Video Collection: Stories & Cultures within the United States

July, 1949: four young black men are wrongly accused of rape by a 17-year-old farm wife in rural Lake County, Florida. This case included a race riot, torture, multiple murders, two trials and a Supreme Court reversal, and it helped lay a foundation for the Civil Rights Movement. From WUCF in Orlando, Florida. | More

How do you transform a troubled police department? From PBS Frontline. | More

This community conversation series attempts to answer the question: Can you reduce funding for police while ensuring public safety for all communities? | More

What does it mean to grow up Black in America, a country too often divided by race? Watch three stories, three interpretations. | More

This PBS Kids program features authentic conversations between real children and their parents. Adults can learn how to talk with kids about noticing differences in race, understanding what racism can look like, and standing up for ourselves and each other — all in age-appropriate ways. KERA hosted a virtual discussion among local experts after a recent special screening of this program. Play the screening above, and watch a replay of the discussion right here.

This episode of the PBS Digital Studios show analyzes the discriminatory history of U.S. law, tracing its origins in colonialism and chattel slavery up through the Jim Crow era and today's mass incarceration. | More

From StoryCorps: Hear Dr. Ayim Darkeh and his mother, Shirley, talk about the discrimination Ayim faced as a child and how it shaped his parenting approach. | More

One hundred years after the establishment of the Negro National League in Kansas City, Missouri, Kansas City PBS uncovers the story and the historical facts about how African Americans sustained in the times after the Great War.

After being denied participation in the Indianapolis 500, Charlie Wiggins, "the Negro Speed King," created a national racing league for African Americans. | More

One hundred years ago, Bertie Lindsey was murdered and the accused was almost lynched by an angry mob. Riots throughout the city became known as Knoxville’s Red Summer. This film chronicles the unrest, featuring never-before-seen newsreel footage uncovered by the Tennessee Archive of Moving Image and Sound (TAMIS). From the Black in Appalacia series. | More

Even though Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation did not apply to slaves in Tennessee, the then-Military Governor of the state, Andrew Johnson, emancipated his own slaves on the 8th of August, 1863. From the Black in Appalachia series. | More

What is now soul food was once eaten out of necessity. This episode from the Say It Loud series by PBS Digital Studios explores the new and inventive ways a younger generation is honoring and preserving African Americans' culinary past. | More

This Nashville Public Television production explores the legacy of the city's north corridor, a historically Black neighborhood with three HBCUs and a large cultural footprint in civil rights, the arts and medicine. | More

WTTA in Chicago tells the story of the city's African American history, culture and citizens, from founder Jean Baptiste Point du Sable to the first Black president of the United States, Barack Obama. | More

Russell was born in the Jim Crow-era South. He built one of the oldest and largest Black-owned construction and real estate firms in the country, and since the 1960s, his company has helped shape Atlanta's skyline. From public television station ATL PBS in Atlanta. | More

A Black sharecropper from the Mississippi Delta, Hamer’s difficulty registering to vote in 1962 led to her career as an outspoken activist, congressional candidate, and fierce fighter for the rights of all.

The grandson of Alabama slaves, Percy Julian met with every possible barrier in a deeply segregated America. He was a man of genius, devotion and determination. As a Black man, he was also an outsider, fighting to make a place for himself in a profession and country divided by bigotry — a man who would eventually find freedom in the laboratory. | More

While George Washington Carver's rise from slavery to scientific accomplishment has inspired millions, this documentary uncovers his complexities and reveals the full impact of his life and work.

The creator of the 1619 Project on slavery for The New York Times Magazine shares with American Masters how her work frequently explores the structural inequality created by racism in the U.S. From the Unladylike2020 series. | More

FRONTLINE and ProPublica investigate how the violent and infamous rally in Charlottesville in 2017 became a watershed moment for the white supremacist movement. | More

The 12 years that composed the post-Civil War Reconstruction era (1865-77) witnessed a seismic shift in the meaning and makeup of U.S. democracy. Explore the transformative years following the war. | More

In this multi-part documentary series, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the last 50 years of African American history. This clip takes a look at the recent crossroads of digital media and racial justice. Watch more clips from the series or purchase and watch the series on Amazon Prime.

Watch an excerpt from the Oscar-nominated film, which envisions the book James Baldwin never finished, a radical narration about race in America in the writer’s original words, as read by actor Samuel L. Jackson. The full film is available on Netflix. | More

From acclaimed director Steve James (“Hoop Dreams,” “The Interrupters”), the little-known story of the only U.S. bank prosecuted in relation to the 2008 fiscal crisis.

Amna Nawaz reports on how attacks against Asian Americans have continued across the U.S. and speaks with Erika Moritsugu, a deputy assistant to President Biden and the Asian American and Pacific Islander senior liaison at the White House, to learn more.

While Asian-Americans are the best-educated ethnic group in the US, Cambodian American students graduate high school at a significantly lower rate, one of the lowest in the country. What is the cause of this educational crisis?

After the closure of their mother’s nail salon at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a queer filmmaker works with their mother to recover and articulate the legacy of the salon for their refugee family.

“Little Mexico/El Barrio” explores the rich cultural heritage of one of Dallas’ oldest neighborhoods, where individuals and families settled to begin new lives after immigrating from Mexico. Interviews, archival photographs, home movies and personal memorabilia create a historical record of this once-thriving community that encompasses the current Uptown, Arts District and Historic West End areas.

When you hear "Latino" you think of people from Latin America - places like Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, etc. But where exactly did the history of that word come from, and has it always meant Central America and South America as well as the Caribbean? Danielle traces the origin of the term "Latino" and the debates that still surround it as well as the term "Hispanic" and "Latinx."

Día de los Muertos has been adapted for centuries from its pre-colonial roots to the popular depictions in mass media today. Inspired by Oaxacan traditions, it was brought to East Los Angeles in the 1970’s to enrich and reclaim Chicano identity through a small celebration at Self Help Graphics and Art. Since then, the celebration has grown in proportions with renditions enacted globally.

FRONTLINE examines how the COVID crisis has hit vulnerable immigrants and undocumented workers. The documentary follows the coronavirus pandemic’s invisible victims, including crucial farm and meat-packing workers who lack protections and have been getting sick.

With a collective purchasing power of $3 trillion, people of color are quickly becoming the nation’s most sought-after consumers. Iconic brands are re-examining their marketing strategies to stay competitive in the changing marketplace. Latinos, with a buying power of $1.2 trillion, are at the heart of this new consumer focus.

Oka' - the Chickasaw word for water - is a short film about the historic Platt National Park in Oklahoma and its unique freshwater and mineral springs. Platt, now known as the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, was the first and only national park preserved at the request of an Indian tribe. This KERA production originates in the heart of the Chickasaw Nation and the Arbuckle Mountains.

FRONTLINE and The Wall Street Journal investigate the decades-long failure to stop a government doctor accused of sexually abusing Native American boys for years and examine how he moved from reservation to reservation despite warnings.

Discovering oil is like winning the lottery... or is it? Find out what happened to the Indian reservation in Fort Berthold, North Dakota following its oil boom in this episode of AMERICA BY THE NUMBERS.

For more than a century, The Jewish Museum has served as a cultural nexus in the heart of New York City’s art scene. Treasures of New York: The Jewish Museum brings viewers inside the world-class institution to explore some of the most powerful and important works drawn from its collection of nearly 30,000 works that reflect the global Jewish experience that spans 7,000 years.

The story of the first Jewish community formed in a Muslim country in centuries (in Dubai), and an historic gift of a Torah scroll dedicated to the memory of an Arab-Muslim ruler, the late Sheikh Zayed, the Founding Father of the United Arab Emirates.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel fled Nazi Germany to became “an authoritative voice not only in the Jewish community but in the religious life of America.” His book, "The Prophets" inspired Martin Luther King, Jr. to invite him to take a roll in the Civil Rights Movement. Heschel was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War, an advocate for Soviet Jewry and a pioneer of interfaith dialogue.

The Jewish Delis of Los Angeles serve a significant role for connecting heritage to food. Factor’s Famous Deli has been a central pillar for the community for 70 years while newcomers like Micah Wexler and Michael Kassar of Wexler’s Deli bring a fresh take to classic deli food traditions.

Kate Seelye shares how the Middle East Institute Art Gallery has adapted in the time of Covid-19.

Opened in 1987, Holy Land deli and restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis functions as an extension of the Wadi family's love of food and an invitation to know more about Muslims and Arabs in the Middle East.

Riz Ahmed's acting and music careers have always gone together. And in his new film "Mogul Mowgli," which he co-wrote, the two art forms collide, with a story that hits close to home. Amna Nawaz speaks to Ahmed about his upcoming films, increasing Muslim representation in Hollywood and 9/11’s lasting impact on Muslims 20 years later.

On his first day in office, President Biden rescinded the Trump-era so-called “Muslim Travel Bans,” which affected travel from several Muslim-majority nations. And while immigration advocates praised the reversal of what they called discriminatory policies, NewsHour Weekend’s Ivette Feliciano reports on the call for the Biden administration to go even further.

Follow Tariq Ali into the world of Rubik’s cube competitions. His progress as a speedcuber mirrors his journey growing up - Tariq comes to terms with a family tragedy and his multiracial identity as a Muslim American in a country where hate crimes are on the rise.

As COVID-19 swept across the United States it became clear that the virus disproportionately affected certain racial and ethnic groups. But the outsized impact of the pandemic on one community -- Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders -- has been hidden because of inconsistent data collection and reporting. Stephanie Sy reports as part of our series, "Race Matters."

The people of Guam are U.S. citizens who serve in the military at a rate that is three times higher than the rest of the country. Yet in 2012 Guam ranked last in per capita medical spending by the Veteran's Affairs. Why are Guam veterans not getting the services they need? Find out in this episode of AMERICA BY THE NUMBERS.