In August 1955, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till didn't understand that he had broken the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South. Three days later, two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and shot him. Although his killers were arrested and charged with murder, they were both quickly acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. Soon after, the defendants sold their story, including a detailed account of how they murdered Till, to a journalist. The murder and the trial horrified the nation and the world. Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize the civil rights movement. Three months after his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

In August 1942, the murder of a young Mexican American ignited a firestorm in Los Angeles. The tensions that had been building up for years between Mexican and white Los Angelenos boiled over. The press claimed that Mexican youth -- known as "zoot-suiters" for the clothes they wore -- were terrorizing the city with a wave of crime. Police fanned out across the city arresting 600 Mexican Americans. Seventeen "zoot-suiters" headed to a trial in which prosecutors had little evidence to present. Nonetheless, guilty verdicts were handed down to all. The tensions the trial inflamed sparked riots between servicemen and the Mexican American community that led to "zoot-suiters" being beaten and stripped of their clothes. Despite vigorous denials from city officials, a citizens' committee concluded the riots had been fueled by racial prejudice and encouraged by sensational news reporting and a discriminatory police department.

In August 1955, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago whistled at a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till didn't understand that he had broken the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South. Three days later, two white men dragged him from his bed in the dead of night, beat him brutally and shot him. Although his killers were arrested and charged with murder, they were both quickly acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. Soon after, the defendants sold their story, including a detailed account of how they murdered Till, to a journalist. The murder and the trial horrified the nation and the world. Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize the civil rights movement. Three months after his body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began.

For nearly 50 years, chemical engineer and inventor Maria Telkes applied her prodigious intellect to harnessing the power of the sun. She designed and built the world's first successfully solar-heated modern residence and identified a promising new chemical that, for the first time, could store solar heat like a battery. And yet, along the way, she was undercut and thwarted by her boss and colleagues - all men - at MIT. Despite these obstacles, Telkes persevered and, upon her death in 1995, held more than 20 patents. She is now recognized as a visionary pioneer in the field of sustainable energy. An unexpected and largely forgotten heroine, Telkes was remarkable in her vision and tenacity - a scientist and a woman in every way ahead of her time. Her research and innovations from the 1930s through the '70s continue to shape how we power our lives today.

Explore the fascinating life of celebrated singer Marian Anderson. In 1939, after being barred from performing at Constitution Hall because she was Black, she triumphed at the Lincoln Memorial in what became a landmark moment in American history.

Discover how three Black diplomats broke racial barriers at the US State Department during the Cold War. Asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home, they left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.

Discover how three Black diplomats broke racial barriers at the US State Department during the Cold War. Asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home, they left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.

Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down Al Capone and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America. Her work help lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today.

Discover how three Black diplomats broke racial barriers at the US State Department during the Cold War. Asked to represent the best of American ideals abroad while facing discrimination at home, they left a lasting impact on the Foreign Service.

Over 100 years before the COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco's Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a medical officer hadn't discovered a swollen black lymph node on his groin - evidence of bubonic plague. Fearing the city would become the American epicenter of the disease, health officials drew on racist pseudoscience to cover up the threat and protect San Francisco's burgeoning economy. As the outbreak continued to spread, public health officer Rupert Blue became determined to save his city. He established ties to Chinatown and ultimately proved that throngs of flea-infested rats-rather than the "foreign" habits of the Chinese-were the real reason the disease persisted. Based on David K. Randall's "Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague" and directed by Li-Shin Yu.

Over 100 years before the COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco's Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a medical officer hadn't discovered a swollen black lymph node on his groin - evidence of bubonic plague. Fearing the city would become the American epicenter of the disease, health officials drew on racist pseudoscience to cover up the threat and protect San Francisco's burgeoning economy. As the outbreak continued to spread, public health officer Rupert Blue became determined to save his city. He established ties to Chinatown and ultimately proved that throngs of flea-infested rats-rather than the "foreign" habits of the Chinese-were the real reason the disease persisted. Based on David K. Randall's "Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague" and directed by Li-Shin Yu.

Revisit Greenwood, a Black community in Tulsa. Torn apart in 1921 by a racially- motivated massacre, the neighborhood rose again but could not survive integration and urban renewal. A bittersweet portrait of small-town life told by those who lived it.

Over 100 years before the COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco's Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a medical officer hadn't discovered a swollen black lymph node on his groin - evidence of bubonic plague. Fearing the city would become the American epicenter of the disease, health officials drew on racist pseudoscience to cover up the threat and protect San Francisco's burgeoning economy. As the outbreak continued to spread, public health officer Rupert Blue became determined to save his city. He established ties to Chinatown and ultimately proved that throngs of flea-infested rats-rather than the "foreign" habits of the Chinese-were the real reason the disease persisted. Based on David K. Randall's "Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague" and directed by Li-Shin Yu.

Revisit Greenwood, a Black community in Tulsa. Torn apart in 1921 by a racially- motivated massacre, the neighborhood rose again but could not survive integration and urban renewal. A bittersweet portrait of small-town life told by those who lived it.

Over 100 years before the COVID-19 pandemic set off a nationwide wave of fear and anti-Asian sentiment, an outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco's Chinatown unleashed a similar crisis. The death of a Chinese immigrant in 1900 would have likely gone unnoticed if a medical officer hadn't discovered a swollen black lymph node on his groin - evidence of bubonic plague. Fearing the city would become the American epicenter of the disease, health officials drew on racist pseudoscience to cover up the threat and protect San Francisco's burgeoning economy. As the outbreak continued to spread, public health officer Rupert Blue became determined to save his city. He established ties to Chinatown and ultimately proved that throngs of flea-infested rats-rather than the "foreign" habits of the Chinese-were the real reason the disease persisted. Based on David K. Randall's "Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague" and directed by Li-Shin Yu.