JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
Great Migrations, the latest documentary series from Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., tells the fascinating story of African American s movement over the 20th and 21st centurie g orin and how it has shaped the nation, by expl the meaning behind these movements. While many may think of the Great Migration n as a singular event in the early 1900s whe the more than a million Black Americans fled of s Jim Crow South for the promised land the North, the four-part series also explores subsequent waves of African and African how American migration. Viewers will discover the these extensive population shifts shaped s, strie indu fabric of America’s biggest cities, music, food, politics, and so much more. Moving en masse to other regions of the or country is not unique to any single ethnicity ct group. However, it is a deeply profound aspe ce of the modern African American experien for because Black people were denied mobility from n ratio so long. Theirs was a forced emig ent Africa, followed by centuries of enslavem that kept them in place. “The Great Migration was not just a seismic historical event; it’s an ongoing story,” says Gates. “Our series focuses on three dramatic migrations that have profoundly shaped the African American experience and redefined what it means to be Black in this country.”
Episode 1, “Exodus,” follows the first p wave of the Great Migration from the Dee South to the North. Episode 2, “Streets of Paved in Gold,” explores the second wave the Great Migration and how Northern and Western Black communities transformed the cultural and political power of Black k,” America. Episode 3, “One Way Ticket Bac delves into how a reversal occurring, with th, Black Americans moving back to the Sou nal fi The try. continues to reshape the coun episode of Great Migrations, “Coming to e America,” examines the astonishingly larg this emigration of Africans and West Indians to d oun country in recent decades and their prof impact on American culture. Throughout the series, Gates gains the lars, perspectives of dozens of journalists, scho leader professors, and experts including political III, er Stacey Abrams, artist George F. Bak dand journalist Charles M. Blow. As a worl nt mine renowned scholar and one of the pree documentarians in public media, Gates has also brought highly regarded programs such as Making Black America and Gospel, as well as the viewer favorite Finding Your Roots, to PBS audiences. Watch Tuesdays beginning January 28 at 9:00 p.m. on WVPB.