About Legacy

Legacy: Being Black in America
A one-hour PBS documentary special
Broadcast: Starting February 2008, check local listings

Legacy: Being Black in America looks at the lives of African-Americans today set against the story of the Civil Rights Movement. The film explores the historical background for current race relations and what the lessons are for America and democracy.

Legacy features a dinner tribute to the civil rights generation hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and profiles of ABC News correspondent, Deborah Roberts, the rapper and single mother, Madam Madon, Harvard University’s National Book Award winner, Orlando Patterson, Newsweek magazine’s entertainment correspondent, Allison Samuels, and Bill T. Jones, this past year’s Tony Award winner for best choreography.

At this critical crossroads in the history of race relations, when the clarity and cohesion of the civil rights generation have given way to ambivalence and apathy, when progress has been stalling and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream has finally come within reach only to be in danger of slipping away, Legacy looks at how our present has been shaped by the past and how it is the legacies of past African-American heroes like Dr. King and Malcolm X, among many others, who help to clarify what it means to be black in America today and what the prospects are for the future.

In a nation deeply divided not only by race but also by politics, religion, and class, Legacy is about the ongoing need for integration and wholeness as part of Dr. King’s beloved community. It is about a new model of leadership forged from the black experience in America and poised to finally make the promise of democracy and pluralism in America a reality.

Wal-Mart is proud to sponsor Legacy: Being Black in America. Wal-Mart employs 1.9 million associates worldwide and more than 1.3 million in the United States, making it one of the largest private employers in the U.S. As a “store of the community,” Wal-Mart provides financial and volunteer support to more than 100,000 charitable and community-focused organizations.