For this Memorial Day feature (filmed in 2023), I sat down with legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, the Emmy-winning creator of landmark PBS series including The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, The National Parks, The Vietnam War, and The Central Park Five. Across more than fifty years of filmmaking, Burns has built a body of work that refuses to look away from the hard parts of American history, especially the experiences of Black and Native communities.
Our conversation uses three primary source photographs and one filmed account as anchors. We examine the 4th United States Colored Infantry of the Civil War, the Choctaw code talkers of World War I, and the story of Roger Harris, a Black Marine who returned from Vietnam in full uniform and could not get a cab home to Roxbury. Together, these stories trace a single uncomfortable pattern: people fighting for a country that did not treat them as full citizens.
You will learn why the popular soundbite that “Lincoln freed the slaves” misses the truth, how enslaved and free Black men fought for their own liberation, and why Native Americans suffered some of the highest per capita casualty rates in Vietnam. Burns also explains how to read a photograph as a historical document, why public broadcasting matters, and how honest storytelling can change minds where arguments fail. This is history that asks you to sit with complexity. Stay and read the whole thing.
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Table of Contents
1. Introduction: Two Storytellers, One Mission
I open by introducing myself, Khalil Greene, the Gen Z Historian, and my guest, documentary filmmaker Ken Burns. We lay out the goal of this Memorial Day feature: to examine the disparate treatment of soldiers of color across American wars. We also discuss the political moment we are recording in, where some states want to teach figures like Rosa Parks while removing any mention of race. Burns explains why he has spent his career placing his films on PBS rather than streaming services or premium cable.
Main ideas:
This feature centers on soldiers of color and what their stories reveal about America.
We are working at a time when honest history is being actively contested in schools.
Burns chose public broadcasting because it gives him creative freedom and reaches classrooms nationwide.
2. Why Public Broadcasting Still Matters
Burns explains the meaning behind the “S” in PBS. It stands for Service, not System. He argues that public broadcasting offers something commercial media cannot: a space free of misinformation, sensationalism, and the pressure to chase advertising dollars. We compare this to outlets like Fox News and CNN, where capturing attention often outranks public service. Burns uses the fable of the tortoise and the hare to describe how audiences eventually return to substance over spectacle.
Main ideas:
PBS reaches millions and remains a major presence in American classrooms.
Commercial media is built around attention and revenue, not public service.
Audiences often re-engage with deeper content as they mature.
3. Reading History Honestly: Facts, Whitewashing, and “It’s Complicated”
We dig into what it means to tell history honestly. Burns insists that some facts are simply objective, like the dates of the Battle of Gettysburg, and cannot be argued away. He warns about the appropriation of historical figures, pointing to how people who oppose everything Frederick Douglass stood for still claim him as a hero. I share my own viral work on the whitewashing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. Burns describes the neon sign in his editing room that reads “It’s complicated,” a reminder that contradictory evidence must always be included.
Main ideas:
Some historical facts are objective and not open to spin.
Powerful figures like Douglass and King are often misused to support agendas they opposed.
Good history includes contradictory evidence rather than smoothing it over.
4. The First Photograph: The 4th U.S. Colored Infantry
We turn to our first primary source, a photograph of the 4th United States Colored Infantry. Burns explains that this image, which he used in The Civil War, is filled with pride and possibility. He corrects the familiar soundbite that “Lincoln freed the slaves,” explaining that the Emancipation Proclamation freed no one in territory the Union controlled and was largely a political document. Between 180,000 and 200,000 Black soldiers fought for the Union. Burns stresses that Black people were active agents in their own liberation, not passive recipients of freedom.
Main ideas:
Roughly 180,000 to 200,000 Black soldiers fought for the Union, often in segregated regiments.
The Emancipation Proclamation was a political document that freed no one under Union control.
Black Americans were active agents in winning their own freedom.
5. The Second Photograph: The Choctaw Code Talkers and the American Contradiction
Our second photograph brings us to World War I and the Choctaw code talkers. Burns describes what he calls the “undertow” of American history: Native Americans served a country that was simultaneously confining their people to reservations and criminalizing their culture. The Choctaw code talkers, who preceded the more famous Navajo code talkers of World War II, became vital to battlefield communications. Burns reflects on the irony and loyalty involved, noting that the U.S. Army remained segregated through both World Wars.
Main ideas:
Choctaw soldiers served while their own people faced reservation policy and cultural suppression.
The Choctaw code talkers came before the better-known Navajo code talkers of World War II.
The U.S. Army stayed segregated through both World Wars, with separate barracks and even blood supplies.
6. The Third Story: Roger Harris and the Black Vietnam Veteran
We move to our most modern source, the filmed account of Roger Harris, a Black Marine who served in Vietnam. Burns, who became close friends with Harris, describes Harris serving in I Corps near the demilitarized zone, the most dangerous sector. The story that anchors this section is Harris returning home to Boston in full dress uniform and being unable to get a cab from Logan Airport to Roxbury. Burns connects this to Native American casualty rates in Vietnam, which were higher per capita than any other group, and to Black soldiers in World War II who escorted German prisoners into restaurants they themselves were barred from entering.
Main ideas:
Roger Harris served in I Corps, the most dangerous Marine sector in Vietnam.
He returned home in uniform and still faced racism trying to get a cab home.
Native Americans suffered the highest per capita casualty rate of any group in Vietnam.
7. Telling Other People’s Stories: Whitewashing, Perspective, and the Other Side
This section addresses two harder questions. First, I ask Burns, who is white, how he approaches stories of marginalized communities. He frames it less as sensitivity and more as good detective work: telling all the stories, including all perspectives, and working with scholars and colleagues who carry those experiences. Second, I raise the growing argument that wars like Vietnam should not be celebrated even when soldiers of color served in them. Burns describes how The Vietnam War triangulated perspectives, interviewing North and South Vietnamese soldiers and civilians, Viet Cong guerrillas, and Americans ranging from medal winners to deserters.
Main ideas:
Burns approaches marginalized histories by including every perspective and the right scholars.
The Vietnam War deliberately triangulated voices from every side of the conflict.
Burns argues there is only one race, the human race, and rejects rigid hierarchies and binaries.
8. The Craft: Photographs, the Ken Burns Effect, and Storytelling That Changes Minds
We close with the craft of historical storytelling. Burns explains that the still photograph is the “basic DNA” of his work, and that a filmmaker should treat an old photo like a film director treats a master shot, imagining the world moving before and after. He shares the origin of the Ken Burns Effect, which came from his friendship with Steve Jobs. He also argues, quoting novelist Richard Powers, that arguments rarely change minds but a good story can. We end discussing my own process of tying history lessons to current events, and a hope that we might collaborate in the future.
Main ideas:
A photograph should be read as a living document, not a flat image.
The Ken Burns Effect came out of Burns’s friendship with Steve Jobs.
A good story can change minds in ways that direct argument cannot.
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Resources
The Civil War (1990), documentary series by Ken Burns, PBS
Baseball (1994), documentary series by Ken Burns, PBS
Jazz (2001), documentary series by Ken Burns, PBS
The National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009), documentary series by Ken Burns, PBS
The Central Park Five (2012), documentary by Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon
The Vietnam War (2017), documentary series by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, PBS
Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom by David W. Blight, Pulitzer Prize-winning biography
UNUM, Ken Burns’s digital project curating documentary content into thematic collections, named for the U.S. motto E Pluribus Unum
Roger Harris, Black Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, featured in The Vietnam War
Daniel Inouye, Japanese American World War II veteran and Congressional Medal of Honor recipient
Brooklyn Bridge (1981), Ken Burns’s first film, nominated for an Academy Award
Keywords
Ken Burns, Kahlil Greene, Gen Z Historian, Memorial Day, soldiers of color, 4th U.S. Colored Infantry, United States Colored Troops, Civil War, Emancipation Proclamation, Abraham Lincoln, Black Union soldiers, Choctaw code talkers, World War I, Navajo code talkers, Native American soldiers, Vietnam War, Roger Harris, Black Vietnam veterans, military segregation, American history, primary sources, historical photographs, PBS, public broadcasting, whitewashing history, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King Jr, documentary filmmaking, Ken Burns Effect, race in America, American history education
