This documentary is absolutely amazing! A must-see for teenagers and adults! Will Smith is charming as always, and brings a hopeful tone to the depressive history of racism and inequality in the United States. The other actors who appear give a performance like in a theatre, quoting diaries, books and speeches of famous people, but are dressed in their normal clothes, and that gives a poetic tone to the documentary. All the scholars who appear have very interesting things to say. Nevertheless, there is a couple of "activists" that talk a lot and don't know much, and that's a bit tiring. I rather hear erudite people that really know about the history of the United States talk than young angry activists.
Nevertheless, there are some very important voices that are silent here: 1) Native American men, women and children. I would have loved to learn more about their history and their suffering (they are also citizens of the US, thanks to the 14th Amendment, but have been denigrated always -still are- and it's very sad that their history is not told here). If the makers of this documentary wanted to focus only on African-Americans for the 3 first chapters (that's what they do), then they had to change the title of the documentary. 2) Other leaders and movements that were not pacifist but very important too in the Civil Rights movement, notably Malcolm X and the Black Panthers (I personally liked Malcolm X's philosophy more than Martin Luther King's). Why is he not in the documentary? (well, he appears 2 seconds with a quote about women in the 4th episode, but it's completely absent in episodes "Resistance" and "Wait"). It's funny, since I know that Will Smith has always been a fan of Malcolm X (he appears with many shirts of Malcolm X in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and also mentions a lot the Black Panthers). But since violence against violence is not politically correct, Malcom X's voice is missing.
Because of these two very important missing voices I give this awesome, poetic and brilliant documentary a 9 and not a 10.
I was very touched by the performances of Mahershala Ali and Samuel L. Jackson. And Will is an amazing host, interesting, funny, super handsome and cool, as always.
I watched this documentary series with my older children (who are teenagers). I'm Spanish and didn't know a lot of important details about the history of slavery, the Civil Rights movement in the US and the 14th Amendment. I'm grateful to you because we learnt a lot. Thanks a lot and many greetings from Madrid / Antonia
