Amid a political frenzy, a showcase of racial divide and conflicts between communities and law enforcement, award-winning Harvard professor, Henry Louis Gates Jr., brings a riveting story of Black American history over the past 50 years.
Last month the Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation hosted a special screening at the Times Center in New York of “Black America Since MLK: And Still I Rise,” a PBS production written and executive produced by Gates.
The two-part four-hour documentary series, which premieres on PBS Nov. 15 and 22 at 8 p.m., unfolds the greatest struggles and triumphs of Black Americans since Martin Luther King Jr., including the great civil rights movement, the induction of our first Black president and the current Black Lives Matter era.
“If Dr. King woke up and asked, ‘What happened?’ What would you tell him had happened?” Gates described as the premise of the documentary.
“The Black upper-middle class has quadrupled since the 1970s, but the percentage of Black children living at or beneath the poverty lines [is] almost the same as it was when he [MLK] was alive. So, it’s like we have a class divide within the Black community. So, it’s the best of times and worst of times. It’s a paradox,” Gates explained.
The screening followed a panel discussion with major civil rights figures, including moderator Charlayne Hunter-Gault, the Rev. Dr. Calvin O. Butts III, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton and professor Michael Eric Dyson.
The panel reflected on some of the major moments of growing up in an era of unfiltered displays of race relations. From the unapologetic afro hairstyles and chants of James Brown’s 1968 hit “Say it Loud, I’m Black and I’m Proud,” to the generational divide during the Civil Rights Movement and the rise of Black feminism.
For Gates it was important to not only show the progressions of Black Americans but also show the current challenges that essentially try to repress the development of Black America.
“Each era manifests the problems of the Black community in different ways. Gates is looking at 50 years since MLK, that’s very important. It took 100 years to get to that 50 years and the reason that 50 years is so important is that we made the most important progress during that period,” said Norton.
Dyson explained the significance of this series as a story of the many aspects of Black culture and its impact on America in the past 50 years.
“I want people to see how complicated, complex, powerful and beautiful, even contradictory, Black culture is, but at the end of the day a remarkable collection of wit, wisdom, desire and aspiration that has remade America,” said Dyson. “Democracy would not be the same without the contribution of Black people—our resilience of spirit, our ebullience that we will not be suppressed, we will not be kept down that we will keep coming is the take-home from this remarkable journey of Black people of the 50 years since MLK’s death.”
For Hunter-Gault, the importance of this series is to provide knowledge to the many children, young people and teachers who are not aware of African-American history.
“You’ve got to know the history in order to deal with the present and the future,” she said.
She calls for a “coalition of the generations” so that they can learn from each other.
“I think that millennials have a lot of energy; they need to understand where they’ve come from and that will help them chart a path to the future,” said Hunter-Gault. “They could look at mistakes that were made and solutions that resulted in something concrete for us and you build on that, you build on the history.”
Malcolm X, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Rosa Parks and so many more are known as historic leaders who have made strides for Black Americans during their time. Today, many questions arise as to who our current leaders are, if there are any at all.
According to Butts, “The true leaders are the men and women who will put their lives or reputations on the line and withstand the brutal attack of the empire’s media when they begin to get at the truth.”