WATERTOWN, NY (January 8, 2024) – Each year, the United States sets aside the third Monday in January to remember the life and work of legendary civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This year, Martin Luther King Jr. Day falls on Monday, January 15, 2024 and WPBS-TV is marking the occasion with special programming honoring Dr. King and other barrier-breaking African-Americans on Sunday, January 14 and Monday, January 15 – including:
SUNDAY, JANUARY 14, 2024
88th Annual Anisfield-Book Awards (12:00 noon)
Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., this program features the personal stories of the 2023 recipients of the only national juried prize for literature that confronts racism and explores diversity. Viewers are transported to Iowa, Massachusetts, Ohio and New Hampshire to hear the inspiring and revealing stories of this year’s honorees, which include Geraldine Brooks, Lan Samantha Chang, Matthew F. Delmont, Saeed Jones, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault.
Stone of Hope: Moving the Dream Forward (1:00 pm)
A document of the first decade of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington D.C. Now the fifth most visited Memorial averaging 3-5 million visitors a year, the King Memorial uniquely serves the country as the only Memorial on the National Mall honoring an activist, a preacher, and a man of peace.
NYS Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2024 (2:00 pm)
In this tribute to the life and legacy of Dr. King, New York State will celebrate the people and organizations in our great state who embody the principles of America’s greatest leader for social justice, freedom, and equality for all.
Josephine Baker: Story of an Awakening (3:00 pm)
The amazing story of the first black superstar, Josephine Baker. Baker, born into poverty in Missouri in 1906, moved to France where she became a dancer hailed as the Queen of Paris, joined the French Resistance, created her dream family “The Rainbow Tribe,” adopting twelve children from four corners of the world, and ultimately became a Civil Rights activist.
MONDAY, JANUARY 15, 2024
Searching for Timbucktoo (3:00 pm)
The little-known story of a Black settlement, established in the wilds of upstate New York, that brought together a group of ardent abolitionists willing to risk their fortunes, their families, and their futures to destroy slavery.
Marian Anderson: Once in a Hundred Years (4:00 pm)
Marian Anderson is considered one of the most important opera performers of the 20th century. The celebrated contralto was born in South Philadelphia on Feb. 27, 1897, and played a vital role in the acceptance of African Americans in classical music and other segregated performing arts genres. This program traces the arc of Anderson’s life and her struggles against racism and poverty.
Lines Broken: The Story of Marion Motley (10:30 pm)
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.
About WPBS
WPBS is a PBS station serving approximately 650,000 households throughout Northern New York and Eastern Ontario via cable, satellite, Internet and over-the-air distribution. WPBS is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate, inform, and engage its two-nation region with exceptional and trusted content across multiple platforms. Its vision is to be the premier provider of extraordinary public media that instills wonder and curiosity across generations and borders. More information about WPBS, including a full channel listing, is available at wpbstv.org, or by following WPBS on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
