Dixieland, swing, bebop, modal, free, avant-garde, these were some of the terms critics used during the 1960s to categorize the diverse manifestations of jazz music. As for the artists themselves, many were desperate for work and headed for Europe, including bebop saxophone master Dexter Gordon. At home, jazz sought relevance. During the Civil Rights struggle it became a voice of protest, while avant-garde explorer John Coltrane reached for a higher...

A wave of bold American writing from both white and black authors gave expression to Southern life during World War II and the years that followed. This program tells the story of that literary development up to the era of the Civil Rights movement. It presents the work of Eudora Welty, Richard Wright, Robert Penn Warren, Ralph Ellison, Lillian Smith, Flannery O'Connor, and others - as well as a revealing 1997 interview with Welty herself. An inventive...

Explore with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., 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.

Once reserved for African royalty, kente cloth has become a familiar pattern in American culture. Narrated by Tony Award-winning actress Ann Duquesnay, this program traces how kente cloth crossed the Atlantic from the West African Republic of Ghana at the beginning of the civil rights movement to literally become part of the fabric of American life. Film footage shows Ashanti and Ewe weavers making kente, while several scholars and experts discuss...

In her new novel "Home," author Toni Morrison tells the story of a soldier, Frank Money, who joins the Army, absorbing the atrocities of the Korean War, and then returns home after his service only to be greeted with both the institutional and casual realities of daily prejudice. Morrison speaks with NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown. Origina?

This program traces the path of African-American literature from the shores of the U.S. to the Left Bank of Paris at the end of World War II through the late 1960s. The program provides context by first exploring the New Orleans salon poetry of Desdunes and discussing the historic suppression of black activists in the U.S. After the Harlem Renaissance, an increasingly hostile climate drove writers James Baldwin and Richard Wright to Paris, where liberal...

Margaret Walker has been described by Nikki Giovanni as the "most famous person nobody knows." Walker established one of the first Black Studies centers in the nation, was mentored by Langston Hughes and W.E.B. Du Bois, and her signature poem, "For My People," set a tone and a level of commitment to which African-American writers have been responding ever since. Narrated by Ruby Dee, this biographical film combines conversations with Walker, readings...

Hip-hop music was created by urban youth of color amid racial oppression and economic marginalization, but was quickly embraced by young people worldwide. This documentary examines the popularity of hip-hop among America's white youth and asks whether the trend is rooted in admiration, or merely a new form of stereotyping, blackface mimicry, and cultural appropriation. With commentary from Amiri Baraka, Chuck D, Russell Simmons, and others, the film...

Known as "Harlem's poet laureate," Langston Hughes was one of the most prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance. This lyrical program celebrates Hughes' life and work, offering a vision of the esteemed poet in present-day Harlem and making a case for his impact on hip-hop music and the contemporary spoken-word community. Narrated by Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, the multilayered presentation includes roundtable discussions of Hughes' contributions...

Hosted by Eli Wallach, this program dissects Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun through the sharp insights of Joe Morton (Walter Lee Younger); Kim Yancey (Beneatha Younger); Phylicia Rashad (Lena Younger); Ruby Dee, Audra McDonald, Starletta DuPois, and Ernestine Jackson (Ruth Younger); Ralph Carter (Travis Younger); John Fiedler (Carl Lindner); directors Lloyd Richards and Jack Hofsiss; Broadway producer Philip Rose; and Hansberry expert Lynn...