New Docuseries “Great Migrations: A People on the Move” from Emmy Nominee Henry Louis Gates Jr. Premieres January 28th on PBS

PBS today announced the full details for GREAT MIGRATIONS: A PEOPLE ON THE MOVE, a new four-part docuseries from Emmy® nominated executive producer, host, and writer Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., premiering January 28, 2025, 9:00PM ET (check local listings) on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app. GREAT MIGRATIONS is the latest docuseries from Gates on PBS following recent critically acclaimed series including GOSPEL, MAKING BLACK AMERICA: THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE, THE BLACK CHURCH, and more.

The series tells the story of African American movement over the 20th and 21st centuries, and how it has shaped our nation by exploring the meaning behind those movements. What political or economic pressures inspire people to move? Is it more often inspired by hope or fear? Is there even such a thing as a promised land? GREAT MIGRATIONS is directed by Julia Marchesi and Nailah Ife Sims, who also serve as producers of the series. Dyllan McGee serves as executive producer, along with Gates.

Human beings have always moved en masse. Since the beginning of human existence, movement has defined how we evolved and created identities, communities, and nations-states. Migration is not unique to any single ethnicity or group, but it is a deeply profound aspect of the modern African American experience simply because Black people were denied movement for so long. Theirs was a forced migration from Africa, followed by centuries of enslavement that kept them in place. In being denied movement, they were denied their humanity.

After emancipation, the migratory spirit took hold in this new space of freedom, and many African Americans uprooted themselves from all that was familiar to move to northern cities (sometimes stopping first in southern cities) to build entirely new lives – a decision that dramatically changed the fabric of American culture and society. It was an epic migration of people that began in the late 19th century when it was clear that the early promises of Reconstruction would not be fulfilled, and accelerated as the century progressed. Underlying this courageous act was the abiding belief in American opportunity, as well as a belief in their own capacity to better their lives, and the lives of their children. In some ways, it has never really ended.

Throughout GREAT MIGRATIONS, Gates, the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor at Harvard University and director of the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, interviews dozens of journalists, scholars, professors, and experts. The series includes notable figures including political leader Stacey Abrams, artist George F. Baker III, journalist Charles Blow, and more.

“The Great Migration was not just a seismic historical event; it’s an ongoing story,” said Gates. “Our series focuses on three dramatic migrations that have profoundly shaped the African American experience, and redefined what it means to be ‘Black’ in this country: the great migration from the Deep South to the North and West; the reverse migration back to the South, and most recently the astonishing large migration of Africans and West Indians to this country in recent decades. In fact, more Africans migrated to the United States in a ten-year period than were forcibly shipped here over the entire course of the slave trade! Our series is the first to explore these three mass movements of Black human beings to this country, and what that has meant for the reshaping of American culture.”

Reflecting on the series, series producers/directors, Julia Marchesi and Nailah Ife Sims share, “Over the past century, Black migration has shaped the fabric of our biggest cities, our industries, our music, our food, our politics, and so much more. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to create a series that highlights just how powerful the choice to move has been for the trajectories of so many Black families, and this ‘great experiment’ called America.”

Episode descriptions are provided below:

Tuesday, January 28, 9:00 PM ET – “Exodus”

Episode 1 explores the first wave of the Great Migration (1910-1940), when more than a million Black Americans fled the Jim Crow South for the promised lands of the North, forever changing the country and themselves.

Tuesday, February 4, 9:00 PM ET – “Streets Paved in Gold”

Episode 2 explores the second wave of the Great Migration (1940-1970), highlighting how Northern and Western Black communities matured through migration and transformed the cultural and political power of Black America.

Tuesday, February 11, 9:00 PM ET – “One Way Ticket Back”

Episode 3 shows how the reverse migration of Black Americans to the South – driven by mass movements, economic change, and an ongoing struggle for freedom and opportunity – continues to reshape the country.

Tuesday, February 18, 9:00 PM ET – “Coming to America”

Episode 4 tells the story of African and Caribbean immigrants in the United States, examining their profound impact on American culture and what it means to be Black in America.

GREAT MIGRATIONS serves as the latest in a lengthy career of acclaimed docuseries from Gates, who has made a name for himself as one of the preeminent documentarians in public media. In addition to his history-producing content that brings the African and African American experience to a broad audience, Gates’s slate of programming also includes the fan-favorite PBS series FINDING YOUR ROOTS WITH HENRY LOUIS GATES, JR., which recently received its first Emmy nomination, will return for an 11th season in January 2025.

GREAT MIGRATIONS: A PEOPLE ON THE MOVE is a production of McGee Media and Inkwell Media, in association with WETA Washington, D.C. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the writer, host, and executive producer. Dyllan McGee is executive producer. Julia Marchesi and Nailah Ife Sims are series producer and directors. Kevin Burke, Jasmine Cannon, Kate McCormick and Thea Piltzecker are producers. Deborah Clancy Porfido is the supervising producer. Robert L. Yacyshyn and Ashley Thomas are line producers. Megan A. Graham is the supervisory archival producer. Sandra Valdivieso is the co-producer.