
MLK Remembrance (November 6, 2006)
Season 35 Episode 3511 | 26m 39sVideo has Closed Captions
This episode features MLK Day partnerships, community events, documentary clips, and film critique.
This episode features a discussion with NCCJ leaders Donna Fetterman and George Simmons on a MLK Day celebration with the Pittsburgh Courier and the Mattress Factory. It also includes an American Experience documentary clip on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a conversation on a joint MLK commemoration by the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, and a review of Bubba Ho-Tep.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Black Horizons is a local public television program presented by WQED

MLK Remembrance (November 6, 2006)
Season 35 Episode 3511 | 26m 39sVideo has Closed Captions
This episode features a discussion with NCCJ leaders Donna Fetterman and George Simmons on a MLK Day celebration with the Pittsburgh Courier and the Mattress Factory. It also includes an American Experience documentary clip on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a conversation on a joint MLK commemoration by the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, and a review of Bubba Ho-Tep.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Well, if I haven't said it yet.
Happy New Year and welcome to Black Horizons.
I'm your host, Chris Moore.
It's already mid January, which means there's a lot going on here in Pittsburgh.
So let's get started.
Tonight you'll hear about special observances of the doctor Martin Luther King Junior holiday that you can be a part of and produce.
And movie critic Minette Seate joins us to talk about a new film featuring Ossie Davis.
Plus, it's the newest edition of our community calendar On the horizon.
But first, the National Conference for Community and Justice is partnerin with the New Pittsburgh Courier for a special celebration to honor Doctor King, which includes activities for young and old alike.
Here to tell us about their special event are the NCCJss new Executive Director Donna Fetterman, and longtim NCCJ board member George Simmons Welcome to the program both of you.
Glad to have you.
Mr.
Fetterman, we have had your predecessor, Betty Bacon, on this program a number of times.
I've admired the wor that your organization has done.
And now she's retired, and you're ready to step in and take over.
Is it a daunting task, or are you relishing this and jumping in with both feet?
I would say both.
I am very excited about it.
I said to Betty a while back, I said, you know, you left me big shoes to fill.
And that certainly is the case because she had been at the helm for 25 years with her retirement.
I feel greatly honored to be the person who was chosen to provide leadership for the next phase in NCCJs history locally.
So I'm very excited about it.
Well, one of the programs that you're going to deal with, deals with Doctor Martin Luther King.
Can you tell us about it?
And I understand you happy with the range and diversity of people.
The intergenerational nature of the program that you're putting together?
We're doing a program, this year that's going to be very differen than anything we've done before.
Historically, we have don an interfaith worship service.
But with the transition i leadership at the organization.
When I came on board in the fall, a new program put into place that we will b doing on Martin Luther King Day.
It is intergenerational.
It's going to be held at the Mattress Factory on the north side, which is a small arts museum, and it's going to be set up as an open house from one in the afternoon until 4:30.
And activities will be geare for all ages from children age five and up through older adults, and will be learning about and sharing about Docto King's message through the arts.
There will be writing activities, storytelling activities, hands on arts activities for the children.
So very differen than anything we've done before.
All right.
George Simmons, long time NCCJ.
board member and an old friend.
Glad to see you here, sir.
Tell us about your historic mission there.
Well, the NCC Jhas always had a mission of trying to eliminate bias, bigotry, and racism.
And we are challenged more now than ever before because traditionally you break it into three groups the enforcement community, the advocacy group community and the educational community.
All of them are struggling with short funds and short effort, but not short on commitment.
So we try to do things that bring us together partnership for the purpose of educating and working with young people and making sure we're very inclusive.
And that's very challenging these days because everything has to be volunteer.
So this whole effort to partner or collaborate with people is a good idea.
And you agree with Miss Fetterman?
Well, I'm big on collaboration.
It's worked well for me in my professional life, working with various nonprofit organizations.
We're very excited abou the collaboration that we have with the Mattress Factory with the New Pittsburgh Courier, and with several other partners in relation to our Martin Luther King Day celebration.
In a broader sense, we will be looking to partner with all different types of organizations around diversity issues and issues of inclusion as we plan our programin for the months and years ahead.
George what are some of those programs that you're plannin in the months and years ahead?
Well, we want to try to do more dialogs both with the different interfaith groups.
We want to try dialogs with the younger, with the generational groups.
And actually the whole problem that we're faced with is trying to communicate and to get people to be more trusting of one another, because change is occurring so fast and there aren't resources, and there aren't people with ideas that can keep up with the changes out there.
You could sit home nowadays and just change channels and just digest all the information you want, but putting it into effect, making a better living and working environment has got to be our goal.
You have to get off the couch and do something.
Yes you do.
It is the first step in that that kind of collaboration and dialog getting to know on another, to talk to one another.
You know, all these variety of groups that you work with.
Absolutely.
We usuall we wait for an incident to occur and then we focus our energy o trying to reduce the incident.
And then we decide, can we can elaborate further.
Now we want to have collaboration before an incident occurs.
And hopefully we get into prevent by communication and education.
It sounds like a good idea.
Prevention would be a key thing in your mind too.
Well, absolutely.
I mean, we live in a diverse society locally, nationally, internationally.
There's a lot of fea among different groups of people based on ignorance, lac of familiarity with differences.
And what I would see us doin is bringing all different types of people different to the table.
Different racial backgrounds, cultural backgrounds, religious backgrounds, help people get to familiarize themselves with people who are different from them.
And that can do a lot to mitigate the fear that's out there.
A lot of people resist that, though.
I have to tell you, in some of the places where I work, like KDKA radio, I've had people call me and say this chevo this diversity down our throats.
How do you respond to somebody with that attitude?
It's fair.
Well I think there are always going to be naysayers, but people like that are not going to dissuade us from what our mission is, which is to fight bias, bigotry, and racism and using different vehicles, be it advocacy, education, conflict resolution.
From our point of view, we're open to everyone wantin to bring everyone to the table.
But I think there's always going to be some closed minds out there.
George, this Martin Luther King, program that NCCJ is putting on.
What's the importance of participation and continuing that dialog around what Doctor King always expressed?
Well, the one thing that I think we've not really spen a lot of time on Dialoging with about Doctor King is his ability to receive information and put it back to people in a way that they can meet.
There could be movement.
So part of Dialoging w traditionally think is talking, but there needs to be a lot of listening and digesting of the information.
And that is making it.
That's making the change.
Donna, are you please that the Courier is a partner?
The courier ha always been a good friend to me.
Wherever I've been professionally.
But we're delighted to have them as a partner.
And actually, we would not be here today if they had not run an article about us back in December.
So really?
Yes.
Many thanks to the Courier They have been wonderful to us.
Okay, well, we wish you, and your organization, both of you and your organization, the best in, creating dialog in the community to getting people to understand one another and preventing some of the things that we always end up talking about at the Courier and here on this program and other media outlets.
So thank you very much for coming on with us.
Okay.
Thank you so much, Chris.
Thank you.
Chris joined the inkje and the New Pittsburgh Courier.
Monday, January 19th at 4:30 p.m.
at the Mattress Factory Museum on Pittsburgh's North Side.
For more information, call them at (412)281-1237.
That number again (412)281-1237.
And for more o the life of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior, don't miss The American Experience.
Free at last, free at last.
He saw what was expected of him and that he couldn't pull away from it.
Now the story of Martin Luther King, told by those who knew him, loved him and investigated him.
Citizen King on American experience.
That's the American experience.
Citizen King.
Monday, January 19th at 9 p.m.
here on WQED TV 13.
There are a lot of events fo this year's Doctor King Holiday, and what better place to find them than on our community calendar On the Horizon.
If you have an event that you'd like to see publicized, please send it to On the Horizon.
4802 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
The YWCA of Greater Pittsburg and Carnegie Mellon University are joining forces for a special Doctor King Day commemoration that includes a community breakfast and a community conversation.
Here to tell us more.
Our doctor, Cecelia Golden, CEO of the YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh, and Everett Tatum, director of diversit at Carnegie Mellon University.
Welcome to the program.
Glad to have you here.
Thank you.
Now you all have a whole series of Doctor King events.
Is that right, Doctor Golden?
There will be at CMU on that day.
Yes.
Okay.
What is.
What is it?
Start.
And with what?
It begins at 12:30.
And go ahead at 12:30 and go through 6:00 in the evening.
Doctor Cohen starts out today with, state of diversity addres for where we at Carnegie Mellon.
And it's open to the community.
Okay.
And so you want everybody to come.
We want as many people who fee comfortable coming to show up.
All right, Doctor Golden.
What will be the emphasis on Doctor King?
The the community conversation is going to focus on a 1967 speech made by Doctor King, where he emphasized three particular principles racism, economic exploitation and militarism.
This is a speech he made at the Riverside Churc one year before his death.
Yes.
Okay.
I'm really glad to see you focus on that, because, having studied that speec and rated time and time again, it seems to me when he started speaking out against the war in Vietnam, and racism, when he talked about, black boys and white boys who could not live together in the same community, but were being going off to fight the little brown boys in Vietnam.
A lot of people in Americ started to dislike Doctor King and thought he was speaking out on the wrong issues.
I think those are the remarks that led to his death, to tell you the truth.
I don't disagree with you.
I think that Doctor King, saw those three principles inextricably linked, linked to that, that racism, the exploitatio that we see economically as well as militarism have to be addressed as a threesome that you can' address one without the other.
And that was his message.
You're nodding was telling me you agree with that tone.
Oh, completely.
I think these are now some issues that then and they remain with us today.
I think one of the things that we're concerned with at, Carnegi Mellon is trying to facilitate more discussion around the issues cross-culturally so that those black boys that you mentioned, white boy and those brown boys and girls, gender, nowadays it is girl who we've seen, number of people in Iraq, female accosted and held and detained.
Absolutely.
And we think that to resolve and deal wit some of these nettlesome issues, that Doctor Golden has, details for us.
We need to get together and start talking about.
This is a community opportunity to talk about these issues.
Okay.
Are there is it a daylong, series of event starts at 12:30 in the 6.
The end of the day will be Mary Frances Berry, used to be with the EEOC, and now is on the faculty council speaker.
Powerful speaker will be there in the evening.
Throughout the day, we have regional events where students from the Pittsburgh Public Schools and other schools are coming in to read their creative works.
We got music and, everything going on throughout the day.
Now CMU is involve in a lot of robotics and they, they keep talking abou using robotics for militarism.
Is there any kind of, conflict here in some of those things that you look at them and try to attract these young students and bright young minds to a great university like CMU?
Well, there may or may not be conflict.
These things have to be done.
We do need to have defense mechanisms.
We need people who are informed and knowledgeable about why we do these things, and also have some idea about how to control these things so that they don't get out of control.
So we want to educate an get people in that conversation.
Are you are you hopeful also that these bright young students who come to these events for Doctor Kin Day, will see a great university and probably want to be part of it?
Is that a side benefit?
That's a side, a huge side.
Okay.
What about the YWCA?
Doctor Golden and its role i creating these kinds of dialogs and events that get the community to talk about Doctor King.
The YWCA of Greater Pittsburgh has one mission.
As you know, Chris, is to empower women and girls and on imperative to eliminate racism.
And we work on that particular issue in a variety of ways.
One of which is what we call study circles, where we bring together community members from the clergy, from educational arenas, from just neighborhoods, so that they can sit down an talk about racism, what it is, and how they may or may not be contributing to it, as well as how to help to resolve it.
The other thin that we're doing, is planning to involve the corporate community, as well as in that for profit communities sitting down looking at the employment areas, where are people employed?
What are the retention rates?
What are the promotion rates and what are the issues that are facing people who work in the workplace around diversity on the part of the first line manager, as well as the CEO?
And so that is what we're trying to do.
And I think one of the goals that we would have after this community conversation is to challenge people to go back and do something.
I mean, Martin Luther King wasn't just talking about things.
He was doing things, and he was able to accomplish so much because he had a communit behind him that worked with him.
I wonder if either of you are both of you still feel we have that that unity in the community?
The respect that we had for leaders like Doctor King.
Is it still there?
Could we make mass movements or have some of us gotten a little comfortable?
You know you understand what I'm saying?
I do think I think that some people have become quite comfortable.
I think that what's, challenging to the colleges, especially CMU and others, is that our young people don't know their history, tha we have got to teach the history so that they understand that social change has always been the result of what people have come to together an demanded that that be changed.
And so, yes, I think that with there is a respect for leadership, I think tha there's a search for leadership.
I think that leadership has changed over years.
Over the years, it may not be another Martin Luther King, bu I think each of us has a role, a leadership role that we can play in our individual communities.
So tell me you agree.
I agree that three things I'd like to say around that.
Remember, celebrate, act.
And I think that kind of captures what we're talking about.
I think and all of those are equally important, I think, to remember our past so we don't make those mistakes again to celebrat those people who went before us.
And now to act, to find a new way to do something that Doctor King would, would want you to do.
Right.
Exactly.
And I think that there's a whole role for each of us to help educate and facilitate understanding around those three things.
Doctor Cole will give you the last word here.
I would say, please come out, celebrate with us, learn with us, and commit with us to make this a better region.
All right Thank you both for being here.
We hope your plans, go as planned.
And it's a great success.
Okay.
Thank you.
All right.
To find out mor about a community conversation confronting the evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism, as well as information on the fourth annual Martin Luther King Junior Unity Breakfast.
Call the YWCA at (412)255-1258.
That's (412)255-1258.
What happens when Elvis and JFK join forces to stop an evil mummy that's terrorizing senior citizens?
Find out in Bubba Ho-Tep.
How can I go on from the King of Rock and rol to this old guy on a rest home?
You were an Elvis impersonator.
You fell off the stage and broke him.
I was 20 years ago.
That's when they took a piece of my brain.
I got a little bag of sand up there.
Now, Jack.
President Kennedy was a white man.
He dyed me this color.
What do we have here at Shady Rest?
Is an Egyptian soul sucker of some sort.
Some kind of Bubba Ho-Tep.
You know, a mummy hiding out, feeding on the sleeping.
And you can just keep on feeding.
She's finally destroyed.
All right, man, let's go.
Oh!
Don't think about stuff on your body.
Oh, boy.
Cant wait to see this one.
Joining us tonight to explain the mysteries of Bubba Ho-Tep Here is producer and movie critic.
Minette Seate.
Wow, this looks really different.
Well, all I can say in my defense is, you know, I love a bad monster movie.
So this is a really.
This is really, really funny.
As you can plainly see, it's really funny.
Ossie Davis plays JFK and Bruce Campbell plays.
JFK was a white man.
JFK was a white man.
But you see, the whole premise is a conspiracy.
I mean, he even has a scar in the back of his neck with the bullets when and he wears these beautifully tailored suits, he has that red phone with the blinking push buttons on it.
And they're in this old folks home, and they've been forgotten, conveniently by their governments and by their families.
And so now is their chance to redeem themselves.
Well with all the conspiracy theories that abound, I think this ties right into somebody who has a sense of humor an maybe can kid America about it.
It's perfectly harmless, but at the same time, if you do have the least little tendency towards believing in conspiracies, it's like, you know, that couldn't really, really happen.
This movie could develop a cult following.
I hope so.
It's done really well at almost every film festival that it's been in.
It is also surprisingly touching.
You know, when you got these two people being that hokey, but ye they become really good friends.
And as you see, Elvis breaks his hip when he falls off the stage whe he's doing one of his numbers.
And so these two older men, even if they're completely hallucinating, develop these really nice friendship over this mummy who's terrorizing her people in that old folks home.
I don't know who comes up with an idea who wrote this, who comes up with the ideas for these kinds of things?
The director is famous fo another movie called Scanners.
Bruce Campbell.
You may remember him from movies like Evil Dead Part two, Army of Darkness, and Xena Warrior, and I'm afraid I missed all of those.
So you got to get cable immediately.
So this is one of those really special movies that, once again, is only playing at the Oakes Theater on Allegheny River Boulevard.
What else has been bringing a lot of, special movies, that make us remembe a lot of things lately, right?
Right.
They did wattstax.
And, I forget the other movie back during the summertime.
It was, Oh, the proud.
Only the strong and the strong survive.
And they were both great.
70s soul reviews from the old Isaac Hayes period of soul music i Los Angeles in the late 1970s.
Is this was happening t independent cinema houses now?
They've they've got to get these good independent films out now, I think.
So it's really hard to survive against the chains that have the $8 ticket price in the $5 bucket of popcorn, and they're guaranteed to have 20 screens showing movies constantly.
And so when you have a small house like that you have to show strange movies that are going to make people come out of their way and extra and pay for the travel to see somethin they really, truly want to see.
It's the only way to keep these small theaters alive.
And if you've ever been in the Oaks, I mean, it's the classic with the red velvet drapes and this great oak leaf know it's all lit up and, you know, Bosto baked beans at the concessions.
They have 25 cent Lemonheads at the Oaks.
They have lemonheads.
They have lemonheads.
Okay.
When is the movie playing?
The movie starts January 23rd.
All right.
For the next couple of weeks And how do you rate your movies?
Because you haven't been her and done a movie review in ages, I got busy.
Oh, okay.
And if a movie I think is really good, I think it's worth the full price that they cost, right?
For admission And that's the only thing at the Oaks, their admission is only $5.
So you're still going to save three bucks.
But you would rate this pric full price $5 worth to see Elvis kick butt with against the mummy.
Yes indeedy.
I go see if it don't make me use it.
Even the sound effects I love.
It's very sady.
And I say Davis has got to be the greatest.
Say you think that he's bee reduced to playing these roles or this is a good role for him?
I think this is a good role for him.
I think the thing about this role is, I mean, Ossie Davis can choose to d pretty much anything he wants to at this stage in his career so that he could do a movie like this is really, to me, funny and sweet that he I'm going to go see it at least twice and I'll get the Lemonheads.
Okay?
Okay.
Bubba Ho-Tep stars on January 23rd at the Oaks Theater on Allegheny River Boulevard.
That's going to about wrap it up for us, but we made one slight mistake in one of our earlier pieces where we told you that the Martin Luther King celebration would start at 4:30.
It actually starts at 1:30.
So please join them and join us next week for a new edition of our program.
Thanks for being here, everybody.
Good night.
Chris Moore's wardrobe provided by Larrimors of Pittsburgh and set pieces by the History Store, Craig Street, Oakland.
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Black Horizons is a local public television program presented by WQED















