Scope and arrangement
The collection consists of forty-two video recordings. These recordings, arranged in four series, include the three broadcast segments, unedited interviews, outtakes, and archival footage and audio. Each of the broadcast segments runs for about five minutes. They include interviews with historian John Henrik Clarke; dance educator Bernice Johnson and her husband, saxophonist Budd Johnson; pastor and musicologist Wyatt Tee Walker; and children of "The Big 4," Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Robeson, and Malcolm X. The collection also contains an interview with Julia Hotton, curator of the Schomburg Center's 1983 The Business of Slavery exhibition, which was not included in the final broadcast segments. The unedited interview with Wyatt Tee Walker is not in the collection, although Series III includes a recording of a service, including Walker's sermon, at his Canaan Baptist Church.
Series I. Broadcast Segments: Three video recordings of the broadcast segments, organized chronologically.
Series II. Interviews: Fourteen video recordings representing six total interviews conducted for the special, primarily organized alphabetically by the interviewee's last name. The multi-part group interview with Julius G. Garvey, Yolanda King, Paul Robeson, Jr., and Attallah Shabazz, respectively the children of Marcus Garvey, Martin Luther King, Jr., Paul Robeson, and Malcolm X, retains the title "The Big 4" from the original collection documentation.
Series III. Outtakes: Eight video recordings of unedited footage recorded for the special, organized chronologically.
Series IV. Outtakes: Archival: Seventeen video recordings of archival material, organized alphabetically by title. This series includes archival footage, video recordings of still photography and artwork, and video recordings of audio which were used in the broadcast segments. Item titles have been devised for clarity or amended from the original collection documentation.