The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Henry Louis Gates Remembers Rev. Pickney

Illustration from The Black Atlantic episode

The Black Atlantic explores the global experiences that created the African-American people. The episode portrays the earliest Africans, slave and ...

The Cotton Economy and Slavery

Slavery was the fuel for a global cotton economy. The spread of plantations in the Deep South led to the forced migration known today as slavery's ...

Robert Smalls: A Daring Escape

The future South Carolina Representative to Congress made a daring escape from slavery when he sailed a war ship past Fort Sumter.

Racist Images and Messages in Jim Crow Era

Racist images in the Jim Crow era demeaned African Americans and legitimized violence against them. A visit to the Jim Crow Museum in Michigan.

Ruby Bridges Goes to School

Ruby was one of six children who desegregated several all-white elementary schools in New Orleans in 1960.

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Full Episode

A More Perfect Union (1968 – 2013). Full Episode

From the Black Power movement to the first black president of the United States.

53:10

Conversation with Rep. John Lewis and Charlayne Hunter-Gault

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Civil Rights Movement Leaders in Conversation

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, journalist Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Chairman Emeritus of the NAACP Julian Bond.

01:18:54

Episode Six Clip

Black is Beautiful

“Black is Beautiful” came out of the Black Power movement and into the mainstream, such as on "Soul Train."

03:00

Henry Louis Gates, Jr.'s 100 Amazing Facts About the Negro

Who Really Invented the ‘Talented Tenth’?
Who originated the concept of the "Talented Tenth" black leadership class?
What Was the Second Middle Passage?
The growth of the cotton economy and the internal slave trade in America forced families to separate and migrate once again.
The Black Governor Who Was Almost a Senator
Why didn't more than one black person serve in the Senate during the Reconstruction era -- a condition that persisted until this year?
Who Really Ran the Underground Railroad?
Seven common myths about the Underground Railroad, and how they have sometimes overwhelmed historical facts.
Did African-American Slaves Rebel?
The five greatest slave rebellions in the United States.

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The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross is a film by Kunhardt McGee Productions, THIRTEEN Productions LLC, Inkwell Films, in assocation with Ark Media.

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