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American Experience
The Donner Party
Season 5
Episode 3
Three years before the Gold Rush, 87 pioneers took a shortcut westward to California, only to get caught in the snows of the Sierra Nevada. The emigrants' fateful journey culminated in death and cannibalism.
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53:00
The dramatic story of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990.
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1:52:47
The story of one of the most influential yet forgotten civil rights figures, Walter White.
1:51:27
The little-known story of the deadly 1898 race massacre and coup d’etat in Wilmington, NC.
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52:36
A look at the US vice presidency, from constitutional afterthought to position of political import.
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1:53:04
When US inner cities erupted in violence in 1967, LBJ created a commission to investigate.
1:52:30
The story of housewives who led a grassroots movement to galvanize the Superfund Bill.
52:54
The untold story of the people who fought tirelessly to save women from cervical cancer.
1:52:39
The lively but neglected history of the women who changed the world while flying it.
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52:32
The story of the German American Bund, a pro-Nazi group active across the US in the 1930s.
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51:27
Explore the culture war that erupted over the spectacular rise of disco music.
1:47:20
The story of a Mississippi town’s effort to integrate its public schools in 1970.
1:52:38
Revisit 1970s Boston, when court-mandated school integration unleashed racial unrest.