Morgan St., MPT to bring MLK speech to television in 3-hour broadcast

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Maryland Public Television (MPT) and Morgan State University’s WEAA-FM (88.9) are collaborating for a three-hour broadcast structured around an interview from June 9, 1963, between Martin Luther King Jr. and TV personality David Susskind, which has not been seen in its entirety since its original airing 57 years ago.

The program, scheduled for Monday  at 8 p.m., begins with discussions featuring students, historians, educators, and journalists about the relevance of King’s words today, which, as in 1963, is a time of significant political and racial unrest.

The special broadcast event, available statewide on MPT and on WEAA-FM in the Baltimore area, will be co-hosted by Dr. Karsonya “Kaye” Wise Whitehead, host of WEAA’s “Today with Dr. Kaye” and MPT’s news team of anchor Jeff Salkin and senior correspondent Charles Robinson.

The program will also be available for viewing on Monday evening and afterward on the MPT website at mpt.org/mlkspeaks/.

Appearing on the program are Dr. Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King Papers Project at Stanford University; Dr. Mary Frances Berry, historian, writer, lawyer and former chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights; Dr. David Wilson, president of Morgan State University; Dr. Jason Johnson, MSNBC contributor and associate professor of politics and journalism at Morgan State; E.R. Shipp, a Pulitzer-Prize winning columnist and associate professor of journalism at Morgan State University and C. Fraser Smith, a retired journalist and author.

This simulcast is the first collaboration of a recently launched partnership between MPT and Morgan State University’s School of Global Journalism & Communication (SGJC).

MPT launched its Standing Against Racism: Fostering Unity Through Dialogue initiative in June following the death of George Floyd. The initiative’s purpose is to increase thoughtful discussion and understanding of race-related issues in communities across Maryland.

Among the ways this is being accomplished is by providing viewers thought-provoking prime-time programs, offering expanded public affairs coverage and town hall forums on social media, and hosting virtual program screenings and discussions with the community through the network’s “Conversations for Change” series.