An AMERICAN EXPERIENCE collection featuring a selection of films documenting the African American Experience — along with articles, digital shorts and original features exploring America’s continued struggle with race, democracy and justice, and celebrating the contributions of Black Americans to the American story.
Meet the influential author and key figure of the Harlem Renaissance. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean — reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms.
Explore the lives and legacies of three African American ambassadors who broke racial barriers to reach high-ranking appointments in the Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations and left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.
In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind.
On June 22, 1938, 70,000 fans crammed into Yankee Stadium to watch what some have called "the most important sporting event in history" — the rematch between African American heavyweight Joe Louis and his German opponent Max Schmeling.
Filmmaker Tracy Heather Strain talks about Zora Neale Hurston and her interest in capturing the rural Black folk in her writings and ethnographic work. In multiple trips to the south, Hurston shot 16mm film of rural Black people, culture and customs amassing 85 minutes of footage that she shot and/or directed.
In August 1963, Edward R. Murrow, head of the United States Information Agency, began producing a documentary about the upcoming March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. But as the project neared completion, Murrow was losing a battle with cancer. President Lyndon B. Johnson tasked a groundbreaking diplomat, Carl Rowan, with seeing the project through.
A new telling of the story of the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi—carried out by the Klan and enabled by police collusion and a Mississippi state spy agency.
Historian, public speaker and author Danielle McGuire PhD and journalism professor and author Allissa Richardson speak with the Gen-Z historian Kahlil Greene about the role of the media in shaping public perception around the murders of Black Americans.
Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer for the U.S. Department of State Gina Abercrombie Winstanley and former U.S. diplomat Christopher Richardson speak with historian Adriane Lentz-Smith about the history and present day diversity problem in the State Department.
Filmmaker Stanley Nelson and American Experience Executive Producer Cameo George discuss three of Nelson's Civil Rights films, how these stories shaped and advanced the ongoing civil rights movement, and how public media can help elevate filmmakers of color in telling diverse stories.
Screenwriter Carmen Fields and historian Karlos K. Hill speak with historian Jessica Marie Johnson about the centennial of the Tulsa Massacre and the story of Greenwood’s resilience and resurgence.
Historian Amira Rose Davis and sports columnist William C. Rhoden speak with creator and host of The Humanity Archive Jermaine Fowler about the intersection of sports and politics in the Olympics.
Opera singer Angela Brown and professor Kira Thurman speak with professor Jessica Marie Johnson about the excellence and power of Black women as they navigate and conquer traditionally white spaces and industries.
Before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Briggs v. Elliot—the case that launched Thurgood Marshall’s fight to end segregation in America’s schools.
