Disney Channel Celebrates Black History Month With Special African-American-Themed Programming

Disney Channel Celebrates Black History Month With Special African-American-Themed Programming
Highlights Include Episodes of Disney Channel's Original Series "So Weird," "The Famous Jett Jackson" and "The Jersey"

In honor of Black History Month, Disney Channel will feature a special lineup of original movies and television shows beginning Friday, Feb. 2, including brand-new episodes of "The Jersey" and "The Famous Jett Jackson."

"So Weird" will feature its Black History Month episode, "Blues," Feb. 2 at 4 p.m. ET/PT. In "Blues," Molly and the gang channel the same blues song on their way to a gig in a Mississippi Blues club. Bo Diddley and Marlene Warfield guest star in the episode.

Immediately following "So Weird" is the premiere of an all-new episode of "The Famous Jett Jackson," "Lost and Found," at 4:30 p.m. ET/PT. In "Lost and Found," Jett explores whether or not he really knows what it means to be a young black man in America. Immediately following, we see Jett in another Black History Month episode, titled "Voices." This time Jett helps garner recognition for his great-great grandfather who rescued Wilsted citizens from a fierce fire in the early 1900s.

Black History Month programming continues with a special presentation of Disney Channel's Emmy Award-winning Original Movie "The Color of Friendship," on Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. ET/PT. The movie is based on events that occurred when African-American congressman Ron V. Dellums invited an African exchange student into his home in 1977 and ended up hosting a white South African.

"Selma, Lord, Selma" has its Disney Channel premiere on Sunday, Feb. 4, at 9 p.m. ET/PT. The film, set in Alabama in 1965, tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who becomes a devout follower of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and participates in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery.

Disney Channel special programming continues with a Black History Month episode of "The Jersey," "Jersey of Dreams," premiering Thursday, Feb. 8 at 5 p.m. ET/PT. In this episode, Coleman and the jersey help fulfill the dreams of an elderly black man who never had the chance to play professional football. Stephen Davis and Bruce Smith from the Washington Redskins guest star in the episode.

Disney Channel rounds out its Black History Month lineup with "Nightjohn," a Disney Channel Original Movie, airing Tuesday, Feb. 27 at 10:20 p.m. ET/PT. This film depicts the mythic story of a slave in the pre-Civil War South who believes that literacy can be a weapon against the mental and physical barriers of slavery. Nightjohn courageously defies the laws forbidding the teaching of reading and writing to slaves.

-- Posted January 18, 2001

Source: Company Press Release