FREE EVENT Screening "Making Black America" Ep 3: A Growing Resistance

900 West Daisy L Gatson Bates Drive,Little Rock AR 72202

15 February, 2023

Description

Philander Smith College and Arkansas PBS present this free screening featuring the third episode from Making Black America: Through the Grapevine, a four-part series from executive producer, host and writer Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., series producer/director Stacey L. Holman and producer/director Shayla Harris. Making Black America, Episode 3: A Growing ResistanceDuring the early part of the 20th century, African Americans living under Jim Crow endured second-class citizenship in cities that were undergoing rapid social, political and cultural shifts. Hour 3 examines how the Great Depression devastated America’s economy and brought Black America to its knees. To survive this period defined by economic cataclysm and global war, the Black community used a variety of social networks to navigate the oppressive realities of Jim Crow. They developed labor and grassroots organizations like the Alabama Sharecroppers Union, the Don’t Buy Where You Can’t Work movement, and the March on Washington movement that leveraged the power of numbers to make political change. Our host, Henry Louis Gates Jr., speaks with noted scholars and old friends about this hidden world behind the color line, the importance of the informal economy, consumer culture, and leisure enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard, in sustaining the Black community. They also discuss cultural innovations like the Negro Leagues and Ebony magazine that reflected the dreams and aspirations, strugges and concerns for African Americans. Ultimately, this episode will explore how these disparate social networks formed the cultural, economic, and political foundation of the Civil Rights Movement, which would dismantle Jim Crow and forever transform America’s race relations. Major historical characters and movements include A. Phillip Randolph, Adam Clayton Powell Jr, Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.