Doco “Can’t Turn Us Around: Alabama’s Foot Soldiers” Premieres February 22 on HISTORY

The new hour-long documentary “Can’t Turn Us Around: Alabama’s Foot Soldiers,” hosted by Theo E.J. Wilson, a community organizer and grandson of a Tuskegee Airman, will premiere this February on the HISTORY Channel in celebration of Black History Month. Although the history of the civil rights movement’s leaders are well known, this moving documentary chronicles the story of the ordinary Black Americans who risked everything to fight for their rights across key battlefield communities in Alabama.

The HISTORY® Channel premiere of “Can’t Turn Us Around: Alabama’s Foot Soldiers” will air on Wednesday, February 22 at 7PM ET/PT, and will be available on demand the following day. On Friday, June 16 at 9 p.m. EDT, subscribers to the network’s HISTORY Vault® can watch an extended version of the documentary in celebration of Juneteenth.

From roughly 1955 to 1965, Black Americans, often known as “foot soldiers,” led an organized effort across the American south to end segregation and secure equal civil rights. This movement is chronicled in “Can’t Turn Us Around: Alabama’s Foot Soldiers.”

The foot soldiers’ efforts, along with their Caucasian supporters, culminated in a series of non-violent demonstrations, boycotts, and sit-ins across Alabama, particularly creating waves in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Selma. Segregationists and police officers alike, intent on maintaining racial segregation, reacted violently to each demonstration.

The documentary, interwoven with moving historical clips, takes viewers back to the height of segregation and racial strife, when figures like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and the Birmingham church bombing took on leadership roles.

Witnesses will be able to hear the inspiring accounts and intimate details of these movements straight from the mouths of those who lived them. Sheyann Webb, the youngest marcher in the Bloody Sunday march from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, is interviewed together with Charles Avery Jr., Janice Wesley Kelsey, and Jessie Shepherd, all of whom were participants in the Children’s Crusade of 1963.

“Can’t Turn Us Around: Alabama’s Foot Soldiers” is produced for The HISTORY® Channel and HISTORY Vault® by A+E Networks®. Ted Butler and Jasmin Gammon serve as executive producers.

A+E Networks holds worldwide distribution rights to “Can’t Turn Us Around: Alabama’s Foot Soldiers.”