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ABC Owned Television Stations premieres "Our America: Hidden Stories"- a collaborative effort across its eight stations to highlight hidden histories of our local communities by exploring people, places and events of historically underrepresented and marginalized communities that are not usually taught in classrooms or mentioned in history textbooks.A half-hour special for Black History Month features the following reports:

St. Elmo Village, Los Angeles, California

St. Elmo Village is the birthplace of the national Black Lives Matter Movement in 2013. The Mid-City L.A. complex is also known as "a living monument to the 1970's Black Arts Movement" and is described as one of the most under-recognized Black arts hubs in Los Angeles.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project, Stanford, California

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project is one of very few large-scale research projects focused on a Black person in the United States. Its mission is to publish volumes of Dr. King's work including unpublished manuscripts. The current director, Clayborne Carson, was hand-selected by the late Coretta Scott King to run the institute.

Allensworth State Historic Park,Earlimart, California

The former town of Allensworth was once the only municipality fully built, governed and populated by African Americans in the state of California. Most of its population was comprised of former Buffalo Soldiers. The state is now working to preserve the history of the town and its founder, Colonel AllenAllensworth, an escaped slave who retired as thehighest-rankingBlack officer in the Union Army at the time.

Black History Detectives, Hopewell Township, New Jersey

Beverly Mills and Elaine Buck are "uncovering hidden history one stone at a time." The self-described "History Detectives" are telling the untold stories of Black Americans in Central New Jersey by combing through documents affiliated withStoutsburgCemetery. They've written a book and founded a museum featuring their findings. They also run a consulting company that works to help schools incorporate local Black history into their curricula.

Provident Hospital, Chicago, Illinois

Chicago's Provident Hospital is the first Black-owned hospital in the United States. It was founded in 1891 and two years later became the first nursing school for Black women in Chicago.Its founder, Dr. Dale Williams, was one of the first doctors to perform open-heart surgery in U.S. history.

The Houston Defender, Houston, Texas

The HoustonDefender, a weekly Black newspaper, has been chronicling Black life in Southeast Texas since 1930. Clifton Frederick Richardson founded the paper and focused on the elimination of Jim Crow laws and other social and economic issues and the tradition continues to this day. The Defender represents the critical role of the Black press, including a positive effect on Black voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election.

The Negro Leagues & Players Honored, Central North Carolina

Recently, Major League Baseball announced it wouldrecognizethe Negro Leagues as a major league. The designation is shining a light on the players who made up this important part of American sports history and they are reflecting on their own contributions to the sport and the legacy of their teams. Players from Raleigh and Durham, North Carolina are among them.

Octavius Catto, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Activist, educator, intellectual, professional baseball player and martyr are all words that can describe one of Philadelphia's native sons whose name goes unmentioned in many history books. A free Black person, Octavius Valentine Catto moved to the City of Brotherly love as a child. He was shot and killed in violence while working in the name of Black suffrage.