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Thursday, January 31, 2002

By Susan Banks, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

February is Black History Month and the networks have responded with a variety of programs that honor the history and culture of African Americans. Also showcased are films by black filmmakers on Showtime, and the Hallmark Channel rounds out the effort by airing Alex Haley's "Queen," "Roots: The Next Generation," and "Roots: The Gift." Check the following listings for times and days.

7 p.m. DIS: "The Proud Family": "I Had a Dream," a special episode of the animated series.

8 p.m. DIS: "The Color of Friendship": Carl Lumbly, Sen. Ron Dellums and Roscoe Dellums star in a movie based on actual events.

5 p.m. HGTV: "Homes of Our Heritage: African-American Visionaries": A tour of the homes of seven notable African Americans.

9 p.m. WQED/QEX: "American Experience: Scottsboro: An American Tragedy": The 1931 trial of nine young black men falsely accused of rape by two white women draws North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil War.

7:30 p.m. WQED/QEX: "OnQ Magazine": Angie Corley reports on Pennsylvania's first National Historic Landmark of the Underground Railroad, the LeMoyne House in Washington, Pa.

7 a.m. A&E: "Malcolm X: A Search for Identity": Malcolm X rises from imprisonment to form the Organization of Afro-American Unity.

6 a.m. NIC: "Nick News": Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.; a 15-year-old boy discusses the Million Man March; hate-crime legislation.

7:30 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Milk and Honey" -- A soldier on leave in 1952 Texas accepts a ride from a naive Israeli girl.

7:55 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Marriage and Margaret Cooper" -- A philandering husband returns from a business trip and discovers his wife cheating.

8:15 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Bliss" -- A female photographer falls in love with a mysterious graffiti artist.

8:35 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "We Are Not Vanishing" -- Dr. Dorothy Height creates a black family reunion.

9 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Gabrielle" -- An unborn soul must decide whether or not to be born.

9:15 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Flight of the Bumble Bee" -- A thug trying to go straight is offered an abused woman as temporary payment.

4 a.m. TNT: "Burning Sanctuary" -- An African-American church is burned to the ground.

8 p.m. A&E: "Biography": Gladys Knight.

10 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Black Horizons": This year's winner of the African-American Leadership Awards.

7 p.m. ESPN: "Seasons of Change: The African-American Athlete."

4 a.m. ESPN: "SportsCenter": Black History Month Round Table.

7:30 p.m. WPXI: "Honor, Courage and Country": Pittsburgh's African-American war heroes.

2 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Black Horizons Soul Food Special."

4 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Willie the Lion": A documentary looking at pianist Willie "The Lion" Smith.

8 p.m. SHO: "The Red Sneakers": Gregory Hines makes his directorial debut in this film, which stars Vanessa Bell Calloway, Dempsey Pappion and Ruben Santiago-Hudson.

9:35 p.m. DIS: "Selma, Lord, Selma": Jonathan Daniels, Mackenzi Astin and Sheyann Webb star in the story of an 11-year-old girl who is touched by the speech of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

3 p.m. ESPN2: "SportsCenter": Black History Month Round Table

7:30 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Bliss" -- A photographer falls in love with a mysterious graffiti artist.

7:30 p.m. WQED/QEX: "OnQ Magazine": Chris Moore takes a look at the history of Black music in Pittsburgh, including artists Ahmad Jamal, Stanley Turrentine and Mary Lou Williams.

8 p.m. A&E: "Biography": Johnnie Cochran.

11:15 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Flight of the Bumble Bee" -- A thug trying to go straight is offered an abused woman as temporary payment.

7 a.m. A&E: "Rosa Parks: Mother of a Movement."

7:30 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "We Are Not Vanishing" -- Dr. Dorothy Height creates a black family reunion.

10:35 p.m. DIS: "Nightjohn": Carl Lumbly, Clel Waller and Beau Bridges star in the mythic story of a slave in the pre-Civil War South who believes that "words are freedom" and defies the law, which forbids the teaching of reading and writing to slaves.

7 a.m. A&E: "Civil Rights Heroes": Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis; Beverly Carter and Gloria Carter Dickerson; Bill Russell.

7:30 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Milk and Honey" -- A soldier on leave in 1952 Texas accepts a ride from a naive Israeli girl.

9 p.m. WQED/QEX: A Huey P. Newton Story: Spike Lee collaborates with Roger Guenveur Smith to bring Smith's one-man play -- a portrait of the assassinated co-founder of the Black Panther Party -- to television.

10 p.m. HIST: A Fragile Freedom: African-American Historic Sites.

7:30 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Marriage and Margaret Cooper" -- A philandering husband returns from a business trip and discovers his wife cheating.

10 p.m. WQED/QEX: Tell About the South: Voices in Black & White: The History of Modern Literature.

6 a.m. NIC: Nick News: Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

7 a.m. A&E: Martin Luther King Jr.: The Man and the Dream.

7 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Gabrielle" -- An unborn soul must decide whether or not to be born.

7:15 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Flight of the Bumble Bee" -- A thug trying to go straight is offered an abused woman as temporary payment.

11:30 a.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Bliss" -- A photographer falls in love with a mysterious graffiti artist.

4:30 p.m. PCNC: "Honor, Courage and Country": Pittsburgh's African-American war heroes.

5 p.m. HGTV: "Return to Harlem": Revisit the Harlem Renaissance, when some of the finest African-American writers, artists and musicians lived and worked in early-20th-century Harlem brownstones.

10 p.m. HBO: "Lumumba": A film about the rise to power and assassination of the controversial leader who freed the Congo from Belgium.

Noon SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Gabrielle" -- An unborn soul must decide whether or not to be born.

3 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Conjure Woman": A spotlight on four prominent African-American women artists seeking to bring forward the issues surrounding the history of African-American women.

4 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Wrapped in Pride: The Story of Kente in America": Kente, once the cloth of the West African kings, is now a colorful force in American popular culture.

6 p.m. HALL: "The Vernon Johns Story": Inspired by the saga of the Rev. Vernon Johns, father of the civil rights movement and predecessor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala.

8 p.m. HALL: "We Shall Not Be Moved": A one-hour documentary that looks at the American civil rights movement from the perspective of African-American churches.

8 p.m. SHO: "Keep the Faith, Baby": A film starring Harry Lennix and Vanessa Williams based on the true-life story of controversial U.S. Rep. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. of New York.

10:30 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings: A Family Conversation": A straightforward dialogue about family history, race relations and America's response to the controversy surrounding the relationship of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.

6 p.m. HALL: "Alex Haley's Queen" (Encores Monday, Feb. 25, through Wednesday, Feb. 27, at midnight.)

Midnight HALL: "Roots: The Next Generation" (Continues through Sunday, Feb. 24, at same time.)

9 p.m. WQED/QEX: "American Masters": Ralph Ellison

10:30 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Ralph Ellison's King of the Bingo Game."

6 a.m. NIC: "Nick News": Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.

6 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Marriage and Margaret Cooper" -- A philandering husband returns from a business trip and discovers his wife cheating.

7:30 p.m. WQED/QEX: "OnQ Magazine": The Carnegie Museum is in the process of storing the Teenie Harris Archives.

9 p.m. WQED/QEX: "BrotherMen": A documentary featuring five African-American men who, through their art, transmit the historic, political and cultural realities of the African-American experience.

10 p.m. 101010 WQED/QEX: "Bob Marley."

3:45 p.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Gabrielle" -- An unborn soul must decide whether or not to be born.

10 p.m. WQED/QEX: Tell About the South: Voices in Black & White: The History of Modern Literature.

10:15 a.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Milk and Honey" -- A soldier on leave in 1952 Texas accepts a ride from a naive Israeli girl.

10:30 a.m. AMC: "Beyond Tara: The Extraordinary Life of Hattie McDaniel."

11 a.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "We Are Not Vanishing" -- Dr. Dorothy Height creates a black family reunion.

11:30 a.m. AMC: "The Greatest" -- An autobiographical film on Muhammad Ali.

11:30 a.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Flight of the Bumble Bee" -- A thug trying to go straight is offered an abused woman as temporary payment.

1:30 p.m. AMC: "Purlie Victorious": Starring Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee.

3:30 p.m. AMC: "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner": Starring Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

5:30 p.m. AMC: "Backstory: Carmen Jones": A look at the first successful film featuring an all African-American cast. The musical drama raised the profile of actress Dorothy Dandridge, who became the first African-American woman to be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actress category.

10 a.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Marriage and Margaret Cooper" -- A philandering husband returns from a business trip and discovers his wife cheating.

10:30 a.m. SHO: Black Filmmaker Showcase: "Milk and Honey" -- A soldier on leave in 1952 Texas accepts a ride from a naive Israeli girl.

4 p.m. WQED/QEX: "Whispers of Angels: A Story of the Underground Railroad."

8 p.m. SHO: "10,000 Black Men Named George": Andre Braugher, Charles S. Dutton and Mario Van Peebles star in the story of civil rights champion Asa Philip Randolph.

9 p.m. CBS: "The Rosa Parks Story": Angela Bassett and Cicely Tyson star.

9 p.m. HGTV: "Homes of the Underground Railroad": A documentary chronicling the stories of seven remarkable homes and the homeowners who played an instrumental role in the history of the Underground Railroad.

10 p.m. WQED/QEX: "The Invisible Soldiers: Unheard Voices": A look at the more than 1 million African-American men and women who served during World War II.

7:30 p.m. WQED/QEX: "OnQ Magazine": Chris Moore profiles the student recipients of the 2002 WQED/Duquesne Light Scholarships, and the adult winners of the African-American Leadership Awards.

8 p.m. A&E: "Biography": Billie Holiday

9 p.m. HALL: "Roots: The Gift."

10:30 a.m. TLC: "A Wedding Story: Liza & Matt": Princeton couple wed with African customs.

10 p.m. HGTV: "Modern Masters: African-American Artisans": A special that profiles outstanding African-American artists who share the passions and philosophies that inspire their work. Featured are sculptor and wood carver Charles Dickson; clay artist David McDonald; blacksmith Bill Johnson and basket weaver Henrietta Baltimore.

4 p.m. ESPN: "SportsCenter": Black History Month Round Table.

10 p.m. WQED/QEX: Tell About the South: Voices in Black & White: The History of Modern Literature.