St. Louis, MO—February 10, 2021—A moving two-part series on the history and culture of the Black church from executive producer, host, and writer Henry Louis Gates, Jr., will be broadcast on Nine PBS and livestreamed February 16 and 17, from 8–10 pm. It will be available on demand after broadcast on ninepbs.org and on the free PBS Video App.
Gates is the popular host of Finding Your Roots and has produced other PBS documentaries, such as The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross, Black America since MLK, Africa’s Great Civilizations, and Reconstruction: America after the Civil War.
The four-hour The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song traces the 400-year-old story of the Black church in the U.S., all the way down to its bedrock role as the site of African American survival and grace, organizing and resilience, autonomy and freedom, and speaking truth to power.
Renowned participants in the series include media executive and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey; singer, songwriter, producer, and philanthropist John Legend; singer and actress Jennifer Hudson; Presiding Bishop Michael Curry of the Episcopal Church; gospel legends Yolanda Adams, Pastor Shirley Caesar and BeBe Winans; civil rights leaders Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. William Barber II; scholar Cornel West; and many more.
The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song will explore the changing nature of worship spaces and how the church served as a place where Black Americans could be themselves. The Black church became the epicenter of the freedom struggle that revolutionized the U.S. across slavery and abolition, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and the Great Migration, and the civil rights movement.
"This is the story and song our ancestors bequeathed to us, and it comes at a time in our country when the very things they struggled and died for—faith and freedom, justice and equality, democracy, and grace—all are on the line. No social institution in the Black community is more central and important than the Black church,” says Dr. Gates.
Watch previews of The Black Church.
About Nine PBS
As an essential community institution, Nine PBS exists to enable access to information, knowledge, and learning opportunities for all. We tell stories that move us. We meet people where they are the most comfortable consuming content. Nine PBS’s platforms include four distinct broadcast channels (Nine PBS, Nine PBS KIDS®, Nine PBS World, and Nine PBS Create), ninepbs.org, social media, the free PBS Video App, streaming services, live and virtual events, and the Public Media Commons. Since 1954, Nine PBS has accepted the community’s invitation into their homes, schools, and businesses.
For more information, contact:
Matt Huelskamp
Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
(314) 313-6049
mhuelskamp@ninepbs.org