LOS ANGELES — A new US television documentary series reaches back 500 years to demonstrate how America's black history contained some unsettling nuances and uncomfortable truths. The six-part series, “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” which premiered on PBS on Tuesday, opened with Juan Garrido, a free black man who was among the Spanish conquistadors who arrived in Florida in 1513. He is followed by the first known slave, named Esteban, 13 years later. For Henry Louis Gates Jr., the Harvard scholar who conceived and presents the documentary, Garrido and Esteban set the tone for the series. The series covers the 500 years from Garrido to Barack Obama. — Reuters
