After spending more hours obsessing over trashy reality TV than I care to admit, I do occasionally like to take in some real reality TV. It looks like MSNBC has just the thing with their upcoming documentary, Meeting David Wilson. The special, which is set to air this Friday night follows a black man who meets the descendent of the slave owners who once owned his family.
In Meeting David Wilson, 28-year-old news producer David Wilson explores his family history, which leads him to Caswell County, North Carolina. There he meets 62-year-old David Wilson, a man whose ancestors once owned a tobacco farm and were the owners of David’s ancestors. Talk about a unique situation! MSNBC describes the documentary as a, “remarkable and inspiring story of a young man's reconciliation with his ancestors' history as slaves.”
“My name is David Wilson. I believe your family once owned mine.”
Check out this preview:
And here’s a longer trailer for the documentary that really gets into the powerful journey that David embarks on to discover his family history and find the answer to the question, “What’s wrong with black people?”
Meeting David Wilson will air on MSNBC on Friday, April 11, 2008 at 9:00 p.m. EST. The documentary will be hosted by Today Correspondent Tiki Barber. It will be streamed live on MSNBC.com, which will be followed by an hour and a half live conversation about race.
