Media Contacts:
Lauren Skowronski, NBC News Communications
212-664-2432
Lauren.Skowronski@nbcuni.com
Kathy Reincke, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
269-969-2079
KAR@wkkf.org
NBC News Historic Video Content from the Civil Rights Era Now Available for Classroom Learning
Town Hall Events in Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta, and Jackson Will Discuss The Modern Civil Rights Movement
NEW YORK – April 12, 2010 – NBC Learn and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation have partnered to draw awareness to the Civil Rights movement and jump start new dialogue among students and teachers by releasing more than 100 stories from the NBC News archives and making the content available to schools, colleges, and universities nationwide. “Finishing the Dream” chronicles the struggles and celebrates the triumphs of the Civil Rights movement over the span of 60 years. The collection is available at www.nbclearn.com/finishingthedream. This year-long commitment to Civil Rights will include the taping and broadcast of four unique Town Hall events in four cities of particular significance to the movement: Chicago, Atlanta, Jackson, and Detroit.
The collection includes the most significant moments of the movement including the Montgomery bus boycott, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the integration of Central High School in Little Rock, the Freedom Riders, and original documentaries featuring ordinary people, like Rosa Parks who risked their lives to fight for equality.
“I completely agree with the notion that as journalists, we write the first draft of history every single day,” said Steve Capus, President NBC News. “It is an honor and a privilege to share NBC News coverage of the Civil Rights movement with the next generation, and we are thrilled to work with the Kellogg Foundation on such an important initiative.”
An embeddable video widget will also available on www.nbclearn.com/finishingthedream and will be updated monthly with new video content. Over the course of the year, four separate Town Halls will bring together those involved in the movement and community leaders as well as students and teachers to discuss the legacy of the of Civil Rights movement and the modern issues of Civil Rights. Each town hall will be taped, broadcast locally, and published online in the Finishing the Dream collection.
The first town hall will take place in Chicago on April 28 at the DuSable African American Museum to be broadcast on NBC5 in May. NBC5 news anchor Marion Brooks will moderate the discussion. Panelists for Chicago town hall include Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Civil Rights activist and founder of Rainbow Push; Dr. Carol Adams, CEO of DuSable Museum; Father Michael Pfleger, Pastor of St. Sabina Church; Conrad Worrill, writer, educator, and activist; Cliff Kelly, WVON talk show host; Hermene Hartman, N’Digo Publishing; Dorothy Tillman, former Chicago alderman; Dr. Chandra Gill, Professor at Northeastern Illinois University’s Center of Inner City Studies; and Reverend Dr. Leon Finney, Pastor of Metropolitan Apostolic Community Church.
WLBT-3 in Jackson, Mississippi will present their town hall in conjunction with the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute’s annual Civil Rights Workshop at Jackson State University. Event will take place in July and will air in the fall of 2010. WDIV-TV in Detroit and WXIA in Atlanta will also broadcast their town hall events this fall. Additional details about the Jackson, Detroit, and Atlanta events will be available in the coming weeks.
About NBC Learn
NBC Learn (www.archives.nbclearn.com) is the educational arm of NBC News dedicated to providing resources for students, teachers, and lifelong learners. The online resources NBC Learn has created for the education community leverage nearly 80 years of historic news coverage, documentary materials, and current news broadcasts. The two platforms, iCue (www.icue.com) and NBC News Archives on Demand, give students and teachers to access thousands of video clips from the NBC News archives, including great historic moments – from the Great Depression to the Space Race to the latest election coverage.
About W.K. Kellogg Foundation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation, established in 1930, supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, southern Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
