As Black History Month reaches its centennial, the stories it preserves serve as urgent reminders. For 100 years, this observance has invited Americans to reflect on our past, not as a passive act, but as essential preparation for the work of sustaining a multiethnic and multiracial democracy.

Black history’s narratives of resistance, resilience and refusal of erasure are blueprints for understanding the present — tools for shaping and protecting the communities we build. New premieres throughout February join a rich collection of streaming programs that illuminate why these stories matter.

Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History

Henry Louis Gates Jr. explores the complex alliance between Black and Jewish Americans in this new four-part documentary series that premiered Feb. 3. For centuries, these communities have shared parallel experiences of persecution and discrimination while navigating vastly different positions within America’s racial hierarchy.

The series examines their intertwined history — from the founding of the NAACP and transformative partnerships in education and the arts, to painful moments of tension when structural racism widened the gap between them. Through personal stories, archival footage and candid conversations among historians and descendants, Gates reveals how anti-Semitism and anti-Black racism have functioned as intertwined forces shaping American democracy, and why understanding this shared yet divergent history remains crucial.

Stream all four episodes of Black and Jewish America: An Interwoven History as they are released throughout February on the free PBS app. And explore all of Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s films and programs for PBS.

The history of Black Midwesterners before the Great Migration | Why Race Matters

Host of PBS Wisconsin’s Why Race Matters, Angela Fitzgerald, sits down with University of Wisconsin-Madison historian Christy Clark-Pujara to uncover an overlooked chapter of Wisconsin history that begins long before the Great Migration. Black people have lived in what became Wisconsin since 1725, yet slavery persisted illegally well into the 1840s through community consent rather than legal authority — practiced by figures like territorial governor Henry Dodge and even Jefferson Davis during his military posting at Prairie du Chien.

Clark-Pujara reveals how intentional policies created the Midwest’s overwhelmingly white landscape, why the region’s progressive reputation masks a legacy of racism and how understanding restrictive housing covenants and voting rights debates explains the racial segregation and wealth gaps visible in Wisconsin today.

Watch all four seasons of Why Race Matters.

Why is there Black Radicalism? | University Place

The late scholar Cedric Robinson, who served as director of the Center for Black Studies at UC Santa Barbara and authored the groundbreaking Black Marxism, delivers a powerful lecture examining the roots and nature of Black radicalism as a response to centuries of social injustice.

Robinson argues that capitalism didn’t produce racialism but rather emerged from a culture already deeply structured by racial hierarchies — demonstrating how historical suppression has erased crucial Black narratives — from Black military defectors in the 1899 Philippines to the African ancestry of Alessandro de’ Medici. Through examples ranging from Nat Turner to Phillis Wheatley’s intellectual challenges to Thomas Jefferson, he reveals how Black radicalism is learned, practiced and connected to liberation struggles worldwide.

American Coup: Wilmington 1898 | American Experience

In 1898, Wilmington, North Carolina, was a thriving port city where Black citizens made up 56% of the population and held positions as business owners, doctors, lawyers and elected officials alongside white allies in a biracial Fusionist government. This groundbreaking American Experience documentary reveals how white supremacists orchestrated the only successful coup d’état in American history, violently overthrowing the democratically elected government, massacring Black residents and destroying the offices of The Daily Record — the nation’s only Black-owned daily newspaper.

Through interviews with descendants of the conflict and extensive archival research, the film examines how this act of anti-Black, racist domestic terrorism was deliberately erased from history for over a century, and how its legacy shaped the systematic disenfranchisement of Black voters across the South for generations to come.

Stream the entire documentary

Living History and Local Milestones | Black Nouveau

From our partners at Milwaukee PBS, host of Black Nouveau Earl Arms explores Milwaukee’s Black history  in this February 2026 edition. The episode celebrates The Milwaukee Community Journal’s 50th anniversary with insights from journalists on the critical role of Black press in covering stories mainstream media overlooks, traces the dramatic Underground Railroad journey of an enslaved woman who escaped to Milwaukee in 1843 and features Donzaleigh Abernathy sharing intimate memories of her father Ralph Abernathy and her godfather Martin Luther King Jr. during the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Viewers also meet Ubuntu MKE founder Yollande Tchouapi, who discusses the annual Flavors of Africa & Diaspora event connecting African and African American communities through food and culture.

The Inquisitor | Independent Lens

New from Independent Lens, Barbara Jordan rose from Houston’s segregated 5th Ward to become one of the most powerful voices in American political history — the first Black woman elected to Congress from the Deep South and a champion of constitutional democracy. This documentary traces her journey from Texas Southern University debate champion to her iconic role in the Nixon impeachment hearings, where her declaration, “Today I am an inquisitor,” captivated a nation and her insistence that “my faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total,” defined a moment of moral clarity.

The film reveals Jordan’s mastery of political power as she navigated all-white, all-male spaces while advocating for voting rights, women’s equality and civil liberties, all while keeping her relationship with partner Nancy Earl and her battle with multiple sclerosis private in an era when either revelation could have ended her career.

Watch the full documentary.

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Be sure to watch other PBS specials that premiered this month, including Teddy Pendergrass: If You Don’t Know Me (watch with PBS Passport), and Sun Ra – Do the Impossible from American Masters.

As Black History Month reaches its centennial this year, we recognize both the power of this observance and its limitations — these stories deserve our enduring attention. Join us in watching  documentaries and programs about Black history and Black communities all year — not just as a seasonal exercise — and explore these narratives long after February ends.