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Against the Mainstream
Profiling Gould and Mary Beech, Alabama advocates for populism and civil rights. Mr. Beech was a newspaperman and publisher of The Southern Farmer magazine where he wrote about how much small black and white farmers had in common. In 1946 he was a pioneering media advisor and speechwriter for Big Jim Folsom. His nomination to the board of trustees at Auburn University was rejected by the legislature and he was branded "a dangerous leftist." The Beeches moved to Houston where they helped lead the peaceful integration of public facilities and worked for black political candidates. On line study guide available.
Producer: Mike Letcher

How Firm a Foundation
Ninety years ago Tuskegee Institute's Booker T. Washington convinced Julius Rosenwald, who had amassed as fortune as the owner of Sears, of the urgent need for elementary schools for African Americans. The drive to build schools became Rosenwald's chief philanthropy, and the four million dollars he gave in seed money led to the construction of 5,357 school buildings for black students in the South (537 of them in Alabama), dramatically improving education in the United States.
Producer: Don Brown and Dwight Cammeron

I Shall Not Be Moved: The Legacy of W. C. Patton
Profiling the 84 year-old pioneer civil rights activist. Patton was president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP and was instrumental in voter registration programs. When Alabama outlawed the NAACP in 1956 he became the organization's national voter education director and conducted crucial registration and education campaigns, even before the 1965 Voting Rights Act. On line study guide available.
Producer: Dwight Cammeron

The Lowndes County Freedom Organization
The Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland in 1966, but it traces its roots to rural Lowndes County in Alabama. This program remembers the efforts of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in this forgotten outpost in the civil rights struggle. On line study guide available for this program.
Producer: Dwight Cammeron

Roots and Wings
A conversation with Margaret Walker Alexander, long recognized as one of the foremost voices in black fiction and poetry. She says the three enemies of black women are fascism, racism and sexism, and that she's been fighting them all her life.
Producer: Delores Chestnut

Tuskegee: Living Black and White
How did the Civil Rights era affect Tuskegee, Ala., where Tuskegee Institute had given blacks citizens more prominence than they had in other Alabama towns? People who grew up in Macon County, including producer Michael Letcher, remember the turbulent times that divided the community. On line study guide available.
Producer: Michael Letcher

With Fingers of Love
In 1966, a group of black women from Wilcox County Alabama, stirred by their involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, founded a quilting cooperative to provide some desperately needed cash income for their families. The Freedom Quilting Bee not only raised living standards for its members, but is credited with igniting nationwide interest in the art of quilting and inspiring numerous other cooperatives. Through archival materials, colorful quilts, and interviews with past and current members, WITH FINGERS OF LOVE evokes the accomplishments of this remarkable organization, and its ongoing struggle to survive. On line study guide available for this program.
Producer: Carolyn Hales

A Voice of Justice and Reason: Buford Boone's Tuscaloosa News
Buford Boone's controversial editorials in the Tuscaloosa News ostracized him from many towns people but won him the Pulitzer Prize in 1957. His courageous calls for law and order branded him as an integrationist, but he wouldn't back down to the Klan or the White Citizen's Council. A fascinating story about a community newspaper speaking out against local popular opinion and in support of the court ordered integration of the University of Alabama in 1956. On line study guide available for this program.
Producer: Tom Rieland