Martin Luther King Day schedules

Today being Martin Luther King Day here in the US, it's not surprising that TCM is running a whole bunch of movies with prominent black characters. Unfortunately, since black actors didn't get that much of a chance to play prominent characters before Sidney Poitier came along, there's a limited selection to choose from, and we get a lot of the same movies every year. I should have posted last night, because one I don't think TCM has run for a while is Carmen Jones at 10:00 AM, part of a morning of Harry Belafonte movies.

The afternoon is given over to the previously-mentioned Sidney Poitier, and of the three movies TCM is showing, my favorite is A Patch of Blue at 2:00 PM. There's one more Poitier movie overnight, A Raisin in the Sun, which is slightly oddly scheduled in the overnight....

The reason I say that scheduling is odd is that TCM is running a two-night spotlight in prime time called Overlooked African-American Performances, and I don't really know that anything with Poitier as the star is really overlooked. Donald Bogle is presenting, and I'm guessing he'll be pointing out the other performances are the ones that are overlooked. Tonight's lineup starts at 8:00 PM with one that's new to me, Nothing But a Man, which for some bizarre reason isn't listed on TCM's online weekly schedule. (It is on the monthly schedule, and with no synopsis, I'm assuming it's a TCM premiere.)

The second night of the spotlight is on Thursday night, since Tuesdays were scheduled for Star of the Month Patricia Neal and Wednesday's for TCM's spotlight on the Roaring 20s. The interesting part of the Thursday schedule comes following the four movies he's picked. Rounding out the night will be a pair of Oscar Micheaux silents, Within Our Gates and Symbol of the Unconquered.