On WKAR WORLD 23.2
WORLD celebrates Black History Month this February with new films, encores of inspiring Black stories, a month-long presentation of EYES ON THE PRIZE, and more
Primetime Highlights
Schedule as of 2/3/25. Schedule and descriptions subject to change.
1 | Sat
8:00
Great Migrations: A People on the Move: Exodus
Episode one of Great Migrations explores the first wave of the Great Migration (1910-1940), when more than a million Black Americans fled the Jim Crow South for the promised lands of the North, forever changing the country and themselves.
9:00
Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom
Go beyond the legend and meet the woman who repeatedly risked her own life and freedom to liberate others from slavery. One of the greatest freedom fighters in U.S. history, Tubman was an Underground Railroad conductor, a Civil War scout, and a spy.
10:00
America ReFramed: Bring It Home
Bring It Home tells the story of five Ohioan families at a crossroads after the sudden closing of the GM Lordstown auto plant. The decision by GM forces thousands of families in the Mahoning Valley to decide between taking a transfer to an out-of-state plant, or staying put. If they stay, they risk losing their employment, health and retirement benefits. As they wrestle these tough choices, they are left wondering why a company recording billions in profits is shuttering factories.
2 | Sun
9:00
Finding Your Roots: Dreamers One and All
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the ancestry of actor Sharon Stone & model Chrissy Teigen, traveling across Europe & Thailand to reveal they aren't the first in their families who dared to dream big.
3 | Mon
9:00
Local, USA: HBCU Week: Changemakers
HBCU Week: Changemakers illustrates the power and success of peaceful protests led by students. Witness how Morehouse College's youth leaders exemplify social grace during demonstrations against social injustices in the U.S., and at Morgan State University, the untold story of how this HBCU became one of America's fastest growing universities following the largest student-led protest in Maryland.
6 | Thu
8:00
Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings 1954-1956
Individual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
9:00
Eyes on the Prize: Fighting Back 1957-1962
States' rights loyalists and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock's Central High School and in James Meredith's 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi.
7 | Fri
8:00
Lines Broken: The Story of Marion Motley
In 1946, Marion Motley was one of four African American men to break pro football's color barrier when he joined the Cleveland Browns. Those men's efforts to play a physically brutal game in the face of societal racism and state-sanctioned Jim Crow laws trailblazed a path for Black athletes in the highest echelons of professional sports, including baseball's Jackie Robinson. LINES BROKEN: THE STORY OF MARION MOTLEY tells a story of adversity, personal tragedy and triumphs using rarely heard archival interviews and new interviews with historians, sports writers, NFL alumni, friends and descendants.
8:30
Olympic Pride, American Prejudice
OLYMPIC PRIDE, AMERICAN PREJUDICE explores the collective experiences of 18 African-American Olympians who defied Jim Crow and Adolf Hitler to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Set against the strained and turbulent atmosphere of a racially divided America, which was torn between boycotting Hitler's Olympics or participating in the Third Reich's grandest affair, the film follows 16 men and two women before, during, and after their heroic turn of events at the Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. They represented a country that considered them second-class citizens and competed in a country that rolled out the red carpet for them despite an undercurrent of Aryan superiority and anti-Semitism.
8 | Sat
8:00
Great Migrations: A People on the Move: Streets Paved with Gold
Learn about the second wave of the Great Migration when Northern and Western Black communities matured through migration and transformed the cultural and political power of Black America.
9:00
Becoming Frederick Douglass
Discover how a man born into slavery became one of the most influential voices for democracy in American history. Oscar nominated filmmaker Stanley Nelson explores the role Douglass played in securing the right to freedom for African Americans.
10:00
Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings 1954-1956
unsIndividual acts of courage inspire black Southerners to fight for their rights: Mose Wright testifies against the white men who murdered young Emmett Till and Rosa Parks refuses to give up her bus seat to a white man in Montgomery, Alabama.
9 | Sun
10:00
Thomas Jefferson: Life/Liberty: Our Sacred Honor
Thomas Jefferson is by most accounts the most admired and greatest figure in American history. However, he was a man whose behavior in many ways contradicted his public declarations. He supported resistance and revolution in America and France, yet was not a charismatic politician or front-line soldier. His eloquence was immortalized in the Declaration of Independence, which declared that "All men are created equal." He disapproved of the slave trade, yet owned over 200 human beings and had no intention of granting them their freedom. A Renaissance man in his own right, Jefferson was an architect, writer, surveyor, statesman and scientist. In part 1 of Ken Burns' biographical portrait of Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson's beginnings in Virginia are detailed from his education at William & Mary, the building of Monticello, to his marriage and children. Jefferson is called to Philadelphia as a statesman, and to Paris after the American revolution as an official diplomat. While Jefferson was laying the foundations of a new government and country, his work was tragically interrupted by a series of personal losses at his Monticello home.
10 | Mon
8:00
American Justice On Trial: People V. Newton
In one of the "trials of the century" that still reverberates today, Black Panther leader Huey P. Newton faced the death penalty for killing a white policeman in a late-night car stop in 1967 Oakland. While Newton and his maverick attorneys boldly indicted racism in the courts and the country, and a groundbreaking jury led by a historic Black foreman deliberated Newton's fate, the streets of Oakland and the nation were set to explode if the jury, as expected, returned a verdict of murder. Note, this film will be packaged with the short "The Truth about Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap" from PBS Digital Studios.
9:00
Local, USA: HBCU Week: Innovation
HBCU Week: Innovation explores how HBCU programs are changing and saving lives. Howard University is making history with the only Division One swim program at an HBCU while also teaching the Black community to swim. Claflin University's SmartHOME technology connects a person's physical state to actions to help mitigate health risks, hoping to combat healthcare disparities in minority communities.
13 | Thu
8:00
Eyes on the Prize: Ain't Scared of Your Jails 1960-1961
Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement as lunch counter sit-ins spread across the South. "Freedom Riders" also try to desegregate interstate buses, but they are brutally attacked as they travel.
9:00
Eyes on the Prize: No Easy Walk 1961-1963
The civil rights movement discovers the power of mass demonstrations as Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. emerges as its most visible leader. The triumphant March on Washington shows a mounting national support for civil rights.
14 | Fri
8:00
American Experience: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming A Space
A new biography of the influential author whose groundbreaking anthropological work would challenge assumptions about race, gender and cultural superiority that had long defined the field in the 19th century.
15 | Sat
8:00
Great Migrations: A People on the Move: One Way Ticket Back
Explore how the reverse migration of Black Americans to the South-driven by mass movements, economic change, and an ongoing struggle for freedom-continued to reshape the country.
9:00
100 Years from Mississippi
100 YEARS FROM MISSISSIPPI profiles the life of Mamie Lang Kirkland, who left Mississippi at seven years old to escape racial violence and would not return to the state until a century later.
10:00
Eyes on the Prize: Ain't Scared of Your Jails 1960-1961
Black college students take a leadership role in the civil rights movement as lunch counter sit-ins spread across the South. "Freedom Riders" also try to desegregate interstate buses, but they are brutally attacked as they travel.
16 | Sun
10:00
Thomas Jefferson: Liberty: The Age of Experiments/The Pursuit of Happiness
Jefferson was responsible for the Louisiana Purchase and commissioning Lewis and Clark's expedition. Explore his battles with the Federalists, his controversial relationship with slave Sally Hemings and the personal tragedies in his later years.
17 | Mon
8:00
Local, USA: Silence In Sikeston
The story of how the 1942 lynching of Cleo Wright - and the failure of the first federal attempt to prosecute a lynching - continues to haunt a small Missouri city. In 2020, the past reverberates in the present in the police killing of a young Black father. SILENCE IN SIKESTON explores the necessary questions about history, trauma, silence and resilience in a community divided over 78 years.
9:00
Lincoln School Story
THE LINCOLN SCHOOL STORY is a half-hour documentary that examines the little-known fight for school desegregation led by a handful of Ohio mothers and their children in 1954. In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, school districts nationwide were mandated to integrate. But when African American mothers in Hillsboro, Ohio, tried to enroll their children in the local, historically white schools, the school board refused to comply. Five mothers and their children took the school board to court. With Constance Baker Motley as the lead lawyer, along with help from a fledgling NAACP chapter, they started one of the nation's first civil rights marches to end school segregation. While the lawsuit wound through the courts, the mothers and children marched every day despite threats, cross burnings and job losses. They marched in sun, rain and snow for nearly two years until the mothers won their court case. Their children became the first Black students to attend a high-quality local elementary school. Their judicial victory in the Midwest inspired Black parents in communities across the country.
9:30
Stories from the Stage: Your Hired!: Growing Up Black Part 2
In America, growing up Black means so many things: cultural bonds, a struggle for visibility, and all too often, unearned judgement. Tonight, storytellers share their experiences of growing up black in the US. Valerie Tutson teaches her students about Africa greatest explorer Abubakari II; U-Meleni Mhlaba-Adebo takes her son to a protest of George Floyd's death; and Harold Cox shows how fear of the police affects his everyday life. Hosted by Theresa Okokon.
18 | Tue
9:00
Journeys of Black Mathematicians: Forging Resilience
The episode relates stories of prominent African American mathematicians who struggled through adversity to achieve their goals. Contemporary mid-career Black mathematicians and their students describe the role of historically Black colleges in their success. We are also introduced to a range of innovative programs that help students at every level to imagine a future in math and STEM.
20 | Thu
8:00
Eyes on the Prize: Mississippi: Is This America? 1963-1964
Mississippi's civil rights movement becomes an American concern when students travel south to help register black voters and three of them are murdered. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the regular delegation at the convention.
9:00
Eyes on the Prize: Bridge to Freedom 1965
A decade of lessons is applied in the climactic and bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. A major victory is won when the federal Voting Rights Bill passes, but civil rights leaders know they have new challenges ahead.
21 | Fri
8:00
American Experience: The Riot Report
Revisit 1967 when inner cities across America erupted in violence. LBJ appointed the Kerner Commission to investigate and the Commission's final report would offer a shockingly unvarnished assessment of race relations that still resonates today.
22 | Sat
8:00
Great Migrations: A People on the Move: Coming to America
Hear the story of African and Caribbean immigrants in the United States and examine their profound impact on American culture and what it means to be Black in America.
9:00
John Lewis - Get in the Way
Follow the journey of civil rights hero, congressman and human rights champion John Lewis. At the Selma March, Lewis came face-to-face with club-wielding troopers and exemplified non-violence. Now 76, he is considered the conscience of Congress.
10:00
Eyes on the Prize: Mississippi: Is This America? 1963-1964
Mississippi's civil rights movement becomes an American concern when students travel south to help register black voters and three of them are murdered. The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party challenges the regular delegation at the convention.
23 | Sun
10:00
American Masters: The Disappearance of Miss Scott
Learn about jazz virtuoso and screen superstar Hazel Scott, the first Black American to have their own television show. An early civil rights pioneer, Scott faced down the Red Scare at the risk of losing her career and was a champion for equality.
24 | Mon
9:00
Will to Preach
The half-hour documentary A WILL TO PREACH offers viewers an unprecedented look at a pastor moving from scripture to sermon. In the program, Reverend Doctor William H. Willimon accepts an invitation from a young clergyman to guest preach at a small Episcopal church in Salisbury, North Carolina. The congregation is planning a weekend discussing racism and Rev. Willimon will deliver the sermon that culminates the weekend. Compounding the challenge of speaking about a sensitive subject, the Episcopal Church's assigned scripture for that Sunday does not appear to offer anything on racism. How will Willimon take the allotted biblical text and connect it to the topic, at a church of a different denomination, in a town he does not know? Through interviews with family and colleagues, plus intimate camera access to Willimon and his process, A WILL TO PREACH offers a fascinating study of story, homiletics, humor, faith, and ultimately, the art of preaching.
25 | Tue
9:00
Journeys of Black Mathematicians: Creating Pathways
A legacy of segregation and prejudice lies behind stories of African American mathematicians who attended majority White institutions. The film features several programs aimed at increasing the number of Blacks in the STEM fields. Established Black scholars pursue beauty and meaning in math, becoming role models for younger Black mathematicians who strive to shape new kinds of mathematics.
26 | Wed
8:30
Independent Lens: Bike Vessel
After multiple heart surgeries, a 70-year-old man transforms his life to become an avid cyclist. When he and his son embark on a long-distance ride from St. Louis to Chicago, they push each other in their quests to reimagine Black health.
27 | Thu
8:00
Eyes on the Prize: The Time Has Come 1964-1966
After a decade-long cry for justice, a new sound is heard in the civil rights movement: the insistent call for power. "BlackPower!" replaces "Freedom Now!" as the fabric of the traditional movement changes.
9:00
Eyes on the Prize: Two Societies 1965-1968
King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference help Chicago's civil rights leaders in the struggle against segregated housing. The Kerner Commission finds that America is becoming "two societies, one black, one white, separate and unequal."
28 | Fri
8:00
Harriet Tubman: Visions of Freedom
Go beyond the legend and meet the woman who repeatedly risked her own life and freedom to liberate others from slavery. One of the greatest freedom fighters in U.S. history, Tubman was an Underground Railroad conductor, a Civil War scout, and a spy.