Your Own Backyard - The Riot Report
There are over 300 PBS Member Stations across the country, with many telling incredible stories in their own backyard.
American Experience's The Riot Report explores when Black neighborhoods across America erupted in violence during the summer of 1967. President Johnson appointed a commission to determine what happened, why it happened, and what could be done to keep it from happening again. The bi-partisan commission’s final report offered a shockingly unvarnished assessment of American race relations that would doom its finding to political oblivion.
The Riot Report | Trailer
Check out the trailer for The Riot Report and stories from communities across the country that highlight the history of racial injustice and people working to rectify it.
ThinkTV PBS (Greater Dayton Public Television)
Redlining: Mapping Inequality in Dayton and Springfield tells the national and local story of redlining, a practice which embedded racial segregation and inequality into the development of American cities and suburbs and created a wealth gap that continues to impact our communities today.
PBS Charlotte
During the Jim Crow era, African American farmers in the South faced discriminatory policies and practices which limited their access to land, credit and markets. They faced significant barriers to owning and operating their farms, keeping them in a cycle of debt and poverty. Veteran reporter Steve Crump looks into the hardship at the Harvest.
PBS North Carolina
In the early 1900s, North Carolina and other Southern states largely ignored their responsibility to provide education for rural Black children. Learn how educator Booker T. Washington and philanthropist Julius Rosenwald hatched a plan that broke Jim Crow’s grip on funding for Black schools. The results helped change the South and the nation, one student at a time.
NET
July 17, 1967 – Riots in Newark were sparked by the arrest and alleged abuse by police of a black cab driver. The riots continued for five days. National Educational Television (NET) immediately commissioned a documentary that would cover the uprisings and their causes. The production team rented a room in Newark’s Robert Treat Hotel to use as a base for the production and the crew began filming.
Twin Cities PBS
A reflection on the life of freedom fighter and civic leader Dr. Josie Johnson, who fought for fair housing, education, and civil rights. Hear in her own words how her experiences turned her to activism, what action looks like, and how the next generation is taking up the mantle. The struggle for justice and equality continues, but there is hope in the struggle.
Milwaukee PBS
This documentary traces Milwaukee's most turbulent events during the Civil Rights struggle of the mid-1900s. Using archival footage, photographs, and interviews with Milwaukeeans, the film sheds light on the fight for equal employment, open housing, and equitable educational opportunities, and reveals how Milwaukee earned the nickname, "The Selma Of the North".
Alabama Public Television
Defending Freedom, an Alabama Public Television original produced in association with Jacksonville State University, tells the story of Birmingham-native, Arthur D. Shores, and the impact he had on the civil rights movement as one of Alabama's first African-American trial attorneys.
