Harvard professor, scholar and author Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has received spectacular reviews for his new documentary, ?The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross?, which premiered on PBS last Tuesday.
The L.A. Times writes: Besides its all-inclusive historical sweep ? from the first African to set foot in the New World to the first African American to occupy the White House ? what distinguishes Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s new series, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” from many previous documentaries on the black experience is ? Henry Louis Gates Jr.
The Washington Post writes: Gates? documentary remains faithful to the familiar template of African American history we learn in school. But by adding the less familiar facts and figures of history to the story, he gives us a much broader perspective.
In a recent interview with The NY Daily News, Gates said: What sets ?Many Rivers? apart is that it covers the full complexity of the black experience. This isn?t just about slavery. It?s also about the lives and contributions of free blacks. African Americans have always been two peoples with two stories ? one slave, one free. I found it startling, as we?ve put this series together, how little most people know about that other story.??
Gates is the recipient of numerous honors, including the 2008 Ralph Lowell Award from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the highest honor in the field of public television, for his award-winning documentaries on race. He is the director of the W.E.B. DuBois Institute for African and African American Research.
The “African Americans” series will run on Tuesdays on PBS at 8 p.m. until November 26.
Read more at The Huffington Post.
