Legacy: Black and White in America

Legacy: Black & White in America is a feature documentary that examines the political rise of Barack Obama against the backdrop of African-American history and culture. The film presents two parallel stories—the story of African-American life today and the story of the Civil Rights generation—to clarify the successes and failures of racial integration in America and what it reveals about American democracy and the American national character.

Legacy includes Marian Wright Edelman, Deborah Roberts, Rep. John Lewis, Condoleezza Rice, Wynton Marsalis, Mayor Cory Booker, John Singleton, Madam Madon, Andrew Young, Rev. Joseph Lowery, John Hope Franklin, Orlando Patterson, Manning Marable, James Cone, Joseph Ellis, David Driskell, Ira Berlin, James O. Horton, Roger Wilkins, Allison Samuels, Bill T. Jones, Hank Willis Thomas, Kerry James Marshall, and a special dinner tribute on Capitol Hill to the civil rights generation hosted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Legacy was first broadcast on PBS in 2008 (sponsored by Wal-Mart and AARP) and was expanded and updated for re-release in April 2009, with special screenings presented by the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation and the National Council of Negro Women at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Harvard University in Cambridge, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Apollo Theater in New York.