African American Lives Get a Showing on PBS

If we believe only what network television shows us, it’s no wonder African American viewers don’t seem to feel there are any positive images of us on the air (“Prime Time for a Show of Diversity,” by Greg Braxton, Feb. 14). As the new millennium approaches, developers and programmers of prime-time network television still seem incapable of presenting a consistent and accurate portrait of African American life.

While this reality does need to be checked, I believe we are fortunate that an alternative exists on PBS. This alternative is one that has been long overlooked as a place where African Americans can go to see positive images of ourselves, and hear our stories told in our own diverse voices. Looking beyond standard network comedy and drama offerings, viewers will find a broad selection of cultural, performance, historical, biographical, contemporary and public-affairs programming about us, available to us on PBS stations. All with just a flick of the remote control.

As an independent producer, director and writer, public television is virtually the only place I can get my work shown, from “Two Dollars and a Dream: The Story of Madame C.J. Walker” to “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords.”

My colleagues have experienced that same truth. Orlando Bagwell’s four-part series “Africans in America” and St.Clair Bourne’s “American Masters” special “Paul Robeson: Here I Stand” would never have been aired on prime-time network television.

PBS reflects more sectors of the population with its programming, giving independent producers and producers of color many more opportunities to find their work on the prime-time schedule. PBS is commercial-free and free of charge to nearly every household in the country.

At this year’s Television Critics Assn. press tour, reporters took note that PBS had the most extensive and varied lineup of programs by and about African Americans. While network television presents as new an African American family “advancing” into white suburbia in the 1990s, PBS this fall will show “An American Love Story,” a 10-hour documentary series about an interracial couple married for 30 years.

I produced “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords” because I realized how fascinating black newspapers were in the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s. Within their pages was detailed recorded history of African American life, struggle and triumph, from the point of view of the people who lived it. The black press served a critical role as advocate for its own people. Its advocacy was successful because its founders had a real fire in their bellies to make change.

In the ‘90s and into the year 2000, television is the most far-reaching medium to tell our stories to a broad national audience. As writers, directors, producers and even as viewers, we must keep that fire in our bellies to inspire change, to get our voices heard, our images seen and our stories told from our own myriad points of view. PBS is the place where that can and does happen.

So the next time you find yourself watching the same old images, or reading another article about why we’re still watching the same old images, remember that the remote control is your own best advocate. Change the channel to your local PBS station. It may just change your image of television.

Stanley Nelson is an award-winning independent filmmaker. His most recent project, “The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords,” aired on PBS last month and won the Freedom of Expression Award at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival.