Black History

The Lincoln School Story • WXXI-TV

Examines the little-known fight for school desegregation led by a handful of Ohio mothers and their children in 1954.

The Lincoln School Story airs Friday, February 7 at 10:30 p.m. WXXI-TV

In the wake of Brown v. Board of Education, school districts nationwide were mandated to integrate. But when African American mothers in Hillsboro, Ohio, tried to enroll their children in the local, historically white schools, the school board refused to comply. Five mothers and their children took the school board to court and eventually their children became the first Black students to attend a high-quality local elementary school. Their judicial victory in the Midwest inspired Black parents in communities across the country.

Photo: (L-R) Zella Mae Cumberland, Gertrude Clemons and Minnie Speach. Photo credit: Press Gazette

American Justice on Trial • WXXI-TV

The untold story behind the murder trial of Black Panther leader Huey Newton.

American Justice on Trial airs Monday, February 3 at 9 p.m. WXXI-TV

This film tells the story of the death penalty case that put racism on trial in a U.S. courtroom in the fall of 1968. Huey P. Newton, Black Panther Party co-founder, was accused of killing a white policeman and wounding another after a pre-dawn car stop in Oakland. Newton himself suffered a near-fatal wound. As the trial neared its end, J. Edgar Hoover branded the Black Panthers the greatest internal threat to American security. Earlier that year, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy rocked a nation already bitterly divided over the Vietnam War. As the jury deliberated Newton’s fate, America was a tinderbox waiting to explode.

At his trial, Newton and his maverick defense team led by Charles Garry and his then rare female co-counsel Fay Stender, defended the Panthers as a response to 400 years of racism and accused the policemen of racial profiling, insisting Newton had only acted in self-defense. Their unprecedented challenges to structural racism in the jury selection process were revolutionary and risky. If the Newton jury came back with the widely expected first degree murder verdict against the charismatic black militant, Newton would have faced the death penalty and national riots were anticipated. But Newton’s defense team redefined a “jury of one’s peers,” and a groundbreaking diverse jury headed by pioneering Black foreman David Harper delivered a shocking verdict that still reverberates today.

Photo: Huey Newton and his defense team Charles Garry & Fay Stender hold a press conference after the verdict/Credit: Ilka Hartmann

The Niagara Movement: The Early Battle for Civil Rights • WXXI-TV

A powerful hour-long documentary that delves deep into the movement’s pivotal role in shaping the civil rights landscape.

The Niagara Movement airs Friday, January 31 at 10:30 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

The Niagara Movement: the Early Battle for Civil Rights explores the Black elite and intellectual society at the turn of the 20th century and examines the heated debate and conflict W.E.B DuBois and William Monroe Trotter had with Booker T. Washington on how to best uplift the race and secure equality for Black Americans.

In July 1905, a group of 29 men, including Black intellectuals, clergy, writers, newspapermen, and activists, was formed and led by a young sociologist, W.E.B. DuBois. The group adopted the resolutions which lead to the founding of the Niagara Movement. Its Declaration of Principles stated, in part: “We refuse to allow the impression to remain that the Negro-American assents to inferiority, is submissive under oppression, and apologetic before insults.”

The Niagara Movement was, in large part, a repudiation of the methods of Booker T. Washington, the unchallenged leader of Black liberation at the time. This was a time of widespread violence against Black Americans, as the end of Reconstruction brought oppressive Jim Crow laws and widespread lynching. How were Black Americans to respond to this oppression? Washington argued that the progress for Black Americans depended on practical but limited education – that legitimate protest against white supremacy would only make things worse, and that rights were secondary to survival. The formation of the Niagara Movement was a counter-movement: a national group dedicated to accepting nothing less than full civil rights.

Although the Movement was disbanded only four years after its inception, its impact and legacy have proven long-lasting. The Niagara Movement was a critical turning point in fighting inequality and it laid the cornerstone of the modern American Civil Rights Movement. Its influence and legacy are wide: it changed the tone and approach to Black protest in America, it created tactics, such as fighting in the courts for integration, that would be used by the NAACP, and it influenced the ideology of both the “black power” movement of the 1960s and the Black Lives Matter movement of the 21st century.

Great Migration: A People on the Move • WXXI-TV

A new four-part docuseries that examines the powerful influence of Black migration on American culture and society.

Great Migration: A People on the Moves airs Tuesdays, January 28-Febraury 18 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV, Saturdays, February 1-22 at 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD and streaming live on the WXXI app.

From Emmy nominated executive producer, host, and writer Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Great Migrations: A People on the Move examines the powerful influence of Black migration on American culture and society. While the first large migration was a forced journey from Africa in bondage, voluntary migrations in the 20th and 21st centuries have significantly reshaped the nation. This series explores the first and second waves of the Great Migration from the South to the North during the two World Wars, the “New Great Migration” of African Americans returning home to the South of their ancestors since the 1970s, and the “Next Great Migration” marked by the historic and growing influx of African and Caribbean immigration in the 20th and 21st centuries. The film powerfully demonstrates that movement is a defining feature of the Black American experience.

Episode descriptions are provided below:

Tuesday, January 28 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV + Saturday, February 1 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV & 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD – “Exodus”
Episode 1 explores the first wave of the Great Migration (1910–1940), when more than a million Black Americans fled the Jim Crow South for the promised lands of the North, forever changing the country and themselves.

Tuesday, February 4 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV + Saturday, February 8 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV & 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD – “Streets Paved in Gold”
Episode 2 explores the second wave of the Great Migration (1940-1970), highlighting how Northern and Western Black communities matured through migration and transformed the cultural and political power of Black America.

Tuesday, February 11 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV + Saturday, February 15 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV & 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD – “One Way Ticket Back”
Episode 3 shows how the reverse migration of Black Americans to the South—driven by mass movements, economic change, and an ongoing struggle for freedom and opportunity—continues to reshape the country.

Tuesday, February 18 at 9 p.m. on WXXI-TV + Saturday, February 22 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV & 8 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD – “Coming to America”
Episode 4 tells the story of African and Caribbean immigrants in the United States, examining their profound impact on American culture and what it means to be Black in America.

Finding Your Roots, Season 11 • WXXI-TV

In the new season of the Emmy® nominated series, nineteen celebrity guests sit down with Dr. Gates, Jr. to dive into their ancestral history and solve mysteries that have plagued their families.

Finding Your Roots airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI app.

Gates and his team use genealogical detective work and cutting-edge DNA analysis to trace the family trees of twenty compelling guests, telling stories that illuminate America’s fundamental diversity. In addition to the all-star line-up, Gates will have his own familial mystery solved when the tables are turned and the celebrated host becomes a guest on an eagerly anticipated episode of the new season.

As the pages turn in each guest’s book of life, emotional revelations give way to complex questions about identity. Through Gates’ discerning touch, his guests learn what every family history shares—love, courage, and sacrifice—and how our histories transcend borders, merging to form an American root system fortified by its diversity. Along the way, viewers are transported from coastal Africa to the Mississippi Delta; from shtetls in the former Russian Empire to the ancestral lands of the Lakota Nation; from villages in the Philippines to a pirate enclave in Puerto Rico—all in search of the stories that will bring our guests’ ancestors to life. What’s more, this new season also includes a special reveal: the solution to a mystery that has haunted Gates’ own family for generations.

Upcoming episodes feature:
1/28: Actor Sharon Stone and model Chrissy Teigen
2/4: Celebrity chefs José Andrés and Sean Sherman
2/11: Musician Rubén Blades and journalist Natalie Morales
2/18: Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard
2/25: Actors Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey (
4/1: Historian Lonnie Bunch and actor Sheryl Lee Ralph
4/8: Actor Laurence Fishburne and host and executive producer Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

Past episodes:
1/7: Actors Lea Salonga and Amanda Seyfried
1/14: Talk show host Joy Behar and actor Michael Imperioli
1/21: Novelist Amy Tan and poet Rita Dove

Photo: Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Credit: PBS

America ReFramed “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America • WXXI-TV

The remarkable life of a fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist.

America ReFramed “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America” airs Saturday, March 29 at 3 p.m. on WXXI-TV.

Fannie Lou Hamer’s America is a portrait of a civil rights activist and the injustices in America that made her work essential. Through public speeches, personal interviews, and powerful songs of the fearless Mississippi sharecropper-turned-human-rights-activist, Fannie Lou Hamer’s America explores and celebrates the lesser-known life of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s greatest leaders.

Note: On January 4, 2025 Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer became the posthumous recipient of The Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Joe Biden presents the Medal to Doris Hamer Richardson, who accepted on behalf of her aunt, Fannie Lou Hamer. As one of the executive producers who worked on the “Fannie Lou Hamer’s America,” WXXI President & CEO Chris Hastings attended the ceremony.

Photo below from the Presidential Medal of Freedom event: Jed, Harriett and Salam Oppenheim, Selena Lauterer, President Joseph R. Biden, Doris Hamer Richardson, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, Angela Hamer Johnson, Chris and Miles Hastings and Hillary Rosenfeld. Photo courtesy of the White House.

Dreams of Hope • WXXI-TV

This concert documentary tells the story of a historic performance at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, more than 50 years after a hate crime there killed four African American girls.

Dreams of Hope airs Sunday, February 2 at 1 p.m. WXXI-TV

An initiative called Violins of Hope contributed painstakingly restored musical instruments to the event, including violins recovered from Holocaust concentration camps, which serve as symbols of resilience in the face of hate, discrimination and racism.

With a captivating storyline written by filmmaker David L. Macon, “Dreams of Hope” blends concert performance footage with behind-the-scenes interviews chronicling the event’s preparation and reflecting on its significance.

Cultural Expressions: Kwanzaa • WXXI-WORLD

This WXXI production explores the seven principles that are the foundation of Kwanzaa by sharing seven real-life stories of impact.

Cultural Expressions: Kwanzaa airs Sunday, December 29 at 7 p.m. on WXXI-WORLD.

Honoring the heritage, unity, culture, and rich contributions of African Americans, Kwanzaa is more than just a celebration; it’s a way of life. Cultural Expressions: Kwanzaa explores the seven principles that are the foundation of Kwanzaa by sharing seven real-life stories of impact. These stories reveal how each principle plays a role in the Black community, illustrated through cultural elements of dance, storytelling, music, and spoken word.

Cultural Expressions: Kwanzaa features interviews with Dr. David A. Anderson/Sankofa, Rochester Kwanzaa Coalition; Ms. Melba Ayco, Artistic Director and Owner, Northwest Tap Connection; Delores Jackson Radney, Rochester Kwanzaa Coalition; Melanie Funchess, Principal & CEO, Ubuntu Village Works LLC; Reenah Golden, Founder and Artistic Director, Avenue Blackbox Theatre; Anthony and Zakiya King, Owners of Cerebral Kingdom Bookstore; Dr. Shaun Nelms, EPO Superintendent, East High School; Shawn Dunwoody, Digital Designer Dunwoodē Designs; Terrie Ajile Axam, Founder Artistic Director, Total Dance/Dancical Productions Inc., and Terry Chaka, Rochester Kwanzaa Coalition.

Cultural Expressions: Kwanzaa is a WXXI Public Media production from 2022. The production team includes: Teej Jenkins-Routier, producer/director; Joanne V. Gordon, editor/producer; and Rhonda Austin, associate producer.