The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross is an award-winning six-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series written and presented by Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It aired for the first time in the fall of 2013, beginning with episode 1, "The Black Atlantic (1500-1800)", on October 22, from 8-9 p.m. ET on PBS, and every consecutive Tuesday through to episode 6, "A More Perfect Union (1968-2013)", on November 26. The companion book to the series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross (SmileyBooks, 2013), was co-authored by Gates and historian Donald Yacovone. The two-DVD set of the series was released in January 2014.

The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross chronicles the full sweep of the African-American experience, from the origins of the transatlantic slave trade to the reelection and second inauguration of President Barack Obama. It is the first documentary series to recount this history in its entirety since the nine-part History of the Negro People aired on National Educational Television in 1965, and the one-hour documentary Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed, narrated by Bill Cosby and broadcast in 1968. According to the PBS website for the series, The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross "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. Commencing with the origins of slavery in Africa, the series moves through five 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."

For the series, Gates collaborated with more than 30 historians to identify and select 70 of the most important and illustrative stories of the African-American experience to serve as the epic's narrative spine. Among the more notable figures Gates highlighted was the black Spanish conquistador Juan Garrido, who, in 1513, accompanied Ponce de León on his expedition into what is now the state of Florida. As a result, the airing of The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross coincided with the 500th anniversary of the presence of persons of African descent in what is today the continental United States. Among the other prominent figures profiled in the series are: Harriet Tubman, Richard Allen, Frederick Douglass, Robert Smalls, Ida B. Wells, W. E. B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Oscar Micheaux, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., Ruby Bridges, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Maulana Karenga, Colin Powell, and many more.

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