PART ONE TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 8 PM

Host Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the roots of African American religion, beginning with the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the extraordinary ways enslaved Africans preserved and adapted their faith practices under the brutal realities of human bondage. Learn how independent Black churches flourished after the Civil War, helping to fulfill the social, educational, financial, cultural and political needs of the formerly enslaved. Gates highlights the stories of key figures such as Richard

Allen and Jarena Lee of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, abolitionist Frederick Douglass, Henry McNeal Turner, and Virginia Broughton and Nannie Helen Burroughs of the National Baptist Convention.

Airdates:

• WTVP-HD 47.1 – Tue, 02/16/2021 @ 8 PM
• WTVP-HD 47.1 – Wed, 02/17/2021 @ 12 AM
• WTVP-HD 47.1 – Thu, 02/18/2021 @ 2 AM
• WTVP-WORLD 47.3 – Sat, 02/20/2021 @ 7 PM
• WTVP-WORLD 47.3 – Sat, 02/20/2021 @ 11 PM

PART TWO TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 8 PM - DATE CHANGE

The Black church expands its reach to address social inequality and minister to those in need in the Jim Crow South and during the Great Migration and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 60s. After the violent loss of leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many Black churches struggled to remain relevant in an era of increasing secularization while reckoning with urgent social and cult issues. The series brings the story of the Black Church up to the present — a time of renewed struggle for racial justice in America.

Airdates:

• To Be Announced