Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with Myiti Sengstacke-Rice, President and CEO of...

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. with Myiti Sengstacke-Rice, President and CEO of the Chicago Defender in a scene from PBS' "Great Migrations: A People on the Move." Credit: McGee Media

 DOCUSERIES "Great Migrations: A People on the Move"

WHEN|WHERE Part one airs Tuesday at 9 p.m. on WNET/13

WHAT IT'S ABOUT This four-parter from Henry Louis Gates Jr. covers a Great Migration which remains ongoing — the final episode, "Coming to America," is about the migration of African and Caribbean immigrants to America as well. Tuesday's opener ("Exodus") begins with the first wave in the early part of the 20th century, which was forced by Jim Crow laws and the pervasive terror of lynchings. When jobs became available up north with the advent of World War I, the influential newspaper for Black readers, the Chicago Defender, told Black southerners to head north, and they heeded the call. Part 2 ("Streets Paved with Gold") is the post-World War II migration that transformed so many cities, among them Detroit where Berry Gordy applied Henry Ford's assembly-line ethos to popular music production at Motown Records. The third part ("One Way Ticket Back") is the Great Reversal, when the disillusioned returned to the South — a changed South.

Gates ("Gospel," "Making Black America," "Finding Your Roots") argues here that the Great Migration "continues to shape the identity of Black Americans." But this four-parter presses the case that it continues to shape the identity of the nation too.


MY SAY Most of us "know" about the Great Migration the way we "know" about the Civil Rights Movement — the big names, the broad strokes, the general Meaning of It all. But what we don't know could fill books, or documentaries. And of course it has: "American Experience" produced a good film on this a few years ago, while Gates himself — in the 2013 six-parter "Many Rivers to Cross" — also got around to the Great Migration.

But besides the considerable breadth and focus here, what's unique with this series is the man on camera. At the age of 74 and after some 20 films, Gates is now the biggest star of the PBS firmament, with pretty much no one in his rearview mirror. Such star power confers influence, and Gates gladly wields his. Four hours on this particular subject wouldn't get a green light anywhere else, but Gates has made certain it got one here — and how. The result is that over four hours, you will live — should you choose — the Great Migration.

You will come to understand the emotion of abject desperation combined with the faintest glimmer of hope that led 2 million people north during the first wave (1910-40) and another 5 million during the second (1940-70). After the boomerang effect set in, when millions more returned to the South to escape redlining, poverty, unemployment and the pervasive forms of racism of the North, you'll come to understand that particular form of disappointment too. (Gates tracks the Gladys Knight classic "Midnight Train to Georgia" to capture some of that emotion — hokey perhaps, but effective.)

In Gates' telling, the Great Migration was a transformative human movement that changed cities, culture, and finally a country. There's something majestic in this story because the movement was motivated by that most basic of American impulses — to find a better life, over the next hill or around the next corner. And when the dream curdled for millions during the '70s, they did what came naturally — moved on again, this time back "home," to families and familiarity. The South, or at least the major urban centers, had changed by then. There's something majestic in this countermovement too. "Great Migrations" thus begins with hope and ends with hope — a note of bracing optimism for a moment in need of one.

BOTTOM LINE Deeply told, and — better yet — deeply felt.


 

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