President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, freeing the slaves in much of the South. But the road to freedom—true freedom—would take generations longer for most black Americans.
In this new six-part series, we investigate their struggle, beginning in the heady post-war years of the Forties. Segregation was endemic; it ... Show More
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - Strides Towards Freedom | 2
<p>In 1896, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation was legal, on a “separate but equal” basis. But for more than five decades, life for black and white Americans was seldom equal, but always separate.</p><p>To fight segregation, the NAACP and others exposed the dismal and ... Show More
35m 53s
Oct 2018
Civil Rights - Prairie Fire | 4
<p>As the Civil Rights movement entered the Sixties, a new generation of activists took the fore. Frustrated by the pace of progress but emboldened by strides made in the previous decade, students embraced “nonviolent direct action,” protest techniques that were provocative but p ... Show More
38m 17s
Nov 2019
The Black Congressmen of Reconstruction: Death of Representation
During the 1870s, more than a dozen African American men, many of whom had been born into slavery, were elected to the U.S. Congress. These political pioneers symbolized the sky high hopes of millions of former slaves during the years right after the Civil War. It was a period th ... Show More
44m 31s
Nov 2022
The Most Sacred Right (2020)
Born into slavery in the early 1800s, Frederick Douglass would live to see the Civil War, Emancipation, Black men getting the right to vote, and the beginning of the terrors and humiliations of Jim Crow. And through all of that, he kept coming back to one thing, a sacred right he ... Show More
1h 2m
May 2019
The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Stanford's Professor Richard White
<p>The Civil War and its decades-long aftermath continue to define American life well into the twenty-first century. Today we chat with Stanford's Professor Richard White, author of <em>The Republic For Which It Stands: The United States During Reconstruction and the Gilded Age, ... Show More
44m 20s
Jun 2021
A Gay Civil Rights Leader Pushed into the Shadows
Bayard Rustin organized the March on Washington and advised Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on direct nonviolent action, but this Civil Rights hero didn’t get his proper due at the time because he was gay. For this special Pride month episode, Don Lemon affirms Rustin's rightful plac ... Show More
31m 47s
Feb 2023
Mark Whitaker on 'Saying It Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement'
Larry is joined by author, journalist, and media executive Mark Whitaker to discuss his newest book, 'Saying It Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement'. They begin their conversation by talking about why Mark decided to write the book and break down ... Show More
1h 7m