The Well-Known and Little-Known Voices of The African-American Experience

The Well-Known and Little-Known Voices of The African-American Experience Black History Month Specials Featured throughout February on The History Channel(R) NEW YORK, Jan. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- The History Channel honors the African- American experience throughout February -- Black History Month -- with a series of world premiere specials that focus on compelling topics and personalities that have shaped the hopes and dreams of a people. SPECIAL PRESENTATION: BLACK PREACHERS examines the role of the church in African-American life and looks at five preachers who have made a difference. SAVE OUR HISTORY: VOICES OF CIVIL RIGHTS chronicles the extraordinary stories of everyday people who lived, suffered and triumphed during this turbulent time. MODERN MARVELS: GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER TECH looks at the inventions of the famous scientist. World Premiere Black History Month programming includes (all times ET/PT): SPECIAL PRESENTATION: BLACK PREACHERS Premieres on Saturday, Feb. 5 at 7 pm ET/PT. Over the course of American history, black preachers have united their people, incited them, and propelled them forward. Above all, they've raised up their voices and lifted their hopes and dreams. This one-hour documentary examines the influence of these men of the cloth and how their roles have changed over two centuries. Part spiritual advisors and part community activists, America's black preachers represent a rich chorus of voices at the heart and soul of the black experience. Their mission is complex and sometimes contradictory-to battle oppression while preserving peace, to destroy prejudice while celebrating race, and to uphold tradition while fomenting change. BLACK PREACHERS looks at the efforts of slave preacher John Jasper, the social and economic justice preached by Father Devine, Fred Shuttlesworth and Jesse Jackson, and the multi-million dollar messages now marketed in mega- churches run by the likes of Eddie Long. It features interviews with prominent black ministers including Jesse Jackson, Fred Shuttlesworth, Eddie Long, and Calvin Butts, as well as reenactments of famous preachers and their sermons. SAVE OUR HISTORY: VOICES OF CIVIL RIGHTS Premieres on Saturday, February 12 at 8 pm ET/PT. SAVE OUR HISTORY: VOICES OF CIVIL RIGHTS is a program about one of the defining moments in America's history -- the Civil Rights Movement -- told through the small, powerful, personal stories of men, women and children who lived through it. In this SAVE OUR HISTORY special, ordinary people with extraordinary stories share their memories of the civil rights era: how they first discovered that they were treated differently because of their color, their first small acts of defiance, why some moved from quiet anger to public action, the triumphs, regrets, stands taken and sacrifices made in the process. AARP, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, and the Library of Congress co-sponsored a nationwide bus tour of 35 cities around the country in 2004, to collect firsthand accounts of the Civil Rights Movement. The tour was part of the Voices of Civil Rights project, a multifaceted effort to build the world's largest archive of civil rights stories for placement in the Library of Congress. Journalists, photographers, and volunteers were on board to help collect visitors' stories. The History Channel recorded several hundred interviews with these eyewitnesses to history. MODERN MARVELS: GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER TECH Premieres on Tuesday, February 15 at 10 pm ET/PT. George Washington Carver was a visionary who shared his knowledge with the world free of charge. At the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, he invented more than three hundred uses for the peanut, including synthetic marble, shoe polish, peanut soap, butter, shaving cream, and soil conditioner. He built his laboratory from scratch, and became one of the most respected and honored men in the world. Men like the Prince of Wales and Joseph Stalin consulted him on their agricultural problems, and Thomas Edison offered him a hefty salary to come and work with him. GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER TECH looks at contemporary applications of Carver's ideas -- from soy plastics to peanut butter, soy inks to bio-diesel fuel. Now reaching more than 87 million Nielsen subscribers, The History Channel(R), "Where the Past Comes Alive(R)," brings history to life in a powerful manner and provides an inviting place where people experience history personally and connect their own lives to the great lives and events of the past. In 2004, The History Channel earned five News and Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and previously received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's "Save Our History(R)" campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel web site is located at http://www.historychannel.com/. Source: The History Channel CONTACT: Kathie Gordon, +1-212-210-1320, kathie.gordon@aetn.com for The History Channel Web site: http://www.historychannel.com/ Note to Editors: For more information and photography please visit us on the web at http://www.historychannelpress.com ------- Profile: International Entertainment