"A History of Black Achievement in America," a documentary co-produced by Alphonse Keasley, director of the University of Colorado at Boulder Minority Arts and Sciences program, will be televised in February and March on KBDI Channel 12.
The series, which also features African American faculty and students from CU-Boulder, will air Saturdays at 1 p.m. starting Feb 4. February is National Black History Month.
The eight-part series originally aired on KBDI in September 2005 and has received high marks from critics. As part of his role as co-producer, Keasley was involved in research and script writing for the series. Keasley said he learned a lot from a segment examining the life of James Beckwourth, the African American explorer who traversed North America in the mid-19th century.
"James Beckwourth was very involved with native peoples of this region," Keasley said. "There's a pass in Nevada that's named after Beckwourth. There's also a Beckwourth club in Denver, and one of my students here at CU-Boulder was in the club as a child. All of this I never knew until I worked on this series," he said.
"How many people would've known that there is this encouragement of young black kids to go out and be explorers of the wilderness? That's an example of one of the things [in the series]. I didn't even know that black people had such an interest, and it continues today," Keasley said.
CU-Boulder ethnic studies faculty members Harry Reed and Adrian Gaskins also participated in the series. Â鶹ÒùÔº from around the campus are featured in the documentary as paid actors and extras enacting historical events.