Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Available On Air Stations
Watch Live

Arts & Culture

INDEPENDENT LENS: Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story Of Black Colleges & Universities

Group of students at Atlanta University (1900s).
Courtesy of Atlanta University Center
Group of students at Atlanta University (1900s).

Now available to stream on demand

Explore the pivotal role HBCUs have played in shaping American history, culture and national identity

This full episode is currently available to stream on demand.

The rich history of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) began before the end of slavery, flourished in the 20th century, and profoundly influenced the course of the nation for more than 150 years — yet remains largely unknown.

Advertisement

With “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story Of Black Colleges & Universities,” the latest documentary from Stanley Nelson (“Black Panthers,” “Freedom Riders”), America’s foremost film chronicler of the African-American experience, the powerful story of the rise, influence, and evolution of HBCUs comes to life.

A haven for Black intellectuals, artists, and revolutionaries — and a path of promise toward the American Dream — HBCUs have educated the architects of freedom movements and cultivated leaders in every field while remaining unapologetically Black for more than 150 years.

These institutions have nurtured some of the most influential Americans of our time, from Booker T. Washington to Martin Luther King, Jr., W.E.B. Du Bois to Ralph Ellison, Toni Morrison to Oprah Winfrey, Alice Walker to Spike Lee to Common.

Booker T. Washington on horseback, who established Tuskegee Institute. (undated photo)
Courtesy of Tuskegee Institute / Library of Congress
Booker T. Washington on horseback, who established Tuskegee Institute. (undated photo)

A key driver of Black social, political and economic progress, HBCUs were also a place of unprecedented freedom for African-American students and a refuge from the rampant racism that raged outside the campus walls.

Created following the era when it was a crime in many states to teach African Americans to read, HBCUs sprang up following the end of the Civil War, particularly in the rural south.

Advertisement
Group of freed slaves with books.
Courtesy of Cook Collection/The Valentine
Group of freed slaves with books.

On these campuses were waged the intellectual battles that would determine the future of African-American society, starting with the ideological difference between Booker T. Washington’s emphasis on technical trades and W.E.B. Du Bois’ more progressive vision of HBCUs as not just institutions for turning out labor for white businesses but places of intellectual rigor and societal transformation.

Spelman College class, 1898.
Courtesy of Spelman College
Spelman College class, 1898.

That ideology took root following WWI, when African American soldiers returned from the front expecting a more equitable piece of the American Dream.

Known as “The New Negro” movement, these new students wanted nothing less than the full rights of citizenship. More HBCUs were founded — and run by — African-American leaders unlike their predecessors.

During the 1930s and 40s — what many consider the “Golden Age” of HBCUs — these institutions graduated doctors, lawyers and professionals who created the first Black middle class.

Fisk University fraternity dance, Nashville, Tenn., 1940s.
Courtesy of National Archives
Fisk University fraternity dance, Nashville, Tenn., 1940s.

The influence of HBCUs would continue to grow as Howard University Law School Dean Charles Hamilton Houston and graduate Thurgood Marshall fought the case that sounded the death knell for segregation with Brown v. Board of Education in 1954; six years later, it was four North Carolina A&T students who began the Greensboro lunch counter sit-in that led to the dismantling of segregation in public spaces.

Filmmaker Quotes:

Says filmmaker Stanley Nelson: “My parents were the product of HBCUs. For generations, there was no other place our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents could go to school. I set out to tell a story of Americans who refused to be denied a higher education and — in their resistance — created a set of institutions that would influence and shape the landscape of the country for centuries to come. If education is a cornerstone of society, then HBCUs are the groundwork for advancing justice in America.”

“I first began working with Stanley Nelson in 2003 when we presented his family memoir 'A Place of Our Own,'” said Lois Vossen, INDEPENDENT LENS executive producer. “One of our pre-eminent storytellers, when he proposed his ‘America Revisited’ trilogy — which includes 'Black Panthers,' 'Tell Them We Are Rising' and a third film about the slave trade currently in production — we didn’t fully realize how relevant these films would be. The history we make each day reminds us that an educated Black population cannot be an enslaved population, as education advances justice in America.”

WATCH ON YOUR SCHEDULE:

This film is available to stream on demand. Extend your viewing window with KPBS Passport, video streaming for members supporting KPBS at $60 or more yearly, using your computer, smartphone, tablet, Roku, AppleTV, Amazon Fire or Chromecast. Learn how to activate your benefit now.

With the PBS Video App, you can stream your favorite and local station shows. Download it for free on your favorite device. The app allows you to catch up on recent episodes and discover award-winning shows.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION:

INDEPENDENT LENS is on Facebook, Instagram, and you can follow @IndependentLens on Twitter. #IndieLensPBS.

CREDITS:

Written, Produced and Directed by Stanley Nelson. Co-Produced and Co-Directed by Marco Williams. Produced by Cyndee Readdean, Stacey L. Holman. Executive Producers: Lois Vossen, Sally Jo Fifer (ITVS). Written by Marcia Smith. Edited by K.A. Miille.