WPSU-FM will celebrate Black History Month with a series of special programs airing during the month of February, highlighting African American history and culture. Here's the schedule:
In Performance at Penn State: Celebrating Black History Month with Essence of Joy
Friday, February 21, 11 a.m. & Monday, February 24, 8 p.m.
“In Performance at Penn State” is a monthly program devoted to concerts from Penn State’s School of Music. In February, to celebrate Black History Month, we’ll feature concert performances from recent years by Essence of Joy, the student choir devoted to performing music from African and African American choral traditions. The choir was founded and directed by the late Tony Leach, professor emeritus of music and music education at Penn State.
The Breakthrough of '48: When Civil Rights Won the White House
Thursday, February 6, 3 p.m. & Friday, February 7, 8 p.m.
During this time when racial politics and presidential authority are critical themes, comes a compelling radio program revealing a lesser-known chapter in America’s civil rights story. In 1948, Minneapolis Mayor Hubert Humphrey called on the Democratic party to “walk forthrightly into the bright sunshine of human rights.”
This led to a series of dramatic political events eventually leading to the landmark civil rights laws of the 1960s. Based on Samuel Freedman’s book “Into the Bright Sunshine,” this documentary features compelling interviews and archival audio to recall pivotal moments in American history that remain relevant and revealing today.
Langston Hughes: I, Too, Sing America
Thursday, February 13, 3 p.m. & Friday, February 14, 8 p.m.
Langston Hughes, an enduring icon of the Harlem Renaissance, is best-known for his written work, which wedded his fierce dedication to social justice with his belief in the transformative power of the word. But he was a music lover, too, and some of the works he was most proud of were collaborations with composers and musicians.
Hosted by Terrance McKnight, former professor of music at Morehouse College, “I, Too, Sing America” will dive into the songs, cantatas, musicals and librettos that flowed from Hughes’ pen. As he did with his poetry, Hughes used music to denounce war, combat segregation and restore human dignity in the face of Jim Crow. His musical adventures included writing lyrics for stage pieces such as Black Nativity and Tambourines to Glory, works that helped give birth to the genre of Gospel Play, as well as songs for radio plays and political campaigns, and the libretto for Kurt Weill’s Street Songs.
The program will also tell the dramatic tale of Hughes’ collaboration with William Grant Still, hailed today as the "Dean of African American composers.” For 15 years, against the backdrop of pre-Civil Rights racism, the two fought to see their opera become a reality. Their historic success came in 1949, when "Troubled Island" – which told the story of Haitian revolution leader Jean-Jacques Dessalines – was staged by the New York City Opera, becoming the first opera by African Americans to be staged by a major company.
The documentary will include recordings of select pieces of Hughes’ musical works, some of which were never performed again in their entirety after their original production. It will also feature archival interview tape of William Grant Still discussing Troubled Island.
The Lost Cause: The Civil War, Then and Now
Thursday, February 20, 3 p.m. & Friday, February 21, 8 p.m.
Are we still living with the racial divide left over from the Civil War? This provocative audio documentary explores the history of a conflict that nearly tore America apart. Has it resurfaced today in the anti-immigrant sentiment expressed in the 2024 election, the resistance to DEI and to a more inclusive telling of American History?
We explore the enduring myth of The Lost Cause, a revisionist history contrived right after the Civil War. It cast the Confederacy’s humiliating defeat in a treasonous war for slavery as the embodiment of the framers’ true vision for America – and pushed the idea that the Civil War was not actually about slavery.
On this program you'll hear former U.S. Senator Doug Jones (Alabama), as well as a Pulitzer-winning author and other leading American historians, explaining the ideology that came to be known as The Lost Cause.
Over a third of all white families in the South actually owned human beings. And their 4 million African American captives had a monetary value estimated at $126 billion in today’s money.
So the Confederacy and its hero Gen. Robert E. Lee were defending the largest financial asset in the American economy, second only to real estate. But the death toll from the Civil War was brutal: now estimated at 750,000. The program examines how this this history continues to reverberate today.
Unlocking the Gates: How the North Star State Pioneered Structural Housing Discrimination in America
Thursday, February 27, 3 p.m. & Friday, February 28, 8 p.m.
In 1948, a young couple set out to do what was considered a rite of passage for many middle-class Americans at the time: they bought land in a leafy suburb, built their dream home and left the city. James and Frances Hughes had no idea that their move to this part of Minnesota would motivate segregationists to ramp up housing restrictions.
In this Black History Month special from Marketplace Morning Report, host Lee Hawkins investigates how a secret nighttime business deal unlocked the gates of a community called Maplewood for dozens of Black families seeking better housing, schools, and safer neighborhoods -- his own family included. Hawkins returns to the place where he grew up to discover that state officials were instrumental in the practice of adding clauses to property deeds specifying that it could be held only by white people. These clauses or covenants as they are known, set the stage for other kinds of discrimination including redlining, which has exacerbated the racial wealth gap.
“Unlocking The Gates” highlights the stories of families collaborating and overcoming discrimination in real estate and banking. They include executives, entrepreneurs, musicians, at least one NFL star and a former US Presidential hopeful. Many have inherited wealth from property investments and have been able to establish financial security for their families. It reports on state officials and business leaders working to address inequity that keeps people locked out of the property market.
