BET has announced a slate of special programming in response to the global police brutality protests sparked by the death of George Floyd.
In an effort to address the “systemic racism, the violence faced by Black people in America and the solutions to help move the country forward,” BET is kicking off a month’s worth of coverage tonight with Justice Now: A BET News Special.
Led by BET News host Marc Lamont Hill, Justice Now: A BET News Special will feature conversations with Floyd’s family, Senator Cory Booker, John Legend, Emerald Garner (daughter of Eric Garner), Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones, and more.
“We stand in steadfast solidarity with George Floyd’s family, the many victims of racist brutality, and those who are using their voices and platforms to challenge it,” said Scott Mills, president of BET, in a statement. “There are no easy solutions for these systemic issues of racism, injustice, and trauma. BET is leveraging every platform and resource at our disposal to support and inform our community and help identify strategies and viable solutions in this time of crisis.”
During tonight’s block of primetime programming, BET will also run the docuseries Finding Justice and Copwatch: America, as well as go black for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in honor of Floyd.
Later this month, BET will present Justice Now: A BET Town Hall, which is billed as “a special virtual telecast that will give voice to the collective grief, anger, fear, needs and hopes of our community and feature community leaders and activists to share their views on the reforms necessary in America’s political and criminal justice systems and the importance of voting at state and federal levels.”
But perhaps the most eye-grabbing item on BET’s slate is its proposed Presidential Forum on Juneteenth, June 19, where Donald Trump and Joe Biden have been invited to address the black community.
The first Justice Now special premieres tonight at 8 p.m. ET/PT on BET. The special will not be available on BET+, but here’s how to sign up for a service that’ll give you access to BET:
- Sling
- FuboTV
- AT&T TVNow
- BET.com, if you have a traditional TV provider and can log in through it
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