CNN's 'Black In America' Is An Expressive Portrait

Other celebrities who figure in the reportage include filmmaker Spike Lee, showbiz entrepreneur Russell Simmons and actress Whoopi Goldberg, who says bluntly, "Thank God for the welfare system" because it helped her survive early years of demoralizing poverty and raise a daughter as a single mother. She says she is distressed, however, by "reforms" in welfare that have made it less accessible to those who need it.

The most memorable personalities in "Black in America" are not the celebrities but the everyday people whose experiences reflect aspects of the African American experience. There's a man born Kenneth -- he later changed that to a West African name -- who talks frankly about robbing the only bank in Sherrill, Ark., to get drug money at age 22 (he revisits the site with O'Brien), for which he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

His story is an example of the savage toll taken by crack cocaine, especially on black Americans, during the crack craze of the 1970s and '80s. "It was better than sex" when he first used it, he recalls, but his life became the proverbial "living hell" once he was hooked. He is now a preacher and counselor to youth: "I didn't find God; God found me."

A man known as Butch epitomizes the emergent black middle class. He moved into a previously all-white suburb (and experienced little hostility from neighbors, he says), drives a Mercedes, says he "can't wait to go to work" each morning and has raised three sons. The happy story takes a downward turn; one son was involved in a "drug-related" shooting.

As a documentary must contain statistics, it must also have a contingent of experts. In the case of "Black in America," those have been particularly well chosen -- especially Roland G. Fryer Jr., 31, an economics professor who this year became the youngest African American ever to receive tenure at Harvard. He makes several appearances throughout the documentary, always with something insightful or provocative to add.

Some of the editing tricks in "Black in America" are irritating or at least repetitious -- a kind of progressive cutting, one-two-three -- of ever-closer shots as a talking head talks. It's an attempt to animate a static shot, but viewers should be given more credit: The picture doesn't always have to move for people to be engaged. Sometimes we even listen to the words.

The words and the pictures of these four remarkable hours complement and supplement each other. There's little if any waste; the report has been edited to a tight, bright pace that makes it seem considerably shorter than it is. "Black in America" looms as a tremendous accomplishment for O'Brien and for the many producers, editors and crew members who poured themselves into it. And if no good comes of it, it won't be their fault.

The two-part Black in America series debuts tonight with "The Black Woman & Family" (two hours) on CNN at 9; "The Black Man" (two hours) airs tomorrow night at 9.