Emancipation Road is a documentary film (in seven parts) which premiered in 2014.
The topic is the history of African Americans and slavery in America during a period of almost four centuries: from 1625 until the beginning of the 21st century (the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and his reelection in 2012).
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Kevin Hershberger
** Writer: Heather E. Hutsell
** Narrator: Coby Batty
** Production: Lion Heart Film Works
** Available on Tubi TV
** Language: English
** Subtitles: English
** Total run time: 354 minutes
As stated above, the film is divided into seven episodes.
Here are the headlines:
Episode 1
Run time = 48 minutes
1625-1863 – The Shadows of Liberty
Episode 2
Run time = 48 minutes
1863-1870 – The Emancipation Proclamation
Episode 3
Run time = 55 minutes
1870-1909 – Separate But Equal
Episode 4
Run time = 50 minutes
1909-WWII – Regardless of the Color of One’s Skin
Episode 5
Run time = 52 minutes
1945-1963 – The Double Victory
Episode 6
Run time = 50 minutes
1963-1968 – The Civil Rights Era
Episode 7
Run time = 51 minutes
1968-Today – Heroes of Hope
Old drawings and paintings are used to illustrate the account of historical events. Some historical scenes are reconstructed by modern actors, who never speak.
From episode 2 and onward, the account of historical events is also illustrated by old photographs; from episode 3 and onward also by archive footage.
What do reviewers say about this film?
On IMDb it has a rating of 74 percent, which corresponds to a rating of 3.7 stars on Amazon.
There are no user reviews on IMDb.
On Amazon there are at the moment 87 ratings, 22 with reviews. The average rating is 4.6 stars, which corresponds to a rating of 92 percent.
Here are the details:
5 stars = 79 percent
4 stars = 10 percent
3 stars = 6 percent
2 stars = 1 percent
1 star = 4 percent
As you can see, a huge majority is positive: 89 percent offer four or five stars. Only a small minority is negative: 5 percent offer only one or two stars.
The people who created Emancipation Road (2014) also created Up from Slavery (2011).
Both films have the same topic: the long history of African Americans. Both films have seven episodes. Obviously, there is some overlapping:
(1) Some clips used in Up from Slavery are also used in Emancipation Road.
(2) Some statements made by the narrator in Up from Slavery are repeated in Emancipation Road.
(3) In each episode of Emancipation Road, the final three words spoken by the narrator are “up from slavery.”
The main difference between the two products is the time frame.
Up from Slavery covers the time from 1619 to the first years after the Civil War and Reconstruction.
This is a period of less than three centuries (around 260 years).
Emancipation Road covers the time from 1625 to the beginning of the twenty-first century (the election of Barack Obama in 2008 and his reelection in 2012).
This is a period of almost four centuries (around 385 years).
What do I think about this film? This is an important film about an important topic.
In my opinion, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high.
Why?
What is wrong?
There are three factual mistakes in episode 6. In episode 7, there is one factual mistake and one serious omission.
Let me explain.
Regarding episode 6
# 1. The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 is mentioned ca. 16 minutes into the episode where the narrator says:
“The Senate voted 73–72 in favor of the bill.”
This is not true. The voting was 73 in favor and 27 against. What happened here? Obviously, there is a misprint in the manuscript.
The narrator reads the script without realizing that the figure 72 is a misprint for 27. The two digits have been reversed!
This misprint is (or should be) obvious. When you see the figures 73 and 72, you know (or should know) that something is wrong here.
This cannot be the result of a vote in the US senate. Why not? Because the Senate has only 100 members. 73 + 72 = 145. There are not 145 seats in the US Senate!
A misprint can happen. It is not always obvious. But a misprint such as this one should be obvious to the director and the narrator. At least one of them or both of them should have said: Stop! Something is wrong here! The vote in the Senate cannot be 73–72!
# 2. The Vietnam War is mentioned ca. 34 minutes into the episode where the narrator describes the war with the following words:
“The first war in which African Americans were integrated with whites.”
This is not true. The armed forces of the US were segregated until 1948 when President Harry S Truman issued an executive order which abolished segregation.
The Korean War (1950-1953) is the first war in which the armed forces of the US were integrated.
# 3. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the March on Washington is mentioned ca. 42 minutes into the episode where the narrator talks about:
“Martin Luther King’s 1964 March on Washington.”
The year is wrong. The March on Washington was in 1963, not in 1964. This mistake seems to be a case of sloppy editing.
Regarding episode 7
# 1. The African American politician Shirley Chisholm is mentioned ca. 3 minutes into the episode where the narrator describes her with the following words:
“Not only the first woman elected to Congress but also the first black woman.”
This statement is not correct. The first woman elected to the US Congress was Jeannette Rankin who won a seat in the House of Representatives in 1916. She served one term from 1917 to 1919. She also won a seat in the House in 1940. She served a second term from 1941 to 1943.
The first woman to serve in the US Senate was Rebecca Felton who was appointed in 1922. Hattie Caraway was appointed to the Senate in 1931. She won a seat in the Senate in 1932. She won the same seat in 1938. She served two terms in the Senate.
Shirley Chisholm served seven terms in the House of Representatives (1969-1983). While she was the first African American woman elected to Congress, she was not the first woman elected to Congress.
# 2. The miniseries Roots, which premiered on US television (ABC) in 1977, is mentioned ca. 13 minutes into the episode.
According to the narrator, the miniseries is based on a book by Alex Haley published in 1976. This is true. There is no mistake here. But there is a serious omission. An important detail is not mentioned.
The narrator does not tell us that Alex Haley was accused of plagiarism in 1978. A book about an African American had been published in 1967, nine years before Haley’s book appeared.
When the two accounts were compared, it is was obvious that some passages in the first book were similar or at least very similar to passages found in the second book. But Haley never credits the first book. He had stolen these passages without offering a reference.
And this was not all. Not only had he stolen passages from another author. He had presented the information in these passages as the history of his own ancestors!
The case was tried in a court of law, but before the case came to the end, Haley and his lawyer decided to settle with the author of the first book.
Haley paid the author of the first book an undisclosed amount of money; according to some sources around 500,000 dollars.
Haley’s lawyer admitted that something unfortunate had happened here. The lawyer stated that some passages from the first book had accidentally “found their way” into the second book.
The lawyer did not explain how passages from one book had accidentally “found their way” into another book!
The book Roots was a bestseller, and the miniseries based on the book was a milestone in the history of African Americans. Both deserve to be mentioned in a film about the long history of African Americans. But the account of Haley and Roots is not complete unless the accusation about plagiarism is also mentioned.
The people who created Emancipation Road made a poor decision when they decided to cover the story of Roots but to exclude the accusation of plagiarism.
As stated above, the rating on IMDb is too low, while the rating on Amazon is too high. I want to find a position in the middle. I think this product deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
REFERENCES
# 1. Documentary films
The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow
Four episodes
2002
Race: The Power of an Illusion
Three episodes
2003
Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property
Director: Charles Burnett
Run time = 57 minutes
2003
Slavery and the Making of America
Four episodes
2005
Up from Slavery
Seven episodes
2011
Slavery by Another Name
Director: Sam Pollard
Run time = 84 minutes
2012
Liberty and Slavery:
The Paradox of America’s Founding Fathers
Director: A. Troy Thomas
Run time = 85 minutes
2016
The Long Shadow
Director: Frances Causey
Run time = 87 minutes
2017
The Uncomfortable Truth
Director: Loki Mulholland
Run time = 85 minutes
2017
Harriet Tubman:
They Called Her Moses
Director: Robert Fernandez
Run time = 46 minutes
2018
Freedom’s Fortress
PBS – The Future of America’s Past
Host: Ed Ayers
Run time = 27 minutes
2019
# 2. Regarding Alex Haley and Roots
Molly Driscoll, “5 famous plagiarism and fraud accusations in the book world,” Christian Science Monitor, 8 December 2011
Don Kaplan, “Amazing ‘Roots’ returns after 40 years, dredging up Alex Haley plagiarism scandal, New York Daily News, 20 May 2016
John Dugdale, “Roots of the Problem: the history of Alex Haley’s book,” The Guardian, 9 February 2017
Melissa Gouty, “What You Might Not Know About Alex Haley and Roots,” Medium, 18 August 2021
*****
Roots:
The Saga of an American Family
By Alex Haley
(1976)
*****
Roots
A television miniseries
(ABC) (1977)
*****
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