To help celebrate Black History Month, the local PBS station KVIE is rebroadcasting a two-part Viewfinder episode on the African American experience in Sacramento and Northern California.
Part 1: African Americans in California's Heartland (Feb. 9, 7:30 p.m.). Highlighting education, church and civil rights, this segment looks at the history of black people in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada from the gold rush to 1960. It chronicles the struggles and accomplishments during the state's first 100 years.
Part 2: African Americans in California's Heartland: The Civil Rights Era (Feb. 19, 11:30 p.m.). Continuing the story into the tumultuous 1960s, this segments describes how Sacramento changed with the movement for equality in housing, education and employment.
The web sites associated with the two films are worth a look. There you'll find transcripts, photos, video and audio, lesson plans and links to related resources.
Hat Tip: The Sacramento Press.
PHOTO CREDIT: In the early 1900s, cement layer Wallace Smith, his wife and daughter owned this home on Riverside Blvd. near the city cemetery. This outlying area of the city was considered acceptable for blacks. Photo courtesy of Earlene Gray Woods.











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