Fannie Mae Foundation Sponsors PBS Series, Africans In America

Business Wire, July 30, 1998

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 30, 1998--The Fannie Mae Foundation Thursday announced sponsorship of the PBS series, AFRICANS IN AMERICA: America's Journey Through Slavery, the first comprehensive television history of the international events leading to the growth of racial slavery in the United States.

Expected to draw more than 20 million viewers nationwide, the AFRICANS IN AMERICA series will air Monday, Oct. 19 through Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 at 8:00 p.m. (EST) on PBS. The sponsorship is a part of the Fannie Mae Foundation's expanded public education outreach efforts designed to reach African Americans.

"The AFRICANS IN AMERICA series will be a unique educational opportunity for all Americans to learn more and understand this nation's complex history," said James A. Johnson, chairman of the Fannie Mae Foundation.

AFRICANS IN AMERICA will be presented in four 90-minute episodes. The series will take viewers on a journey from this country's earliest days as an English settlement, through its war for independence, to its rise as an international economic power before the Civil War. The series will show the dramatic impact of the struggle over slavery and freedom in shaping our country.

Orlando Bagwell, series executive producer, said, "The national sponsorship of the Fannie Mae Foundation extends the opportunity for AFRICANS IN AMERICA to help audiences understand our ancestors' struggle for freedom and liberty, and how their history impacts society today."

In addition to television viewers, AFRICANS IN AMERICA will reach diverse audiences in schools and communities across the country. Forty-thousand free teacher's guides will be distributed to middle and high school teachers across the country to encourage them to use the programs as a teaching tool in their classrooms.

AFRICANS IN AMERICA is produced for PBS by WGBH Boston, and was filmed on location across twelve states and three continents. The series includes new scholarship by noted experts from around the United States and the world. Episode One, Terrible Transformation (1607-1750), details the circumstances under which the first Africans arrived in America.

Episode Two, Revolution (1750-1805), highlights the increasing tension between the Colonists and England, with the Colonists pressing for freedom from the crown and their domestic policies.

Episode Three, Brotherly Love (1781-1834), follows the struggles of both freedmen and fugitive slaves, aided by the growing number of abolitionist societies as they challenged the new nation to live up to the ideals of the revolution. Episode Four, Judgment Day (1831-1861), examines the denouement of the antebellum South and the final years before the Civil War.

Orlando Bagwell is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include Eyes on the Prize; Malcolm X: Make It Plain; Roots of Resistance: A Story of the Underground Railroad; Dancing: New Worlds, New Forms; and Frederick Douglass: When the Lion Wrote History.

The Fannie Mae Foundation, a private nonprofit foundation, supports national organizations working to provide affordable housing opportunities, and otherwise improve the quality of life in underserved communities across the country. The Foundation's sole source of support is Fannie Mae.

The Foundation is headquartered in Washington D.C. and has regional offices in Atlanta; Chicago; Dallas; Pasadena, Calif. and Philadelphia.

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