Taking an innovative approach to celebrating Black History Month, WIAT-TV in Birmingham, Ala., headed into the classroom for the second year. Using the children as the talent, WIAT helps local schools develop news segments about different figures in black history, which are then broadcast in every newscast throughout the day for the month of February. The Archives Division of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and the Birmingham Public Library provide historical graphics, pictures and video for the stories, which the children record at the studio. In one 2008 segment, Keita Scott, a fifth-grader from Restoration Academy, spoke about Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American elected to the U.S. Congress. In another segment, Angelica Jaimes from Homewood Middle School narrated the accomplishments of Coretta Scott King, wife of Martin Luther King Jr. Station staff contributes an estimated 50 hours to the project each year. In 2008, 29 individual segments were recorded. The station produced DVDs of the entire series for each participating school to use in the classroom.
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