Detroit Public TV Hosts a Week Devoted to the Black Church

Next Tuesday and Wednesday night, Henry Louis Gates, Jr. premieres his latest series, "The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song."

The landmark four-hour documentary traces the 400-year-old saga of the Black Church in America and its role as the bedrock institution of African American endurance, grace, freedom and solidarity through times of joy and times of turmoil.

Featuring interviews with Oprah Winfrey, John Legend, BeBe Winans, Bishop Michael Curry, Cornel West, Sen. Rev. Raphael Warnock and many others, the series will transport viewers with songs that speak to the soul, by preaching styles that have moved congregations and a nation, and by beliefs and actions that drew African Americans from the violent margins of society to the front lines of social change.

In Gates' telling, the Black Church has taken people from the valley to "the mountaintop" and, as some of the most influential Black voices today reflect on the meaning of the church in their lives and to the country, the series will contemplate where the "promised land" is for this generation and the next.

Certainly, Detroit's own Black Church has been central to the life of the community, to its struggle for justice and to aspirations for progress.

At Detroit Public TV, we will be telling that story in a yearlong initiative, "The Black Church in Detroit." In monthly episodes, "American Black Journal" - the nation's longest running news show devoted to the African AMERICAN EXPERIENCE - will feature in-depth and heartfelt explorations of the dramatic and decisive role that the Black church has played in the history of the city.

These discussions will be led by the host of "American Black Journal," Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Stephen Henderson.

The series is being produced in partnership with the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, and it is being informed with input and guidance from a range of church and civic leaders representing the diversity of theology and thought in the city.

"The Black Church in Detroit" is not intended to be a one-time, Black History Month special. Rather, it is an ongoing commitment to celebrating the religious institutions that have served this community well from the days of the UNDERGROUND RAILROAD through the struggle for social justice and the ongoing quest for a better and more equitable future.