An AKA and a Delta Are Bringing Their Documentary “Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War” to PBS

Two women of the Divine Nine are behind a new PBS film arriving as the country marks its 250th anniversary. “Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War” is directed by Stacey L. Holman, a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., and premieres Monday, June 29, at 10 p.m. ET on PBS, PBS.org, and the PBS app. The film also brings to the screen a Black founding father whose home is being restored by Dr. Sesha Joi Moon, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.

Produced by VPM, Virginia’s home for public media, the one-hour documentary traces the stories of enslaved and freed Black Americans who fought to define democracy and claim their own freedom during the Revolutionary War. When the Declaration of Independence was signed 250 years ago, its signers, many of them enslavers, wrote that “all men are created equal.” Those founding ideals did not extend to Black people, and “Declarations” follows how Black Americans fought to claim them anyway.

Holman, a Spring 1991 initiate of the Beta Upsilon Chapter at Dillard University, previously directed “Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges and Universities” and served as a director on Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s “The Black Church: This is Our Story, This is Our Song” and “Gospel.” Her new film centers four figures who have long been left out of the founding story: James Lafayette, a double agent who helped defeat the British at Yorktown; Harry Washington, who was enslaved by George Washington and escaped Mount Vernon to join the British troops; Elizabeth “Mum Bet” Freeman, who sued for her own emancipation in Massachusetts; and Abraham Peyton Skipwith, the first known Black homeowner in Richmond’s Jackson Ward, an original Black Wall Street and the first Black urban neighborhood registered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Skipwith’s story reaches the screen through Dr. Sesha Joi Moon, who appears in the film. Moon, who serves in the cabinet of Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger, cofounded The JXN Project with her sister, Enjoli Moon, to restore Skipwith’s home as a national historic site during this year’s semiquincentennial.

“Declarations” is part of PBS America@250, a multiyear celebration of national history and culture under the leadership of Dr. Sylvia Bugg, a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and PBS’ Chief Programming Executive and General Manager of General Audience Programming.

“Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War” premieres Monday, June 29, at 10 p.m. ET and will stream on PBS.org and the PBS app.