From Slavery to Freedom Film Series: Driving While Black: Race, Space, and Mobility in America

Join the African American Program for a free virtual screening of “Driving While Black: Race, Space, and Mobility in America.”

The Heinz History Center will screen “Driving While Black: Race, Space, and Mobility in America,” a film directed by Gretchen Sorin and Ric Burns that examines the history of African Americans on the road from the 1930s to the 1960s and beyond, as part of the From Slavery to Freedom Film Series presented in collaboration with The Frick Pittsburgh.

From the depths of the depression to the heights of the Civil Rights Movement and on to today, the film explores deeply embedded dynamics of race and mobility in America. It provides a crucial window on issues of class, gender, law enforcement, discrimination, automobile culture and national identity.

The Heinz History Center and the Frick Museum collaboration is centered on their respective exhibits, The Negro Motorist Green Book, which just concluded its run at the History Center, and Pittsburgh and the Great Migration: Black Mobility and the Automobile, open now at the Frick.

Joining the virtual broadcast will be Gretchen Sorin, Director & Distinguished Professor at the Cooperstown Graduate Program, one of the preeminent museum programs in the country. As a director, professor, consultant, and educator, Sorin is recognized as one of the leading museum professionals in the country.

Writer, researcher and public historian Alonna Carter-Donaldson will discuss the film following the screening. Donaldson works at The Frick Pittsburgh as a Research Historian and Inaugural Burke Family Fellow, and was instrumental as a research and publication assistant for the publication, “Pittsburgh and the Great Migration: Black Mobility and the Automobile,” that accompanies the exhibition.

The From Slavery to Freedom Film Series is presented by Highmark and Allegheny Health Network.

Admission

Driving While Black: Race, Space, and Mobility in America is free with advance registration.