As Americans celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary milestone, it’s important to remember everyone who made it possible. Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War comes to PBS for television viewers to learn the stories of key Black figures who helped shape the country.

Ahead of the film’s June 29 premiere, TVBrittanyF.com spoke to director Stacey L. Holman to learn how it came together. She explained what she’s learned from her previous films that helped her make Declarations, and what the creative process was like. Additionally, linked throughout this interview are additional resources for those who want to learn more about the real-life heroes featured in the documentary.

Brittany Frederick: You’ve done several documentary films about Black history. What was it about this subject that made you interested in it being the next one?

Stacey L. Holman: I was approached by Virginia Public Media about two sisters who were doing some work reconstructing the home of one of our subjects in the film, Abraham Skipwith, and they wanted to do a bigger vision around [America] 250. My job from there was, how do I develop a story that starts in Virginia that’s universal?

From there I had a great developing producer, Chelsea; we worked together finding other individuals that were living during that time period that were doing incredible things, seeking their freedom in various ways—whether it was through the courts, or whether it was on their own by running away, or through just petitions. That’s really how it blossomed to where we are now.

How did you decide what stories to tell in Declarations, given that you have a finite amount of running time within the film? Were there specific things you were looking for?

it was really about whose story we could follow an arc, where they started and where they ended. These individuals—Skipwith, Mum Bett, James Lafayette and Harry Washington—we saw a clear arc [where] their story began and also where they ended by the time America became independent. From there we were able to get information; some of it was easily accessible, others we really relied on the scholarship of historians who had written about those subjects to develop the story.

Did you take anything from your previous films like Making Black America: Through the Grapevine that you were able to apply to the process of Declarations?

One thing that is constant is getting a great group of advisors, because they are your guideposts. And also finding the scholars who write about [the subject], because that’s also your guide. That was just like a natural thing that I’ve always done in my projects—reaching out to them and asking what do you know, what are important things to tell about these individuals and also about this time period that people may not understand, or people miss because it was so early.

How are we going to tell a story that’s visual when there aren’t any visuals? and that’s when we turn to the use of the little archival [material] that there was. When I say little, I am speaking specifically to archive that depicts Black people in a form of agency. There’s tons of portraits of Washington across the Delaware and Battle and Jefferson, but there’s very little as it comes to Black individuals. We had to think of our approach there, and how would we make those things come to life, and that’s when we started exploring the use of AI.

Are there any particular parts of Declarations that you wanted to highlight for viewers, that especially resonated with you or that you just want to bring to their attention?

One of our characters wrote a will, and we do have moments where people are reading the will. Abraham Skipwith—who understood owning land, who understood inheritance and legacy—in 1797 drafted a will. To see what he left for his descendants, what was important to him, in addition to property, the care of the items that he left, that’s one of my moments.

And there’s tragedy in that will as well. He’s able to give property to his granddaughter and his wife [but] at the same time, three of his children are still enslaved, and he still leaves items for them, as well as money… so it’s really bittersweet.

The timing of this film is also poignant, in that we’re celebrating America 250, but the country is also divided in some ways. Did it feel important to be telling this story now, and what do you want audiences to take away from Declarations at the end?

Very much so. We look at this document and it’s a test of, has it stood up? Once you get past “pursuit of happiness,” it gets a little bit complicated. The Declaration of Independence—equality, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness are all rights that everyone wants, whether it was 250 years ago or today. Who gets that, who deserves it, who earns it, that’s the question that was asked then, and it’s definitely being challenged now. It’s definitely a conversation, and it’s definitely something that we are always in pursuit of.

America [has] a complicated history, and Black people are very much in the fabric of it. We were living our lives, we were dreaming, we were believing, and we are very instrumental in a lot of what we’re enjoying today, or what’s being challenged today.I hope it’ll create a conversation again around those tenets of equality, life, living, and pursuit of happiness, and what that means for us individually and collectively as a nation.

I think that history is present. We can really look to our history to know what our present is; it’s a road map, it really is. You can look at the headlines then and compare them now, and sometimes they look really similar. But I also hope, too, that it’s just a chance for people to really get curious about history. Not just what we see in art museums, or we read, and what we’re told, but to really dig deep and to see there are many people who are instrumental in building this country, and who were important—that we acknowledge them as well.

Declarations: Black Americans and the Revolutionary War premieres June 29, 2026 at 10:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. PT on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app. Photo Credit: Courtesy of PBS.

Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.