Directed by Gretchen Sullivan Sorin and Ric Burns
Featuring Gretchen Sullivan Sorin with Eric Avila, Tamara Banks, Herb Boyd, Leah Chase and Craig Steven Wilder 
Running Time: 1 hour and 54 minutes
Unrated: Explicit violence and archival images of racist imagery

by Jenny Swadosh

“White people don’t have to think about it because the myth of the open road was created for them.” -- Alvin Hall

At this point in American history, most Americans have encountered the phrase,“ driving while Black,” even if they themselves are not. I would guess that a good percent of Americans also recognize the now iconic 1991 video footage of LAPD officers attacking African American motorist Rodney King. Likewise, while they may not be able to identify each victim, the familiar narrative of Black drivers pulled over in their cars by law enforcement and the subsequent tragic results is quintessentially American. How did we arrive at this awful destination? Driving While Black comprehensively answers that question, starting at the beginning of the journey, which is to say the arrival of enslaved Africans on the shores of what would become the United States of America. The twists and turns of a national, real life dystopian road trip make the two-hour documentary well worth the discomfort for non-Black viewers and a comprehensive illustration of what systemic racism looks like for anyone who is still trying to figure it out.  

Historian, curator and author Gretchen Sullivan Sorin began her research for Driving While Black two decades ago. Her resultant book, Driving While Black: African American Travel and the Road to Civil Rights, was published to acclaim earlier this year. This companion documentary, with Sorin as a guide, chronologically educates viewers on aspects of both the Black and the white experience (that’s the systemic part) beginning long before the invention of the automobile. A team of prominent historians provides background and interpretation to intertwined topics, including slave patrols (the progenitors of modern day police departments), the Civil War and emancipation, Reconstruction and white vigilante groups, the Great Migration, Jim Crow, the automobile industry, the interstate highway system, the Green Book and Black entrepreneurship, the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and city planning. All of these topics inform Driving While Black in initially surprising ways that, in retrospect, make perfect sense when seen cumulatively. 

As someone whose profession is teaching historical research, what struck me about the documentary is how the directors weave together different strands of inquiry, from conventional scholarly research by academics to interviews with individuals who lived the history, successfully honoring all forms of evidence. Sorin provides both: for her -- and for all of the Black scholars featured in the documentary -- the experience of terror behind the wheel, and the feelings of dread for their children’s lives are an integral part of their condition. Historian Craig Wilder concisely sums it up for us with, “the reality is that there is nothing that Black people can do to disarm white violence.”

In addition to Sorin’s anchoring narrative and the interviews is a stunning variety of archival audio and still and moving images. There are audio recordings made in the 1940s of elderly people with first-hand experience of slavery and Reconstruction-era terrorism, which frequently manifested itself on Black travelers. There are home movies, dash and body cam footage from traffic stops and social media posts recorded by Black people trapped in police cars and concerned bystanders. There are photographs and illustrations of lynchings, white mobs attacking Black motorists and signage intended to remind Black people of the ever-present threat of violence while on the road or in transit hubs. Viewers are also treated to dozens upon dozens of proud individuals and families posing next to their cars, many preparing for a perilous journey northward in search of elusive security or southward to visit family and community left behind in the exodus. Rarely do we return to the same image twice. The research that went into identifying, digitizing, licensing and editing almost two hours of documentary evidence is staggering to contemplate. To be honest, it also made my skin crawl to contemplate a member of the documentary’s production team negotiating licenses for photographs of lynchings. Just how much are these images of Black suffering worth? And why should they be owned by any entity at this point?

The only fault I can identify with Driving While Black is the occasionally distracting instrumental soundtrack. Throughout the documentary are dramatic readings of memoirs and essays on Black mobility and movement by notable African American writers, and, for some reason, it was felt that these required musical accompaniment. At one point during a reading of a W. E. B. Du Bois text, I wished I could make the cloying music evaporate. However, at other points, especially toward the conclusion, a wholly different, menacing, bass-driven soundtrack is employed to excellent effect. 

In my introduction, I noted that white people ought to see this documentary. As a white reviewer, I am reluctant to advocate for universal screening of Driving While Black. The law enforcement footage capturing the final seconds in a Black person’s life, especially the sounds of pleading, yelling, gun shots (so many gunshots), and hysterical screaming are not anything revelatory to African American viewers, but caregivers contemplating viewing Driving While Black with young people may wish to prepare everyone for what they will see and hear. Yes, this is a trigger warning. However, the section of the documentary focusing on travel guides for African American motorists, the story of enterprising Black postal worker and businessman Victor Green and his incredible creativity in publishing and distributing the Green Book, and the now severely diminished national landscape of Black-owned businesses that African American mobility gave rise to -- Sorin describes it as a “parallel world that African Americans constructed” -- is an inspiring history that could provide a new generation of entrepreneurs with more concrete shoulders to stand on. Tragically, this dilemma of when, what and how to inform the next generation about its past, present and future is also part of the story of Driving While Black.

Driving While Black airs on October 13, 2020 at 9 pm Eastern Time on PBS stations.