In 1969, black female hospital workers in Charleston, South Carolina went on strike for union recognition and a wage increase, only to find themselves in a confrontation with the state government and the National Guard. Featuring Andrew Young, Charles Abernathy, and Coretta Scott King and produced by Local 1199, New York’s hospital and health workers union, “I Am Somebody” is a crucial document in the struggle for labor rights, economic justice, dignity and self-respect.
Madeline Anderson
Pioneering filmmaker and television producer Madeline Anderson is often credited as being the first black woman to produce and direct a televised documentary film, the first black woman to produce and direct a syndicated TV series, the first black employee at New York-based public television station National Educational Television (WNET), and one of the first black women to join the film editor’s union. Anderson went on to become the in-house producer and director for “Sesame Street”. During the early 1970s, she also helped create what would become WHUT-TV, the country’s first, and only, black-owned public television station.
