American Experience - Season 37

While many consider the birth of the civil rights movement to be 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on an Alabama bus, the stage had been set decades before by activists of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Some of the NAACP leaders are familiar, including W.E.B. Du Bois and Thurgood Marshall, but Walter White, head of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955, has been all but forgotten. With his blond hair and blue eyes, Walter White looked white; he described himself as "an enigma, a Black man occupying a white body."  Like virtually all light-skinned African Americans of his day, White was descended from enslaved Black women and powerful white men. But he was Black — by law, identity, and conviction and spent his entire life fighting for Black civil rights. Forgotten Hero: Walter White and the NAACP traces the life of this neglected civil rights hero and seeks to explain his disappearance from our history.

Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act tells the emotional and dramatic story of the decades-long push for equality and accessibility that culminated in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. While curb cuts, ramps at building entrances, and braille on elevator buttons seem commonplace today, they were once the subject of a pitched battle that landed on the steps of Congress. Told through the voices of key participants and witnesses, the film highlights the determined people who literally put their bodies on the line to achieve their goals and change the lives of all Americans. A story of courage and perseverance, the film brings to life one of the great civil rights movements in American history, where ordinary people made their voices heard, and Congress responded. A testament to the power of coalition building and bipartisan compromise, the passage of the ADA is a shining example of democracy in action.

Meet Edwin Land, the visionary scientist and inventor of the Polaroid camera. When it was introduced in 1948, the Polaroid revolutionized amateur photography with a camera that provided pictures instantly – by the 1970s, people across the globe were shooting over a billion Polaroids a year. The camera not only revolutionized how we take pictures and capture memories, but it also helped earn Land a reputation as one of the most visionary and prolific inventors and entrepreneurs of the 20th century. His invention of a new product and a new and creative corporate culture would inspire the leaders of the 1990s tech boom, including Steve Jobs, who saw Land as both a guru and godfather. 

New Documentary Explores How Los Angeles's Battle Against Smog Mobilized a Bipartisan Coalition to Create the EPA and the Clean Air Act

This two-part, three-hour film is an incisive portrait of the enigmatic powerbroker who served in the topmost echelons of American foreign policy under six presidents, Democrats and Republicans, with equal dedication. Whether celebrated or reviled, Kissinger's contradictions reflect the contradictions at the heart of America's foreign policy during the second half of the 20thcentury. From filmmaker Barak Goodman ("Oklahoma City," "Clinton").

This two-part, three-hour film is an incisive portrait of the enigmatic powerbroker who served in the topmost echelons of American foreign policy under six presidents, Democrats and Republicans, with equal dedication. Whether celebrated or reviled, Kissinger's contradictions reflect the contradictions at the heart of America's foreign policy during the second half of the 20thcentury. From filmmaker Barak Goodman ("Oklahoma City," "Clinton").