Tuesday–Wednesday, Feb. 16–17, at 9pm on WKAR-HD 23.1 & STREAMING | This two-part series reveals the broad history and culture of the Black church and explores African American faith communities on the frontlines of hope and change.
This moving, four-hour two-part series from executive producer, host and writer Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, traces the 400-year-old story of the Black church in America all the way down to its bedrock role as the site of African American survival and grace, organizing and resilience, thriving and testifying, autonomy and freedom and solidarity and speaking truth to power.
The documentary reveals how Black people have worshipped and, through their spiritual journeys, improvised ways to bring their faith traditions from Africa to the New World while translating them into a form of Christianity that was not only truly their own but a redemptive force for a nation whose original sin was found in their ancestors’ enslavement across the Middle Passage.
Renowned participants in the series include media executive and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey; singer, songwriter, producer and philanthropist John Legend; singer and actress Jennifer Hudson; Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of The Episcopal Church; gospel legends Yolanda Adams, Pastor Shirley Caesar and BeBe Winans; civil rights leaders Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. William Barber II; scholar Cornel West and many more.
Through their interviews, viewers will be transported by the songs that speak to one’s soul, by preaching styles that have moved congregations and a nation and by beliefs and actions that drew African Americans from the violent margins of society to the front lines of change.
------------------------
Part One | Tue. Feb. 16
Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the roots of African American religion beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary ways enslaved Africans preserved and adapted their faith practices from the brutality of slavery to emancipation.
Part Two | Wed. Feb. 17
Discover how the Black church expanded its reach to address social inequality and minister to those in need, from the Jim Crow South to the heroic phase of the civil rights movement and the Black church’s role in the present.
Watch each episode at video.wkar.org during or after the premiere date.