Black is the Color (52 min) highlights key moments in the history of African American visual art from Edmonia Lewis to the work of contemporary artists such as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, Ellen Gallagher and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Art historians and gallery owners place the works in context—juxtaposing them with racist images of African-Americans as minstrels and setting them against the larger social contexts of Jim Crow, WWI, the Civil Rights Movement and the racism of the Reagan era. Contemporary artists discuss individual works by their forerunners and their ongoing influence.

In conjunction with Romare Bearden: Visionary Artist