BET documentary sequence to discover Attica Jail riot’s civil rights legacy | Information

The Attica Prison Riot is one of six stories explored in a new documentary series examining the civil rights movement in America.

The six-part series “Boiling Point” will be premiered on Sunday at 8 pm on the BET cable network.

The documentary is one of two new projects as part of the network’s “Content for Change” initiative. The other project, Disrupt & Dismantle, moderated by Soledad O’Brien, will examine what needs to be done to bring about change for black Americans. The premiere of “Disrupt & Dismantle” will take place on Sunday at 9 pm. The episodes of both series will be broadcast one after the other on consecutive Sundays on BET and BET Her.

“BET and CBS News Present: Boiling Point” will examine Black America’s longstanding struggle for racial justice and equality, according to a series description by BET.

Each hour-long episode uses archive footage from CBS News, original interviews, and never-before-seen footage from producers, referred to as “the dramatic hot spots in history.”

Six events are presented. These include George Wallace’s stand in the doorway of the schoolhouse, Bloody Sunday in Selma, Ala., The riot in Attica Prison, riots in LA, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the murder of George Floyd.

Every event, the producers said, gripped the nation and motivated black Americans to fight for change.

According to the producers, the six events represent a strong line that connects the country’s past and present. The events in the documentary series form the basis for today’s civil rights struggles.

Interviews include first-person witnesses and participants, family members, site reporters, executives and lawmakers. Respondents include Andrew Young, journalists Wesley Lowery and Nikole Hannah-Jones, Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Carol Anderson, Ibram X. Kendi, Jody Armor, Marc Lamont HIll and Michael Eric Dyson; Rev. Raymond Scott, the Los Angeles District Attorney, George Gason, activist LaTosha Brown, and retired Lt. Gen. Russell Honore, among others.

The documentary also shows the evolution of television journalism in the coverage of civil rights stories, including the advent of the evening news, the beginning of the home movie / taped era and, more recently, the cell phone camera / social media revolution.

The events to be investigated in the episodes are:

n “LA Riots”: The acquittal of four officers in the Rodney King trial sparked a fire storm of unrest and raised alarms about the use of excessive force by the police (1992).

n “Bloody Sunday”: The attack on civil rights activists in Selma, Alabama, fueled public opinion and mobilized Congress to pass the 1965 Suffrage Bill.

n “Attica”: The Violent Inmate Riot that Uncovered a Broken Detention System in America (1971)

n “Hurricane Katrina”: The natural disaster sparked questions and bitter turmoil about how race and class might have influenced the government’s response to the crisis (2005).

n “Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”: Alabama Governor George Wallace’s defiant attempt to discourage black students from enrolling at the University of Alabama led to sheer divisions over desegregation (1963).

n “George Floyd”: The assassination of George Floyd sparked a wave of protests in America that increased calls for greater police accountability and improved relations between the police and the communities they serve.