American Masters: How It Feels To Be Free tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process.

Based on the book “How It Feels To Be Free: Black Women Entertainers and the Civil Rights Movement” by Ruth Feldstein, the film features interviews with Salamishah Tillet, Halle Berry, Lena Waithe, Meagan Good, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, and Samuel L. Jackson and premieres nationwide Monday, January 18, 2021 at 9 p.m. on PBS.