Black America since MLK. Move on up. Part two

Black America since MLK. Move on up. Part two The second hour dramatizes the diverging paths for African Americans that emerged in the 1970s and early '80s, as well as the outbursts of white backlash that marked these years. We see how the civil rights era propelled a growing portion of black America into true upward mobility, allowing them to join the middle class and move to affluent suburbs - like the Oliver family, who Gates visits in Laurelton, New York. On a parallel path, black politicians began to enjoy success not seen since Reconstruction. Gates relives with Vernon Jordan the moment when his childhood friend, Maynard Jackson, Jr., was elected the first black mayor of Atlanta - part of a wave of change that gave African Americans a real voice within the system at last. In these years of mounting opportunity, feminist authors like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison shed light on the experience of African American women, and even television sitcoms like The Jeffersons and Good Times depicted the diversity of black life. But at the same time, white America's tolerance for black success was starting to wear thin. Hank Aaron's shattering of Babe Ruth's home-run record provoked a racist backlash, and affirmative action faced serious challenges in the U.S. Supreme Court. Even school integration hit roadblocks in the North: Phyllis Ellison Feaster, who started high school in 1974, shares with Gates her painful memories of the Boston busing crisis. By the late 1970s, the tide seemed to be turning. As the global economy took a turn for the worse, white resentment of black success sharpened, and Ronald Reagan evoked a new, racially-tinged bogeyman: the "welfare queen." But black America refused to surrender. Meeting with a diverse array of witnesses to the time - from political consultant and current Interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile to rapper Nas - Gates explores how, as inner cities fell into disrepair, African Americans found new sources of hope, from the creation of a newly-minted culture - hip-hop - to the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson. https://library.uwosh.edu/streaming/streams/asp3973997-marc https://library.uwosh.edu/streaming/logo.png

Black America since MLK. Move on up. Part two

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The second hour dramatizes the diverging paths for African Americans that emerged in the 1970s and early '80s, as well as the outbursts of white backlash that marked these years. We see how the civil rights era propelled a growing portion of black America into true upward mobility, allowing them to join the middle class and move to affluent suburbs - like the Oliver family, who Gates visits in Laurelton, New York. On a parallel path, black politicians began to enjoy success not seen since Reconstruction. Gates relives with Vernon Jordan the moment when his childhood friend, Maynard Jackson, Jr., was elected the first black mayor of Atlanta - part of a wave of change that gave African Americans a real voice within the system at last. In these years of mounting opportunity, feminist authors like Alice Walker and Toni Morrison shed light on the experience of African American women, and even television sitcoms like The Jeffersons and Good Times depicted the diversity of black life. But at the same time, white America's tolerance for black success was starting to wear thin. Hank Aaron's shattering of Babe Ruth's home-run record provoked a racist backlash, and affirmative action faced serious challenges in the U.S. Supreme Court. Even school integration hit roadblocks in the North: Phyllis Ellison Feaster, who started high school in 1974, shares with Gates her painful memories of the Boston busing crisis. By the late 1970s, the tide seemed to be turning. As the global economy took a turn for the worse, white resentment of black success sharpened, and Ronald Reagan evoked a new, racially-tinged bogeyman: the "welfare queen." But black America refused to surrender. Meeting with a diverse array of witnesses to the time - from political consultant and current Interim Chair of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile to rapper Nas - Gates explores how, as inner cities fell into disrepair, African Americans found new sources of hope, from the creation of a newly-minted culture - hip-hop - to the presidential campaigns of Jesse Jackson.