Henry Louis Gates Jr. characterizes Pollard's work in this way: "When I think about his documentaries, they add up to a corpus — a way of telling African-American history in its various dimensions.

"[1] Born in Harlem, New York,[2] Samuel D. Pollard began his career in 1972 as an editor for Victor Kanefsky, after having taken courses in a workshop organized by WNET.

Early in his career, he assisted George Bowers, the editor of A League of Their Own, The Good Son and The Stepfather.

In 2010, Pollard (with Geeta Gandbhir and Arielle Amsalem) received an Emmy Award (Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming) for the film By the People: The Election of Barack Obama.

[6] In 2021, Film at Lincoln Center put together "Tribute to Sam Pollard", featuring several of his documentaries, calling him one of "cinema’s most dedicated chroniclers of the Black experience in America.