The American Heartbeat marks the opening of Season 5 of Black Is America.

One hundred years after Negro History Week was established to safeguard Black history, this film serves as a reminder that the story was never separate to begin with. Black history is not an appendix to America's narrative — it is woven through its foundation.

From labor and culture to service, faith, innovation, and memory, The American Throughline asserts what has always been true: to erase Black history is to leave the American story incomplete.

This film follows a long tradition of griots — storytellers who understood that memory is survival, and that as long as someone continues to tell the story, the history endures.

This is not explanation.

It is assertion.