[3] The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross chronicles the full sweep of the African-American experience, from the origins of the transatlantic slave trade to the reelection and second inauguration of President Barack Obama.
Commencing with the origins of slavery in Africa, the series moves through five centuries of remarkable historic events right up to the present — when America is led by a black president, yet remains a nation deeply divided by race.
Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Marcus Garvey, Oscar Micheaux, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., Ruby Bridges, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Kathleen Neal Cleaver, Maulana Karenga, Colin Powell, and many more.
Just like with citizenship, for example: A teacher doesn’t say, ‘Today I'm going to teach you how to be a citizen.’ It's taught every day.”[5] In a separate interview on the Tavis Smiley Show on PBS, Gates explained how personal the series is for him: "The reason that I wanted to do this series, the first comprehensive treatment of the whole sweep of African-American history since Bill Cosby did his in 1968, and which I watched with my parents when I was 17 years old, was to provide the tools through which a teacher could incorporate African American history into the story, the grand narrative, of the founding of America, its settlement, its peopling, and its great prosperity over the last several centuries.
Rather, what we listen for is the steady calm of his questioning voice: our trusted guide illustrates how black skin became property, and how the subsequent attempt to dehumanize a people began with separating the family, and taking away their names.
Gates’s magisterial series continues that tradition.”[13] The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross was among the winners of the 73rd annual Peabody Awards for excellence on television, radio and the Internet.
[15] In recognizing the series, the Peabody Awards website states: "A long time coming, not to mention five years in the making, Gates’ history of African Americans, their trials, their triumphs and their ongoing influence on this nation, reaches back five centuries to find stories that inspire, unsettle, surprise and illuminate.