New Monthly Docu-Series Tackles the Headlines Facing Black America, Beginning With the Drop-Out Rate in Detroit

From gang wars to police brutality to the sexually transmitted disease epidemic facing young women, BET News goes inside America's cities to examine the issues devastating our communities in a new one-hour documentary series, HEART OF THE CITY. Each month HEART OF THE CITY will tell the stories of those most directly affected by leading issues in the African American community, and go beyond simply reporting on the challenges to highlighting the efforts of those working tirelessly to create change with real solutions. Premiering on Saturday, September 12, at 10:00 p.m.*, HEART OF THE CITY will first travel to Detroit, the ground zero of our national education crisis, to understand why so many African Americans are failing and why the system is failing our kids.

What's been a growing problem for years is now a full-blown emergency. More than 6 million American students drop out of high school, most of them Black and Latino. Almost half of all African American youth never finish high school. That's more than double the rate of whites. During the premiere episode of HEART OF THE CITY: DROPPED OUT IN DETROIT, BET News will travel to the predominantly Black city of Detroit, where the statistics are even more shocking: two out of every three teens drop out.

The decision to quit school has a long-lasting domino effect on the lives of these youths, their families, communities, cities and even states, which suffer huge losses in income revenue, skilled productivity and increased social spending. In Detroit, and nationwide, drastic solutions are called for. The Obama administration has sounded the alarm over the crisis and has zeroed in on Detroit to come up with a formula to turn the tide of this national crisis. Through strong and intimate storytelling, HEART OF THE CITY: DROPPED OUT IN DETROIT will break down the causes and effects of this massive crisis, and present them through the eyes of students, parents, teachers and educationists living this crisis.

For more on HEART OF THE CITY, visit www.bet.com/heartofthecity.

*All times ET/PT

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation's leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 98 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; BET Digital Networks - BET J, BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.

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