The Austin Human Rights Commission, in partnership with Austin Area Arts and Riverland Equity and Inclusion Committee, will be hosting a free screening and discussion of “Rise! (1940-1968),” an episode from the acclaimed documentary “The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross,” as its 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Day event.

Written and presented by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., director of W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for African and African American Research at Harvard University, this six-hour series explores the evolution of the African-American people, as well as the multiplicity of cultural institutions, political strategies, and religious and social perspectives they developed — forging their own history, culture and society against unimaginable odds.

Showings will be held at noon and 6 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, at the Paramount Theatre with doors opening 30 minutes before show time. 

Free hot chocolate and coffee will be served. The first 25 people at each showing will also receive free popcorn.

For more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/344320272822552/.