James Baldwin, "Take This Hammer" — James Baldwin, “Take This Hammer”

WNET, America’s flagship PBS station (and parent company of THIRTEEN and WLIW21), is making the groundbreaking 1963 documentary, “Take This Hammer,” available via Facebook Live on Friday, February 24 at 8 pm.

This event marks the first time WNET will release an archival film via Facebook.

“We are privileged to have a broad archive of noteworthy film content from throughout our 54-year history,” says WNET President and CEO Neal Shapiro, “And Facebook Live can serve as yet another way to broaden the channels we use to reach the public with high-quality, informative and free content.”

In “Take this Hammer,” author and activist James Baldwin meets with members of the local African American community in San Francisco in the spring of 1963. He is escorted by Youth For Service’s Executive Director Orville Luster and is intent on discovering “the real situation of Negroes in the city, as opposed to the image San Francisco would like to present.”

Excerpts from Take this Hammer appear in the Academy Award-Nominated film, “I Am Not your Negro,” a film by Raoul Peck that explores Baldwin’s plans to write a biography of Malcom X, Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Join the livestream of “Take This Hammer” on Friday, February 24 at 8 PM here: https://www.facebook.com/thirteenwnet/videos/10154089637265059/. It will be available for viewing for one-week.

Watch a preview below: