Say Brother
Collection Summary
The Say Brother Collection includes programs and original interviews created for Say Brother (1968 – 1997), WGBH's longest running public affairs television program by, for and about African Americans now known as Basic Black (1998 – present). The entire digitized collection is available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress, and 83 programs and interviews are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room. Since its inception in 1968, Say Brother has featured the voices of both locally and nationally known African American artists, athletes, performers, politicians, professionals, and writers including: Muhammad Ali, Maya Angelou, Thomas Atkins, Amiri Baraka, Doris Bunte, Julian Bond, Stokely Carmichael, Louis Farrakhan, Nikki Giovanni, Odetta Gordon, Benjamin Hooks, Jesse Jackson, Hubie Jones, Mel King, Eartha Kitt, Elma Lewis, Haki Madhubuti, Wallace D. Muhammad, Charles Ogletree, Babatunde Olatunji, Byron Rushing, Owusu Sadaukai, and Sonia Sanchez. Topics covered by the collection include Black Power, healthcare, international affairs, human rights, police relations, prisons, religion, desegregation, Native American rights, politics, education, community and national organizations, affirmative action, business, the Equal Rights Amendment, Africa, and activism, among others.
Collection Background
In April 2000, the WGBH Media Library and Archives in Boston was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Archives and Special Collections Preservation and Access grant to arrange, describe, and reformat the master Say Brother tapes dating from 1968 to 1982 to keep the collection accessible. Recently added to the American Archive of Public Broadcasting, the collection is now preserved for posterity at the Library of Congress.
