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Writers, 'Wire' Creator To Discuss HBO Civil Rights Series

BALTIMORE (AP) -- The creator of TV's "The Wire" is joining historian Taylor Branch and other writers in Baltimore to discuss their upcoming HBO miniseries chronicling the civil rights movement.

The Friday evening panel is part of the Maryland Film Festival. The discussion comes as Baltimore has been facing its own racial and economic divisions after protests erupted in the wake of a man's death in police custody.

"The Wire" creator David Simon is producing the HBO miniseries, "America in the King Years," based on Branch's history of the Civil Rights movement. Other writers on the series include Atlantic magazine editor and commentator Ta-Nehisi Coates and National Book Award winner James McBride.

Festival Director Jed Dietz says the discussion about writing on race is timely and relevant for Baltimore and its recent protests.

(Copyright 2015 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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