alison Stewart,
America in Black and Blue 2020 features new interviews
with author and cultural critic Roxane Gay; long-time Minnesota police
reform advocate and lawyer Nekima Levy Armstrong, a former candidate for
mayor and former head of the Minneapolis NAACP;
and Rep. Val Demings (D-Florida), former Chief of the Orlando Police
Department.
PBS NewsHour Weekend Anchor Hari Sreenivasan explores
whether tech-based law enforcement methods, including facial recognition
and so-called “predictive policing,” run the same risks of racism that
ordinary methods do, while correspondent Christopher
Booker reports on barriers to police reform. NJTV News correspondent
Michael Hill provides an update from the 2016 special on Newark, New
Jersey’s ongoing policing problems and trouble implementing the city’s
first civilian complaint review board.
A recent
Amanpour and Company interview with lawyer and criminal justice
reform activist Bryan Stevenson by contributor Walter Isaacson explores
the reaction to Floyd’s death compared to similar moments in the past.
The special also includes an interview with
Kevin Young, poet and Director of the Schomburg Center for Research in
Black Culture, as well as an excerpt from the upcoming PBS
Independent Lens documentary Women in Blue that features the work of an African American Minneapolis police sergeant.
America in Black and Blue 2020
is a production of Creative News Group, LLC in association with WNET
and NewsHour Productions, LLC and WETA. Ann Benjamin is director.
Theresa Lewis is broadcast producer. Leigh Anne Sides is show editorial
producer. Tom Casciato is show producer. Dana Roberson
is executive producer. Stephen Segaller and Neal Shapiro are
executives-in-charge.
Funding for
America in Black and Blue 2020 is provided by PBS, the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Bernard and Irene Schwartz, Mutual
of America, Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III, Cheryl and Philip Milstein
Family, Rosalind P. Walter, Barbara Hope Zuckerberg,
Charles Rosenblum, Consumer Cellular, Janet Prindle Seidler, Judy and
Josh Weston and public television viewers.
About WNET
WNET is America’s flagship PBS station: parent company of New York’s
THIRTEEN
and WLIW21,
WLIWWorld and WLIWCreate and operator of NJTV,
the statewide public media network in New Jersey. Through its new ALL
ARTS
multi-platform initiative, its broadcast channels, three cable services
(THIRTEEN PBSKids, Create and World) and
online streaming sites, WNET brings quality arts, education and public
affairs programming to more than five million viewers each month. WNET
produces and presents a wide range of acclaimed PBS series, including
Nature, Great Performances, American Masters,
PBS NewsHour Weekend, and the nightly interview program Amanpour and Company.
In addition, WNET produces numerous documentaries, children’s programs,
and local news and cultural offerings, as well as multi-platform
initiatives addressing
poverty and climate. Through THIRTEEN Passport and WLIW Passport,
station members can stream new and archival THIRTEEN, WLIW and PBS
programming anytime, anywhere.
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