St. Martha’s Episcopal Church in Bethany Beach will host a movie series beginning Jan. 15. The first one is about defining America’s national identity and the next two will focus on Black American history. The showings are free and open to the public.
“St. Martha’s is looking to explore deeper into Black history during the months of January, February and March and that’s why we are showing the films and having other programs,” said Mary Perkins, a member of the church’s Becoming Beloved Community Committee.
The movie “American Creed” will be shown at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 15. The PBS documentary is described as embracing “several major issues as the forefront of American political debate including how to provide access to education and economic opportunity, how to unify the diverse cultural populations in America and, most importantly, how to define America’s identity” with the hope that shared ideals can “prove more powerful than our differences and will engage viewers in a conversation about what it will take to uphold American democracy.”
The second film, Episode 4 of “The African Americans — Many Rivers to Cross (1892-1940”) will be shown at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 12. The PBS documentary was written and presented by Henry Louis Gates Jr., director of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African & African American Research at Harvard University. Episode 4 focuses on Black Americans’ “search for opportunities in the north and the west, while Black arts and culture grow in spite of Jim Crow.”
Plans are to show one of two other films at 3 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12 — either “What Happened, Miss Simone?” about the black singer Nina Simone in the 1950s and early 1960s, or “The African Americans Many Rivers to Cross,” about a journey across two continents to explore the transition of African Americans.