Black History

How 1960s Montreal helped shape the global movement for Black liberation.

Independent Lens “True North: Canadian Myths and Black Power” airs Monday, July 6th at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS apps.

Through rare archival footage and firsthand accounts, True North revisits 1968 Montreal, where Black liberation movements converged at the Congress of Black Writers. As student protests ignited the Sir George Williams Affair, Black youth faced violent repression, unfolding a powerful chapter of the global Black Power era.

Credit: La Presse

A journey to Texas reveals the history & resilient hope of the Juneteenth holiday.

 Juneteenth: Faith & Freedom airs Friday, June 19 at 10 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streams live on the WXXI and PBS apps.

A Black man is troubled by the legacy of American slavery and the misuse of Christianity to justify it. He travels throughout Texas and discovers how the Juneteenth holiday reveals the hope and courage that empowered the formerly enslaved and their descendants to fight for freedom in an often unjust society.

A film that exploes the conflict between the civil rights leader and J. Edgar Hoover.

Marked Man: Martin Luther King and The FBI airing Saturday, July 11 at 5 p.m. on WXXI-TV and streaming live on the WXXI and PBS apps.

For years before Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, he was subjected to a campaign of intimidation by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI. Hoover believed King was a puppet of the Communists, intent on destroying America, and he was determined to neutralize the threat. Marked Man: Martin Luther King and The FBI reveals the depth of Hoover’s vendetta against King and examines how and why he targeted the civil rights leader.

King was a visionary — a leader who had a dream of an America where the Black community could attain equal rights, freedom, and justice. A gifted orator, his life’s work was to achieve this goal through peaceful protest and the persuasive power of his words. In contrast, Hoover was a lifelong bureaucrat, fiercely resistant to change and intent on preserving America’s status quo.  With unchecked power and unrivaled influence, Hoover headed his organization through intimidation and surveillance.

Unfortunately, Hoover used this power to relentlessly pursue King, tracking his every move and even sending him threatening letters that encouraged King to take his own life. In revealing the extent of this campaign, the documentary sheds light on the toll these actions took on King and the larger implications for American society.

Photo: Leaders at a March on Washington, August 28, 1963/ Credit: Robert W. Kelley, Getty Images