STAX MEETS MOTOWN: With Black studies being targeted nationwide, Stax Music Academy distributes student-created Black History Month Study Guide to commemorate civil rights, Black radio and the recording industry of the 1960s and ’70s. PHOTO COURTESY OF PRNEWSWIRE

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (PRNewswire) -Among soul music fans, few things are as emotionally charged as comparisons between Stax Records and Motown.

And now the Stax Music Academy has created a Black History Month production with an educational companion study guide: "Stax Meets Motown."

Educators and students can register via Eventbrite.com for the video production and BHM study guide, The highly entertaining video and companion study guides delve into the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. It explores everything from Black radio to race, the recording industry, fashion and the 1967 Detroit Riots.

Some prefer the rawer, grittier sounds of Stax Records and some like the smooth, polished tunes of Motown in the Stax Music Academy’s "Stax Meets Motown," but viewers can see why both are important in this original Black History Month production by the Stax Music Academy.

The plot twists and turns as the rival students begin paying homage to the two labels that created some of the most riveting music of the era.

Viewers will hear such familiar songs as hits recorded by Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding, Johnnie Taylor, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, and Sam & Dave.

The 2024 Black History Month production was filmed entirely at historic Booker T. Washington High School, which dates to the 1800s and is one of the first high schools in Memphis for African Americans.