WHUT/PBS: *The African Americans: Many Rivers To Cross* With Dr. Henry Louis Gates

[appalachiablue]

"The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross" Episode 3: 'Into the Fire' (1861-96). ~ Series now on WHUT, Channel 32.

"Into the Fire" examines the most tumultuous and consequential period in African-American history: the Civil War and the end of slavery, and Reconstruction's thrilling but brief "moment in the sun." From the beginning, African Americans were agents of their liberation - by fleeing the plantations and taking up arms to serve in the United States Colored Troops.

After Emancipation, African Americans sought to realize the promise of freedom - rebuilding families shattered by slavery; demanding economic, political and civil rights; even winning elected office - but a few years later, an intransigent South mounted a swift and vicious campaign of terror to restore white supremacy and roll back African-American rights. Yet the achievements of Reconstruction remained in the collective memory of the African-American community.

> Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. recounts the full trajectory of African-American history in his groundbreaking 6-part series THE AFRICAN AMERICANS: MANY RIVERS TO CROSS with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. (2013). Written and presented by Professor Gates, the series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed- forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds.

From the origins of slavery in Africa, the series moves through 5 centuries of remarkable historic events right up to the present - when America is led by a black president, yet remains a nation deeply divided by race.
Professor Gates travels throughout the United States, taking viewers on an engaging journey through African-American history. He visits key historical sites, partakes in lively debates with some of America’s top historians and interviews living eyewitnesses — including school integration pioneers Ruby Bridges and Charlayne Hunter-Gault, former Black Panther Kathleen Neal Cleaver, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and many more.

More, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/african-americans-many-rivers-to-cross/about/about-the-series/

~ This outstanding series relays 500 years of history and should be seen by all.

[dawg day]

1. Can't help it-- gotta sing it with Jimmy Cliff-

This is sad and lovely and hopeful-