This month, the American Archive of Public Broadcasting honors the triumphs and struggles of African Americans throughout history. Explore thousands of programs dedicated to Black history and perspectives in the archive.
Black Life in America
The Black Journal Collection and Exhibit
The Black Journal series was the first nationally televised public affairs program produced for, about, and by African Americans. Black Journal presented news segments and documentaries about the Black community and interviews with Black intellectuals, politicians, activists, entertainers, and athletes as part of its mission to display non-stereotyped presentations of what it meant to be Black in America. More than 95 episodes from 1968 to 1977 are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room, with the entire digitized collection available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
Say Brother (1968–1997) is the longest-running public affairs television program created by GBH by, for, and about African Americans. Since its inception in 1968, Say Brother has featured the voices of both locally and nationally known African American artists, athletes, performers, politicians, professionals, and writers. The program still lives on today, now known as Basic Black. More than 80 programs and original interviews are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room, with the entire digitized collection available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
The In Black America Collection
In Black America from KUT in Austin, Texas, began in 1970 and continues to be broadcast weekly featuring interviews with influential members of the Black community in conversation about Black America. Issues and topics including education, style, economics, social issues, families, culture, literature, and politics. More than 1200 episodes from 1981 to 2022 are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room, with the entire digitized collection available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
WHUT, earlier known as WHMM-TV, was the first public broadcasting station licensed and operated by a historically Black college or university. This Emmy Award-winning public television station is located in Washington, D.C., on the campus of Howard University. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 240 programs and segments is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
Black Perspectives is a public affairs talk show by the University of Massachusetts featuring in-depth conversations about issues of interest to the African American community. Nearly 30 programs and interviews are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room, with the entire digitized collection available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
Folks is a program presented by Louisiana Public Broadcasting that reports on Black history, culture, and communities in Louisiana. Nearly 30 programs are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room, with the entire digitized collection available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
Black Culture
The Soul of Black Identity: Artist Interviews of the Post-Soul Era Collection
The Soul of Black Identity presents interviews with leading figures in music, theater, film and television, dance, literature, comedy, and the visual arts as they discuss their careers and identities as Black artists. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 75 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Jubilee Singers Interviews Collection
These raw footage interviews conducted for the American Experience documentary Jubilee Singers: Sacrifice and Glory focus on the early years of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The ensemble of students from Fisk University in Tennessee created the a cappella group in 1871 to raise funds for the financially struggling school. The original Fisk Jubilee Singers, largely made up of former slaves, toured around the United States and later Europe. The entire digitized collection composed of nearly 20 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Friday Night Jazz with Reuben Jackson Collection
Friday Night Jazz with Reuben Jackson was a popular Vermont Public Radio (VPR) weekly series with host, music critic, poet, and jazz curator Reuben Jackson. 50 segments are available in the AAPB Online Reading Room, with the entire digitized collection available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
Televising Black Politics in the Black Power Era: Soul!
Created for and by African Americans, Soul! (1968-73), a variety talk show, featured the era’s most prominent Black political and cultural figures, musicians, writers, and poets. Soul! was public television’s national platform for Black arts and entertainment, while simultaneously providing a public forum for internal debates within the Black community. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 40 programs is available on location at WGBH and the Library of Congress.
The Black Champions Interviews Collection
These raw footage interviews conducted for the 1986 documentary Black Champions, chronicle the lives and accomplishments of Black athletes throughout the 20th century with a focus on their fight against discrimination and racial barriers in American athletics. The interviews include discussions with Black athletes, representing baseball, football, basketball, boxing, track and field, and other sports as well as sports journalists and coaches. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 30 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Civil Rights Movement
Voices from the Southern Civil Rights Movement
This exhibit presents educational and noncommercial radio programs from the 1950s and 1960s that offer historic testimonies – in interviews, speeches, and on-the-spot news reports – from movement participants. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 30 programs and interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Eyes on the Prize Interviews Collection and Exhibit
This collection and exhibit feature the raw footage interviews with Civil Rights Movement participants conducted during the making of the landmark PBS documentary series Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954–1965, and Eyes on the Prize II: America at the Racial Crossroads, 1965-1985. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 300 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Freedom Riders Interviews Collection
This collection contains raw footage interviews conducted for the American Experience documentary of the same name. The film documents May to November 1961, when white and Black activists rode together on buses across the South to protest the continued segregation of public buses and transportation facilities. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 120 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Murder of Emmett Till Interviews Collection
This collection is made up of raw footage interviews conducted for the award-winning 2003 American Experience documentary, The Murder of Emmett Till. The film, which chronicles the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old who was murdered in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman, follows Till’s life and transformation into an icon of the Civil Rights Movement. The entire digitized collection composed of 40 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
After the Fire: NewsHour Coverage of Civil Unrest in America, 1991-2021
This exhibit presents coverage of major events of civil unrest in America from the early 1990s to 2021 by PBS NewsHour and its predecessors. This exhibition explores the ways in which the NewsHour has attempted to understand and unpack civil unrest in America. Featured are the NewsHour’s coverage of the L.A. Riots (or the Rodney King Riots), the Ferguson Protests, and the Baltimore Protests.
The Black Power Movement Primary Source Discussion Set
This primary source set created to support educators is composed of video and audio clips from the 1960s of Black Power advocates and activists speaking in various settings, including interviews, conferences, rallies, protests, television broadcasts, and press conferences. Also provided are background information, discussion questions, and suggested classroom activities.
The Busing in Boston, 1974-1988 Primary Source Discussion Set
This primary source set details the violent reactions to busing in Boston and provides differing perspectives on the causes of the crisis. Also provided are background information, discussion questions, and suggested classroom activities to aid educators.
The Freedom Riders Primary Source Discussion Set
This primary source set features a series of interviews about the Freedom Rides of 1961. Freedom Riders describe their motivations for participating and their experiences during the rides. Also provided are background information, discussion questions, and suggested classroom activities to aid educators.
Slavery and Abolition
The Abolitionists Interviews Collection
This collection includes raw footage interviews filmed for the three-part American Experience miniseries of the same name, which aired on PBS in 2013. The series follows the lives of prominent abolitionists including Frederick Douglass, John Brown, Angelina Grimké, William Lloyd Garrison, and Harriet Beecher Stowe, and explores differing and often conflicting approaches to abolishing slavery in the United States. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 50 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Reconstruction Interviews Collection
This collection includes raw footage interviews filmed for the two-part American Experience documentary Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. The documentary tells the story of the United States in the period from 1863-1877, when North and South, white and Black, struggled to rejoin as a nation in the wake of the Civil War. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 40 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
The Africans in America Interviews Collection
This collection is made up of raw footage interviews filmed for the award-winning, four-part documentary of the same name, which aired on PBS in 1998. The documentary, the first to fully examine the history of slavery in the United States, focused on the experiences of African people and their transformation of America, beginning with 16th-century enslavement on Africa’s Gold Coast and ending on the eve of the Civil War in 1861. The entire digitized collection composed of more than 50 interviews is available in the AAPB Online Reading Room.
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