‘Kevin Hart’s Guide To Black History’ On Netflix Straddles The Line Between Education and Entertainment

Kevin Hart is not hosting the Academy Awards this year, or quite likely, ever.

But in a new hour special for Netflix, the stand-up comedian and actor makes the case for several black Americans who should have their own Oscar-worthy biopics, if they haven’t received them already, in Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History.

“We’re digging in to the untold,” Hart tells us an onscreen introduction, before settling down to tell the true stories of some 16 African Americans who played pivotal roles in social progress, science, sports, aviation and entertainment. Some are told in voice-over; the others, via comedic re-enactments, featuring the likes of Tiffany Haddish and Lil Rel Howery. Weird Al Yankovic and Steve Agee also show up in cameos.

But Schoolhouse Rock, this ain’t. Nor is it Drunk History. Kevin Hart’s Guide to Black History straddles the line between educational and entertaining.

For reasons that go unexplained but should have been explored comedically, the set-up has two young actors playing Hart’s daughter and a white friend, who decided their perfect weekend afternoon movie experience would be 12 Years A Slave. Really.

This prompts Kev to deliver a Hart-to-Hart convo with his “daughter,” in which he soothes her anger by saying “There’s so much more to black history than people getting whipped!”

“Yeah?”

“Hell yeah! Amazing, inspiring stories of black people who showed unbelievable courage, intelligence and creativity in the face of all this horrible stuff.”

And off we go into the re-tellings and re-enactments.

Howery stars as Henry “Box” Brown, who escaped Virginia (circa 1849, not to be confused with Virginia 1984 or 2019) by mailing himself to Philadelphia in a crate, then emigrating to England to avoid being recaptured. The re-enactment plays up the postal hijinks, as well as Brown’s later career as a magician. The re-telling allows Hart to also get in jokes explaining the real Underground Railroad, in addition to how and why we have black Canadians today.

Haddish, meanwhile, portrays Mae Jamison, the first African American astronaut, who flew into space on the shuttle Endeavour in 1992.

The other greats covered in this hour include:

• Robert Smalls, a former slave who convinced President Abraham Lincoln to allow black men to fight in the Civil War, and afterward returned to South Carolina and served five terms in Congress and bought his former master’s house.
• Matthew Henson, arguably the first person to reach the North Pole in 1909 as a leader on Robert Peary’s expedition, only to find Peary taking credit for it.
• Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, leaders of the abolitionist movement in the 1800s.
• Robert Johnson, the blues guitarist from Mississippi whose landmark recordings of the 1930s paved the way for modern rock music.
• George Speck, chef and creator of the potato chip.
• Boxer Joe Louis and sprinter Jesse Owens, whose excellence served as a powerful counterpoint against Hitler’s white supremacy claims in the 1930s.
• Singer, dancer and spy Josephine Baker, who found more success in France than she could in America in the 1920s and 1930s.
• Bessie Coleman, the first African American to receive a pilot’s license.
• Vivien Thomas, a pioneer in heart surgery who never graduated from medical school or college.
• William Tillman, a ship’s cook who attacked the Confederate pirates attempting to overthrow his ship in 1861.

A common thread throughout these stories? White people taking credit for them.

This special aims for all ages, but the humor in it plays mostly for the kids. So don’t expect the kinds of laughs that Drunk History generates. But it’s also not likely to achieve the legendary status of Schoolhouse Rock, either. That’s OK.

If anything, it should get viewers interested enough to direct them to the more dramatic depictions of these real-life heroes from history.

Like this PBS short on Robert Smalls, for instance.

Netflix offers an animated short Sweet Blackberry Presents: Henry Box Brown.

HBO has produced movies on both Baker and Thomas; Lynn Whitfield starred in 1991’s The Josephine Baker Story, while Mos Def starred in the 2004 film, Something The Lord Made.

However you know our history, the better.

Sean L. McCarthy works the comedy beat for his own digital newspaper, The Comic’s Comic; before that, for actual newspapers. Based in NYC but will travel anywhere for the scoop: Ice cream or news. He also tweets @thecomicscomic and podcasts half-hour episodes with comedians revealing origin stories: The Comic’s Comic Presents Last Things First.

Watch Kevin Hart's Guide to Black History on Netflix