Black American Experience: African Americans Who Left their Stamp on History - Season 1

First black heart surgeon in America. Daniel Hale Williams was an African-American cardiologist that performed the first successful open heart surgery. He also founded Provident Hospital, the first non-segregated hospital in the U.S. Dr. Williams was an extraordinary man of incredible talent and merit and his exceptional accomplishments are documented with great care in this inspiring program. Born to 'freed people of color' in 1856, he attended medical school at what is now Northwestern University in Chicago to become a practicing surgeon. His observations that American Blacks were treated as second-class citizens within the medical community, both professionally and as patients, motivated him to establish and run the first hospital for Blacks in the United States; Provident Hospital. Williams set up the first nursing school for Blacks and performed one of the first open heart surgeries in the world. His encounters with institutionalized racism gave him the courage and determination to create more hospitals and educational programs like the one he had at Provident. In 1885 he co-founded the National Medical Association for Black Doctors and openly encouraged African Americans to support hospitals that would offer first-rate care to African-Americans. In 1913, he became a charter member and only African American in the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Daniel Hale Williams' notable achievements as a Cardiac Surgeon helped to revolutionize the field of medicine and humanize its practices.

Voting rights activist & civil rights leader. Fannie Lou Hamer in 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi was the granddaughter of a slave and the youngest of 20 children. Raised by hardworking parents who were sharecroppers, she was no stranger to poverty or hardship. An inspirational speaker and writer, she used her powerful voice to raise the cause of equality and freedom for all blacks in America and became a defining force in the fight against social injustice during the early years of the civil rights movement. In this rare documentary, her struggles and triumphs are expressed through Hamer's own words as well as those of friends and colleagues. While attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Fannie Lou Hamer posed the defining question: "Is this America? The land of the free and the home of the brave? Where we have to sleep with our telephone off the hook, because our lives be threatened daily because we want to live in peace as human beings in America?" She will be remembered for winning the right to vote for Black Americans and exposing America's poverty by giving a voice to those in need. This program is an inspiration to anyone who has ever faced oppression and acts as a powerful reminder of what one individual is capable of achieving in the face of adversity.

Champion for education. Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955) was born the 15th of 17 children to former slaves in South Carolina. This inspiring program follows her illustrious path from the cotton fields of the South to renowned African American educator, leader of women, distinguished adviser to several American presidents including Franklin D. Roosevelt, close friend of Eleanor Roosevelt and champion of racial equality. Her many achievements are a testament to the power of education and its importance in the African American community. Mary McLeod Bethune understood the importance of education for all people. In an era when most African American children received little or no education, she established a school for African American girls. In 1904, she rented a two-story frame building in Daytona Beach, Fla., and opened her school with only $1.50, six pupils, used crates for desks and crushed elderberries for ink. Through determination and dedication, she built this tiny school into United Methodist Church affiliated Bethune-Cookman University. During her long career Bethune received many honorary degrees and awards, including the Haitian Medal of Honor and Merit (1949), the highest award of the Haitian government. Mary McLeod Bethune set a standard of excellence for the education of African Americans and she achieved her dreams through her own determination and strong faith in herself.

A rage in Harlem, internationally acclaimed writer. Chester Himes born 1909 in Jefferson, Missouri into a middle class academic black family was an internationally acclaimed African American writer who created a violent and cynical picture of the black experience in America by writing about his encounters with racism. This program is a moving portrait of a man who used his literary talents to vent his rage against an unjust society. In 1928 when Chester Himes was nineteen, he was chained upside down, beaten by police until he confessed to an armed robbery, sentenced for 20 to 25 years, and incarcerated in the Ohio State Penitentiary. By the time he was paroled in 1936, he had become a nationally known writer publishing stories in the African-American periodicals and Esquire. His novels, short stories and screenplays were mostly about black protagonists doomed by white racism and hate. By the 1950's Himes had decided to settle in France permanently, a country he liked in part due to his critical popularity there. Living among other expatriate writers that included James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison and Richard Wright, he published a series of black detective novels set in Harlem in the '50's and '60's that established Chester Himes' international reputation as an author and literary equal of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler.

First black congress-woman. Shirley Chisholm born 1924 in Brooklyn, N.Y. is the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress and the first to campaign for the Presidency. She was an outspoken advocate for women and minorities during the seven terms she served in the House. Her legacy of political and social activism laid the foundation for the rise of women and Blacks in American politics. "Of my two "handicaps" being female put more obstacles in my path than being black." This program is a celebration of her life and a political diary from the 1960's through the 1970's during an era of political transition and social change. The range of Chisholm's activism is explored in depth through her involvement in civil rights, women's rights, and the anti-Vietnam War efforts. We witness the excitement firsthand of Chisholm announcing her candidacy for President with the Democratic Party in 1972, declaring she is not a representative solely of the black or female communities, but "a candidate of the people". Though she did not win the nomination that year, she remained active in politics and served the House of Representatives until her retirement in 1982. In this inspiring program, Shirley Chisholm emerges as a charismatic leader and social reformer that achieved positive change in American politics and society for future generations.