Each week in February, News 12 Long Island features a segment to honor Black History Month. Below are the featured people or topics. All are set to air at 8 a.m.
Monday, Feb. 1 - Part 1: Brumsic Brandon Jr./Barbara Brandon-Croft - Father/Daughter Cartoonists:Brumsic Bandon Jr. designed one of the first nationally syndicated comic strips to feature a mainly black cast of characters, called Luther. His daughter, Barbara Brandon-Croft, of New Cassel, followed in her father's footsteps and became the first nationally syndicated female African-American cartoonist, "Where I'm Coming From."
Monday, Feb. 8 - Part 2: Donald Andy "Donnie" McClurkin Jr. - American gospel singer:McClurkin Jr., of Amityville, is one of the top selling gospel music artists, selling over 10 million albums worldwide. He has won three Grammy Awards, 10 Stellar Awards, two BET Awards, two Soul Train Awards, one Dove Award and one NAACP Image Award. He's currently the senior pastor at a Freeport church.
Monday, Feb. 15 - Part 3: Moneta Sleet Jr. - Civil Rights Era Photographer:Sleet Jr., of Baldwin, captured many of the images that defined the struggle for racial equality in the United States and Africa. He is most well known as the first black American to win a Pulitzer Prize with a photograph he took of the wife of Martin Luther King Jr. at the civil rights leader's funeral in 1968.
Monday, Feb. 22 - Part 4: Final Farewell To A Hero:Samuel G. Leftenant was a U.S. Army fighter pilot and African American Tuskegee Airmen. In 1945, at 21 years old, the P-51 he was flying went down while on an escort mission over Austria. No one ever found him or his plane. He was presumed dead a year later, but over the past 70 years, his family, from Amityville, kept hope alive that they would see Samuel. Earlier this month, four of his surviving sisters, ages 80-95, made the tough decision to hold a memorial service, bidding Samuel an official farewell at Arlington National Cemetery.
Wednesday, March 16 - Part 5: Ferguson Brothers Killing:Four Ferguson brothers, of Roosevelt, were out celebrating the oldest brother's re-enlistment in the Army Air Force. A chain of events ensued beginning with an argument in a tea room at the local Freeport bus terminal. The night ended with the four African-American brothers having an encounter with a white Freeport rookie police officer who shot three of the brothers, killing two. The officer testified one brother had a gun and claimed self-defense. There was no gun found, and the officer was never charged.