''Of Black America'' was a series of seven one-hour documentaries presented by

CBS News CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio service CBS. CBS News television programs include the ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs '' CBS News Sunday Morning'', '' 60 Minutes'', and '' 48 H ...

in the summer of 1968, at the end of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional Racial segregation in the United States, racial segregation, Racial discrimination ...

and during a time of racial unrest ( Martin Luther King had been assassinated that spring and riots in many cities had followed). The groundbreaking series explored various aspects of the history and current state of African-American community. The executive producer was Perry Wolff, and the series was sponsored by the

Xerox Corporation Xerox Holdings Corporation (; also known simply as Xerox) is an American corporation that sells print and digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut (having moved from Stam ...

. The series was presented in

prime time Prime time or the peak time is the block of broadcast programming taking place during the middle of the evening for a television show. It is mostly targeted towards adults (and sometimes families). It is used by the major television networks to ...

at 10:00 PM, on Tuesdays (a slot then usually reserved for ''

CBS Reports ''CBS Reports'' is the umbrella title used for documentaries by CBS News which aired starting in 1959 through the 1990s. The series sometimes aired as a wheel series rotating with '' 60 Minutes'' (or other similar CBS News series), as a series of i ...

'' documentaries and news shows), except for the last episode which aired on a Monday. The first installment ("Black History: Lost, Stolen, Strayed") won an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

and a

Writers Guild of America Award The Writers Guild of America Awards is an award for film, television, and radio writing including both fiction and non-fiction categories given by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America West since 1949. Eligibility Th ...

for

Andy Rooney Andrew Aitken Rooney (January 14, 1919 – November 4, 2011) was an American radio and television writer who was best known for his weekly broadcast "A Few Minutes with Andy Rooney", a part of the CBS News program '' 60 Minutes'' from 1978 to 201 ...

. Hal Walker, who co-anchored the final segment ("Portrait in Black and White") with Charles Kuralt, was the first African American correspondent for CBS News and one of the first black journalists on national television news. He had just recently joined CBS after winning a local

and the

Capital Press Club The Capital Press Club was founded in 1944 as an African-American alternative to the US National Press Club, which did not then accept black members.wallaceterry.comCapital Press Club/ref> Past presidents include Wallace Terry Wallace Houston ...

's Journalist of the Year award for his work on "A Dialogue with Whitey", a special report for WTOP about the King assassination riots in

Washington, D. C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

This final segment featured the results of a large and extensive poll of both African-Americans and whites by

Opinion Research Corporation Opinion Research Corporation is a demographic, health, and market research company based in Princeton, New Jersey, US. It was founded in 1938 by Claude Robinson and George Gallup, although Gallup left the firm in 1939. Opinion Research Corp was ...

Episodes

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , url=http://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/27/local/me-walker27 , title=Hal Walker, 70; 1st Black Journalist at CBS News , author=Associated Press , date=November 27, 2003 , work=Los Angeles Times , accessdate=April 7, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/00045/cah-00045.html , title=A Guide to the Andy Rooney Papers, 1922-2011 , publisher=Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin , accessdate=April 8, 2017 {{cite web , url=http://perrywolff.info/cbs/ , title=CBS , work=Perry Wolff: Odd Man In , author=Perry Wolff , accessdate=April 8, 2017 {{cite web , url=http://archives.chicagotribune.com/1968/08/29/page/79/article/tv-today-cbs-news-to-report-on-survey-of-racial-attitudes , title=Thoro Quiz of Whites, Blacks Told , author=Clay Gowran , date=August 29, 1968 , work=Chicago Tribune , accessdate=April 8, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Of+Black+America&p=1&item=T76:0099 , title=Of Black America, No. 1: Lost, Stolen, Strayed (TV) , publisher=Paley Center for Media , accessdate=April 7, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Of+Black+America&p=1&item=T76:0102 , title=Of Black America, No. 2: The Black Soldier (TV) , publisher=Paley Center for Media , accessdate=April 7, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Of+Black+America&p=1&item=T76:0091 , title=Of Black America, No. 3: Black World (TV) , publisher=Paley Center for Media , accessdate=April 7, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Of+Black+America&p=1&item=T76:0094 , title=Of Black America, No. 4: Body and Soul (TV) , publisher=Paley Center for Media , accessdate=April 7, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=Of+Black+America&p=1&item=T76:0095 , title=Of Black America, No. 5: The Heritage of Slavery (TV) , publisher=Paley Center for Media , accessdate=April 7, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mSwhAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA828 , title=Of Black America (Television Program) , date=1972 , page=828 , work=Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: 1969: January–June , publisher=Copyright Office – Library of Congress , accessdate=April 8, 2017 {{cite web , url=https://www.paleycenter.org/collection/item/?q=news&p=321&item=T76:0089 , title=Of Black America, No. 7: Portrait in Black and White (TV) , publisher=Paley Center for Media , accessdate=April 7, 2017 CBS News 1968 in American television African-American television