The African Americans - Many Rivers to Cross - with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Henry Louis Gates Remembers Rev. Pickney
Illustration from The Black Atlantic episode
Episode 1: The Black Atlantic
The Black Atlantic explores the global experiences that created the African-American people. The episode portrays the earliest Africans, slave and ...
Cotton plantation illustration
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
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 as Young Girl
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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Episode Six: A More Perfect Union
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
Web Exclusive
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
Black is Beautiful
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
  • What Was Black America’s Double War?
    The Double V Campaign demanded an end to segregation in the Armed Forces during World War II
  • ’12 Years a Slave’: Trek From Slave to Screen
    As a literary scholar and cultural historian who has spent a lifetime searching out African Americans' lost, forgotten and otherwise unheralded tales, I was honored to serve as a historical consultant on Steve McQueen's "12 Years a Slave," most certainly one of the most vivid and authentic portrayals of slavery ever captured in a feature film.
  • What Is Juneteenth?
    What is Juneteenth and why are 42 states and the District of Columbia celebrating it this year?
  • Should Blacks Collect Racist Memorabilia?
    Henry Louis Gates Jr. makes a case for saving racist imagery that worked in tandem with Jim Crow laws.
  • 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.
All Facts About the Blog Title

Many Rivers Posters

A collection of shareable, downloadable posters created for The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross series, featuring quotations by notable African Americans including Harriet Tubman, W.E.B. DuBois, Zora Neale Hurston, Jackie Robinson, and Malcolm X.

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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.