The CW’s ‘Black Lightning” series will end its run in 2021 after four seasons, but a spinoff is being developed.
The show, which stars Cress Williams as Jefferson Pierce (aka Black Lightning), has been shot in metro Atlanta since 2018. Atlanta’s China Anne McClain, who plays Pierce’s daughter, said on social media this was going to be her last season no matter what, and she isn’t expected to appear in all of season four episodes.
“When we first started the ‘Black Lighting’ journey, I knew that Jefferson Pierce and his family of powerful Black women would be a unique addition to the superhero genre,” said showrunner Salim Akil in a presss release. “The love that Blerds and all comic book fans around the globe have shown this series over the past three seasons proved what we imagined; Black people want to see themselves in all their complexities.”
The CW will create a spinoff focused on the villain Painkiller (Jordan Calloway).
“Black Lightning” returns Monday, Feb. 8.
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The Atlanta Press Club last week officially inducted four journalists into its hall of fame, joining 36 others.
The four inductees are:
Credit: Boyd Lewis/special
Credit: Boyd Lewis/special
Boyd Henry Lewis, Jr.
Lewis is a photographer, teacher and former journalist who worked with Black-owned newspapers in Atlanta, including The Atlanta Voice and The Atlanta Inquirer, primarily in the 1970s. “The depth of his work is amazing. His character just shines through,” said Jennifer Hall Lee, a local filmmaker, during a tribute video the Atlanta Press Club aired on Georgia Public Broadcasting last week. He later became a reporter for Creative Loafing and 90.1/WABE-FM, hosting “Southwind” a program featuring news, interviews and events in Atlanta. He also worked at CNN, then retired to become a public school teacher in Los Angeles. His many photos are now archived at the Atlanta History Center. In a thank-you video, he noted that he got to interview many of the key civil rights figures of the day and said the late John Lewis would jokingly call him “Cousin” Lewis. “I’m especially grateful my work is being recognized during this time of renewed civil unrest,” Lewis said. “I hope it will inspire the next generation of civil rights leaders since it was the inspiration for me, ‘the white boy in the Black press.’”
>>RELATED: The AJC highlights some of Lewis’ most notable photos from the 1970s
Credit: AJC
Credit: AJC
Lee May
May, who died in 2014 of cancer, was a journalist with The Los Angeles Times and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for more than 25 years. A Mississippi native, he worked for the AJC in the 1970s, becoming one of the first Black editorial writers at the paper. With the L.A. Times, he covered the White House and was the Atlanta bureau chief for the paper. “He was just a sweet sweet man,” said New York Times journalist Kevin Sack in the APC tribute video. “As a son of the South, he understood the place.” Later, May returned to the AJC to become a noted home and gardening columnist. Lyle Harris, a former AJC journalist and friend, said May wrote about gardening with “such power and such strength.” His wife Lee May accepted the induction on his behalf. She said she admired how he changed gears at age 50 from politics to gardening and became a “gardening rock star.”
>>RELATED: Read the AJC obituary about May
Credit: KENT D. JOHNSON / AJC
Credit: KENT D. JOHNSON / AJC
Bill Rankin
Rankin has worked at the AJC for more than 30 years, much of that time as the legal affairs reporter. He has also hosted AJC’s popular Breakdown true-crime podcast since 2015. His APC tribute video opened with Rankin figuring out that Richard Jewell could not have been the person who placed a call to 911 warning of a pending bombing at Centennial Olympic Park during the 1996 Olympics by timing the walk from the pay phone to the bomb site. Don Samuel, an attorney, said that Rankin is admired by people at all levels of the judicial system for his tenacity, his attention to detail and his ability to explain cases for the masses. Rankin, in his thank-you video, said “covering the justice system to me is not a job. It’s been a calling. My mission has been to expose inequities, disparities, that lead to unequal treatment under the law.”
>>RELATED: AJC’s Bill Torpy recounts Rankin’s work to prove Jewell’s innocence in 1996
Pat Mitchell
Mitchell started out as a professor, but in the early 1970s, switched careers by joining a TV news station in Boston. She then created her own production company and hosted a notable daytime show, ‘Woman to Woman,” while also making appearances on NBC’s “The Today Show.” She then did documentaries for Turner Broadcasting on subjects such as the Cold War, Cuba, Vietnam and women, winning five Peabody Awards and 35 Emmys. She later became the first female president of PBS and CNN productions. She currently serves as editorial director of TED Women. “When she broke the glass ceiling, she threw a ladder so others could climb up,” said Monica Pearson, the former WSB-TV anchor during the APC tribute video. PBS’s Christiane Amanpour called her a trailblazer and an activist for women.
Disclosure: I have been part of the Atlanta Press Club board of directors since 2009.
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On Tuesday night’s HBO series “Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel,” correspondent Mary Carillo sits down with some of sports’ most fanatical fans to see how they are faring during the pandemic.
Among them: Atlanta Falcons super fan Carolyn Freeman, known as “Bird Lady,” who spends hours transforming herself into a red-feathered bird for Falcons home games but cannot do so this season.
“It’s my form of physical therapy not only for my body but for my heart and my mind,” Freeman said in a teaser clip. “I miss my boys. I miss my babies. I miss my fans. I can’t really imagine or see my life without them.”
The episode debuts at 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
