Smithsonian Channel Presents Black History Month Podcast

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I always believed that if I wanted to write a story about a dystopia, I would have researched on living as an African-American in pre-Civil Rights America.  Not saying we have reached utopia now, but still…imagine if you did one false move no matter how inconsequential, you ended up without any financial support or death.

This video series captures the horrors, contradictions, and triumphs of the African-American community from sit ins to creating businesses via the use of photography.  This acts as the main medium of choice for this podcast.  They also feature photography provided by Scurlock Studios presented a time capsule of the who’s who of famous African-Americans.  Not to mention making family portraits for people not as famous.  The interviews of people act as a reminder for the viewer of the bravery and charm of the people who set out to create a better future.  My favorite moment came from one protester who said he drank from the Whites Only fountain because he thought it had lemonade in it.  I told this story to my father, then he relayed how he, as a little kid, drank from the Colored Only Fountain because he wanted to taste any different flavor he found.

The only downside of this series came from one video, The Winning Architectural Design, failing to download into my library.

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