Bill Cosby’s Forgotten "Militant" Documentary - 'Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed'

[loyola llothta]

Ahhhhh the late 60′s… the good old days when all black people wore afros and were pissed off.

During the summer of 1968, just a few months after the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, as the country was tearing apart at the seams, with cities becoming charred ruins from racial riots, CBS broadcast the documentary "Black History: Lost, Stolen or Stayed," which was narrated by Bill Cosby.

The program was a sensation, and I still remember it. Nothing like it had even been done on TV before, and I’m hard-pressed to think of anything since.

And you have to consider that this was a very daring thing for Cosby to do at the time. He was the co-star of one of the most popular TV shows then - "I Spy" - and was considered by many to be a “safe and non-threatening” black man. So, for him to show his angry, militant outrage against racism, and how black people had been portrayed in films, despite their massive contributions throughout history which had been ignored, was shockingly radical.

Needless to say, the show was a smash. In fact, it was so popular, and, of course, so controversial, that the network re-broadcast it less than a month later, to an equally high viewership.

Later Lincoln Perry, better known as the infamous Stephin Fetchit (for you young’uns, a black actor from the 1930′s and 40′s, notorious for his highly-offensive stereotyped film characters) filed a multi-million dollar suit against the network, claiming defamation of his character, which he lost.

But when you think about what we see today, you can argue that, not only have things not changed, they may have gotten even worse.

Watch the entire 53-minute documentary program below:

 

[loyola llothta]

they wont read this tho

 

[Pdiddy]

they wont read this tho

There was a thread on this documentary the other day...got good feedback

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

What happen to that Cosby? He now speaks like a 80 year old white guy from Staten Island.

 

[loyola llothta]

What happen to that Cosby? He now speaks like a 80 year old white guy from Staten Island.

he turn old and probably reach a point that he cant take it anymore. Dude seen alot of shyt....just imagine seeing black ppl fighting solidarity from 60 -70's to killing each other for sneakers. He wasn't born in 90's or 80's his might set come from a "safe negro"

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

he turn old and probably reach a point that he cant take it anymore. Dude seen alot of shyt....just imagine seeing black ppl fighting solidarity from 60 -70's to killing each other for sneakers. He wasn't born in 90's or 80's his might set come from a "safe negro"

Man some blacks was doing fukked up shyt back in them days as well. Blaxploitation films started in early 70s, Vice Lords founded in 1958, Crips was founded in 1969, Pirus in 1972. GDS in the late 60s. The point i'm trying to make is for every positive black people that's doing something positive, there is always one doing the opposite. The same goes for Cosby days and nothing is new under the sun. We can't re-write history and act like when Cosby turned 60 yrs old the black race turned into a bunch of savages and we all aint shyt. Thats the problem, he totally forgot about the young ones that's not with the fukkery and lumped us all together. They didn't lump him with the VL's, GDs, Bs, and Cs in his day, then he shouldn't lump us with the ones that aint shyt.