Tavis Smiley in Memphis for Week-Long Commemoration of 40th Anniversary of King Assassination

Tavis Smiley in Memphis for Week-Long Commemoration of 40th Anniversary of King Assassination

PBS Talk Show Broadcasts from Assassination Site March 31-April 4 with Special Guest Interviews; PRI Radio to Broadcast April 8

MEMPHIS, Tenn., March 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Tavis Smiley will travel to Memphis to broadcast his PBS late-night talk show from the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, March 31 through April 4, in commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In addition, The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI (Public Radio International) will broadcast Thursday, April 3 at 9-11 a.m. from the historic Mason Temple.

Throughout the week, Tavis Smiley's PBS program will feature guests who were touched by the life of Dr. King, including actor and King colleague Harry Belafonte; Rev. Al Sharpton; Princeton professor Dr. Cornel West; Monumental Baptist Church's Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles; former King attorney Clarence B. Jones; Taylor Rogers, one of the striking Memphis sanitation workers in 1968; former King secretary Dorothy Cotton; Beverly Robertson, executive director of the Civil Rights Museum; and minister/social commentator Michael Eric Dyson.

The National Civil Rights Museum is located at the Lorraine Motel, the site of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination on April 4, 1968.

The Mason Temple is the site of Dr. King's "I've been to the Mountaintop" speech delivered April 3, 1968 the night before his death. For the PRI broadcast, Tavis will lead a discussion about the speech and Dr. King's legacy before a live audience with guests including Martin Luther King III, Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Cotton, Clarence Jones, and Beverly Robertson as well as historian Clayborne Carson, Earl Caldwell, the New York Times journalist who witnessed the assassination, and Bishop Charles Blake, presiding Bishop of Church of God in Christ and Mason Temple.

Tavis Smiley is the host of the PBS late-night talk show and The Tavis Smiley Show from PRI and author/editor of 11 books. He recently received two honors at the 39th annual NAACP Image Awards bringing his total to 12 Image Awards throughout his career. In addition, on February 23, Smiley organized and hosted the 9th annual "State of the Black Union" symposium in New Orleans.

Tavis Smiley is produced by The Smiley Group Inc./TS Media Inc. in association with KCET/Los Angeles. For more information, visit http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/

Media contact: Laurel Lambert, (323) 953-5246, llambert@kcet.org

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: KCET

CONTACT: Laurel Lambert, KCET, +1-323-953-5246, llambert@kcet.org

Web site:

http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley

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