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African Americans History African Americans Social life and customs Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States Politics and government 1901-1953Filter By Subjects
African Americans History African Americans Social life and customs Depressions 1929 United States Jazz History and criticism Music 20th century History and criticism Music 21st century History and criticism Musical form Style, Musical United States History 1901-1953 United States Politics and government 1901-1953Summary: For African-Americans, the 20th century was fraught with contrasts. There was the glowing promise of equality in the nation's charters and there was the actual bigotry that shadowed and shrank that promise. In this program, Bill Moyers is joined by a distinguished couple who have long spoken for black aspirations-Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. Together they re-create, in dramatic dialogue and often...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: The year 1954 can now be seen as a clarifying point of convergence in American history. Among other things, it was the year that brought the Supreme Court's decision to outlaw racial segregation in the schools of the United States. In this program, Bill Moyers, Ossie Davis, and Ruby Dee tell the story of how the New Deal, World War II, and postwar social changes set the stage for a long-awaited...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2010
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Summary: The story of jazz begins in New Orleans, 19th-century America's most cosmopolitan city. Here, in the 1890s, African-American artists created a new music out of ragtime syncopations, Caribbean rhythms, marching band instrumentation, and the soulful feeling of the blues. This program introduces the pioneers of this revolutionary art form: half-mad cornet player Buddy Bolden, pianist Jelly Roll...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: The flowering of the Jazz Age is a tale of two great cities, Chicago and New York, and two extraordinary artists whose achievements spanned nearly three-quarters of a century. Louis Armstrong was a fatherless waif who grew up on the rough streets of New Orleans, developing his extraordinary gifts before moving to Chicago, where his transcendent sound inspired a new generation of musicians. Duke...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2000
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Summary: The crash of 1929 left a country—once reeling with optimism—with 25% of its citizens unemployed and at a near complete loss of hope. But in March, 1933, within weeks of his election, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt stepped in with a solution: the Civilian Conservation Corps. As told by four veterans of this unique organization, The Civilian Conservation Corps, from the PBS American...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2009
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Summary: Listening to our Past is a piecing together of the family histories of four of the series participants. The episode explores the post-World War I “Great Migration” of African-Americans from the South to northern cities like Detroit and Chicago, as well as those who stayed in the South during the period of Jim Crow segregation. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. also begins an intriguing examination of his...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
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Summary: In the early 20th century, community centers called settlement houses were established across America. This documentary relates the history of one such facility-the Phyllis Wheatley Settlement House, known in its time as "the greatest settlement house in the U.S. for Negroes." The program profiles its first director, W. Gertrude Brown, who touched the lives of generations of African-Americans,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006
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Summary: This documentary examines the career of the pioneer black nationalist; it ranges from his birthplace in Jamaica to the United States, Europe, and Africa. Garvey (1887-1940) captured the imagination of black Americans during the 1920s with his impassioned call for an independent black nation. The program shows how Garvey's legacy inspired the civil rights movement in the U.S. and liberation...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2005
View online at AVOD
Summary: During the early 20th century, Washington, D.C., was the cultural capital of black America. Prefiguring Harlem in the 1920s, D.C.'s Uptown area nurtured dynamic figures such as Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Mary Church Terrell, Justice Thurgood Marshall, and Dr. Charles Drew. In this program, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Hedrick Smith tells the often-overlooked story of the heyday,...
Format: software, multimedia
Publisher / Publication Date: Films Media Group 2006