"Making Black America: Through the Grapevine" is a new four-part series from executive producer, host and writer Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates and director Stacey L. Hokman chronicle the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people beyond the reach of the "white gaze." Gates sits with noted scholars, politicians, cultural leaders, and old friends to discuss this world behind the color line and what it looks like today. "Making Black America" takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcased Black people's ability to collectively prosper, defy white supremacy and define Blackness in ways that transformed America itself.
"It was profoundly meaningful to work on this series at a time in history when we've needed community more than ever," said Gates. "Through centuries of enslavement and segregation, repressive violence and insidious structural traps, Black Americans shut out of the 'American Dream' did anything but fold. Instead, they created their own dazzling array of social, political, and economic spaces – beyond the 'white gaze' that gave birth to an entirely novel Black culture that would transform the nation and the world. From the Prince Hall Masons to Black Twitter, "Making Black America" tells the story of these remarkable Black social networks and how they wove an interconnected web of opportunities and uplift for generations that continue to comfort and inspire."
This documentary surveys slavery, freedom, and the contours of the bind between North and South; continues with Reconstruction and life under Jim Crow rule; and demonstrates – through personal and historical stories – the status of the ongoing effort to organize and achieve goals first set during slavery.
"Making Black America: Through the Grapevine" premieres at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 4 on Panhandle PBS. Prior to the premiere, join Texas PBS stations at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 27 for a free statewide virtual panel discussion surrounding the documentary series.
Following a screening of select scenes from each episode of the docuseries, engage in a discussion led by Houston Public Media's Eddie Robinson. Panelists include:
- Stacey L. Holman: Producer/director of "Making Black America"
- Pastor Dr. D. Z. Cofield: Senior pastor of Historic Good Hope Missionary Baptist Church in Houston
- Ashley Farmer (Ph.D.): Associate professor of history and African and African diaspora studies at the University of Texas at Austin.
