LOS ANGELES (AP) 鈥� America slammed the door in the face of Black progress time after time, and time after time African Americans responded by thriving in a society of their own making.
When Black doctors were excluded from the American Medical Association, they formed the in 1895. Black colleges, businesses, social groups and even fashion shows grew as alternatives to whites-only institutions and activities.
The result was a parallel 鈥渟epia world鈥� in which Black lives and culture could flourish despite entrenched racism, says filmmaker and scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr., who celebrates a history of resilience in 鈥淢aking Black America: Through the Grapevine.鈥�
The four-part series debuting Tuesday on PBS (check local listings) and was produced, written and hosted by Gates, a steady chronicler of Black history and culture whose more than a dozen documentaries include 2021's Emmy-nominated 鈥淭he Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song." He's also the host and producer of PBS' 鈥淔inding Your Roots.鈥�
鈥淢aking Black America鈥� is infused with Gates' self-described optimism. But he considers it his 鈥渕ost political" series yet because it shows the 鈥渢rue complexity of the African American experience,鈥� he said in an interview with The Associated Press.
鈥淲e need to have our self-image, our self-esteem affirmed, because so many actors in our society are trying to tear down our self-esteem, trying to tear down our belief in ourselves," he said.
Gates said the series is a rebuttal to what he calls the stereotype of a Black America consumed with white people and devoting all of its energy and imagination to fighting white supremacy.
鈥淲hat you do with most of your imagination is you fall in love, you raise a family, you have children, you build social networks,鈥� said the Harvard University professor. 鈥淭his is a demonstration of Black agency, the way we created a world within a world.鈥�
Gates compared the Black havens to those established by Jewish Americans and other ethnic groups when they were barred from employment, cultural institutions and other elements of U.S. society.
During a Q&A with TV critics, Gates delighted in pointing out that the 鈥済rapevine鈥� in the series' title pre-dated the Motown hit song 鈥淚 Heard it Through the Grapevine鈥� by about two centuries: He said founding father John Adams wrote about the grapevine concept in 1775, and it was referred to by Booker T. Washington in 1901. Washington founded what is now Tuskegee University.
The vivid word broadly describes 鈥渢he formal and informal networks which, for centuries, have connected Black Americans to each other through the underground, not just as a way of spreading the news, but ways of building and sustaining" Black communities, said Gates.
Shayla Harris, who produced and directed the series with Stacey L. Holman, said that the Black experience is often sorted into either 鈥渢he struggle鈥� or abundant creativity. But business drive is also a notable part, she said.
鈥� a 1936-67 guidebook to businesses that would serve Black travelers, is generally discussed in the context of the restrictions that people of color faced under Jim Crow segregation.
That ingenuity also was testament to the Black entrepreneurs who exemplified the saying that 鈥淏lack people make a way out of no way,鈥� Harris said. The guide was 鈥渁 document of 7,000 Black businesses across the country, from restaurants to hotels to beachfronts and just any little stand that people could put together.鈥� (The guide was central in the 2018 Oscar-winning interracial road trip movie 鈥淕reen Book,鈥� which won best picture and best supporting actor for Mahershala Ali.)
Other aspects of African American perseverance highlighted by the series and its creators:
鈥擳he barbershops and hair salons that serve as community centers. Gates said he still delights in going to the Nu Image Barbershop in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard's home town. The talk is about 鈥渨hat you're anxious about, your kids, what's in the news, of course. And you talk about LeBron (James) and Steph Curry and the Celtics. The full gamut of human emotions.鈥�
鈥� Excluded from professional, trade and even recreational associations, African Americans formed their own. In naming the groups, they used 鈥渘ational鈥� in the titles as a 鈥減olite鈥� way to signify the membership was Black, Gates said. That included the National Dental Association and the (In 2008, the American Medical Association for decades of racial discrimination.)
鈥擳he robust number of sororities, fraternities and fraternal orders that contribute to Black social life and networking. One had roots in today's It began with a Massachusetts lodge initiated in 1775 by Masons from Ireland after Colonial whites rejected Hall and a handful of other Black men for membership.
鈥擳he innovative Black women who stood out in business. They included early 20th-century business mogul , inventor and philanthropist Annie Malone and Maggie L. Walker, who was among America's first female bankers and who focused on the needs of the working class. To see these women succeed despite a society 鈥渢hat's pushing against you and a society that's predominately male ... was enlightening, encouraging and just empowering,鈥� Holman said.
鈥擳he Ebony magazine-sponsored Ebony Fashion Fair runway shows that countered the industry's overt discrimination by featuring Black models and designers for an audience that dressed for the occasion. The annual event, which was staged nationally and outside the U.S. for five decades, raised millions of dollars for charity.
Lynn Elber, The Associated Press
