August 19 film series: The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross

Humanist Meeting
Wednesday, August 19
7-8:30 p.m.
Chalice Chapel

Beginning in May and ending in October, UU humanists from Palomar UU Fellowship and Chalice UU Congregation are showing the six episode series The African Americans, Many Rivers to Cross, with Henry Louis Gates Jr., originally shown on PBS beginning in October 2013. Showings alternate between the Palomar location and the Chalice location.

The fourth episode, Making a Way Out of No Way, will be shown on August 19th at Chalice with discussion to follow.

This episode portrays the Jim Crow era, when African Americans struggled to build their own worlds within the harsh, narrow confines of segregation. At the turn of the 20th century, a steady stream of African Americans left the South, fleeing the threat of racial violence, and searching for better opportunities in the North and the West. Leaders like Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington and Marcus Garvey organized, offering vastly different strategies to further black empowerment and equality. Yet successful black institutions and individuals were always at risk. At the same time, the ascendance of black arts and culture showed that a community with a strong identity and sense of pride was taking hold in spite of Jim Crow. “The Harlem Renaissance” would not only redefine how America saw African Americans, but how African Americans saw themselves. Read a review of the series here.

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