Kareem Abdul-Jabbar documentary on protests to premiere on A+E Networks

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Announced at yesterday’s virtual upfronts, A&E Networks has ordered a documentary from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar focusing on protests that have “changed” America.

According to Deadline, A&E Networks has ordered Fight the Power: The Protests That Changed America, which is executive produced by Abdul-Jabbar and Deborah Morales. 

The one-hour documentary will air on History and is said to “look at the impact key protests have had on the evolution of the United States, from past to present and explore the question: Does the arc of the moral universe bend toward justice when pressure is applied?”

In a statement, Abdul-Jabbar said, “The history of protest in America is also the history of social progress.”

Read More: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar promotes vaccinations: ‘Let’s do this together’

This is not Abdul-Jabbar’s first collaboration with the History family. Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution aired in 2020 and was also executive produced by the NBA Legend and Morales.

The documentary highlighted “the Black heroes of the American Revolution who stood up against British rule to help establish the United States of America, and, conversely, black loyalists who fought for the Crown—and the promise of freedom,” as well as Abdul-Jabbar’s own personal journey.

When promoting Black Patriots: Heroes of the Revolution, Abdul-Jabbar said on CBS This Morning, “I think the history that we’re taught, it’s taught to us in a way that kind of minimizes or marginalizes the contributions of people who were not of European descent, and I think that’s the problem…They are only focusing on one segment of society and what they contributed.”

He says in the film, “We could not have won the Revolutionary War without the contribution of black Americans, and success in the war would come to whoever armed blacks the fastest.”

A&E Networks announced two other documentary projects at their virtual upfronts yesterday. Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution, directed and executive produced by Mario Diaz and Jessica Sherif, is a four hour, two-part series said to explore “the evolution of Black comedy and comedians who have used pointed humor to expose, challenge and ridicule society’s injustices and to articulate the Black experience in America.”

Also announced was the docuseries, Secret Origins of Hip Hop, which “follows some of hip-hop’s biggest stars, including Busta Rhymes, Eve, Fat Joe Grandmaster Flash, and Ice-T, as they share the stories and events that molded them into the artists they became.”

Secret Origins of Hip Hop is produced by Mass Appeal and executive produced by Peter Bittenbender and Slane Hatch.

A release date for Fight the Power: The Protests That Changed America has yet to be announced.

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