Selection of documentaries, interviews, and other archival footage illustrating African American history.

Special features: V. 1: "Segregation incorporated" radio episode (27 min.) ; v. 2: Black history quiz ; v. 3: Free speech - includes "I have a dream" (20 min.) ; v. 4: Stamp gallery (5 min.) ; v. 5: Radio - "Shakespeare of Harlem" (26 min.) ; v. 6: Radio - "The rhyme of the ancient dodger" (27 min.)

v. 1. In the beginning (275 min.): The Civil War (1954, 15 min.) -- The plantation system in Southern life (1951, 11 min.) -- To do battle in the land (1985, 25 min.) -- Frederick Douglass : an American life (1985, 31 min.) -- Fighter for freedom : the Frederick Douglass story (1987, 19 min.) -- Booker T. Washington : the life and legacy (1982, 31 min.) -- What's a heaven for? (1966, 17 min.) -- The Maggie Lena Walker story (1991, 12 min.) -- The African burial ground : an American discovery, Parts 1-4 (1994, 1 hr. 54 min.) v. 2. WWII, the beginning of change (192 min.): Black wings : the American Black in aviation (1983, 18 min.) -- Tuskegee airman (1991, 15 min.) -- Henry Browne, farmer (1942, 11 min.) -- The Negro soldier (1944, 40 min.) -- The Negro sailor (1944, 25 min.) -- The Navy steward (1948, 20 min.) -- African Americans in WWII (1997, 1 hr., 3 min.) v. 3. Civil rights movement (198 min.): We work again (1937, 11 min.) -- Negro colleges in wartime (1944, 8 min.) -- Longines chronoscope : Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (1954, 11 min.) -- Palmour Street (1957, 22 min.) -- Open mind with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1957, 27 min.) -- All the way home (1957, 30 min.) -- What about prejudice (1959, 11 min.) -- Integration report (1960, 20 min.) -- Poverty in rural American (1965, 28 min.) -- Malcolm X : nationalist or humanist (1967, 14 min.) -- Teddy (1971, 16 min.) v. 4. An Historical overview (145 min.): Paul Robeson : the tallest tree in our forest (1977, 1 hr., 24 min.) -- Press conference USA with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King (1963, 29 min.) -- Let us break bread together (1954, 26 min.) v. 5. The Arts (103 min.): Scott Joplin : king of ragtime composers (1977, 15 min.) -- W.C. Handy (1967, 14 min.) -- Paul Laurence Dunbar : America's first black poet (1972, 23 min.) -- Lou Stovall (1983, 14 min.) -- Larry Lebby and stone lithography (1983, 7 min.) -- Contemporary visual expression (1987, 22 min.) -- The Negro in entertainment (1940, 10 min.) v. 6. Sports & science (93 min.): 1936 Olympic highlights (1936, 10 min.) -- The Brown Bomber (1939, 10 min.) -- Joe Louis vs Max Schmelling (1938, 18 min.) -- The Negro in sports (1950, 10 min.) -- From dreams to reality : a tribute to minority inventors (1986, 26 min.) -- Jan Matzeliger (1989, 5 min.) -- The Negro in industry (1965, 11 min.)