Dr. Steven Channing brings a wide range of experience as an historian, author and filmmaker. He taught at the Universities of Kentucky, Stanford, Duke and as a Fulbright lecturer in Italy, and was a research fellow at Johns Hopkins University.
Steve's interest has been to communicate true stories about the American past, through books and documentary television. His publications include the Allen Nevins Prize- winning study Crisis of Fear - Secession in South Carolina and The Confederate Ordeal for Time-Life's Civil War series. Broadcast productions included And Still I Rise: Maya Angelou, The Fulbright Experience, America's 400th Anniversary, narrated by Andy Griffith, and Alamance, a regional Emmy winner.

Recently, Channing's February One; a documentary about the historic first civil rights lunch counter sit-in was selected for national PBS broadcast and has been nominated for an Emmy. Steve still very much thinks of himself as an historian, and his education media production company, Video Dialog, has produced many films for schools, universities and foundations.

Jews have been integral to North Carolina’s emergence as a progressive New South society. The documentary will consist of interviews, suggestive re-enactment and narration – an interweaving of carefully-selected stories and storytellers, locations, and celebrations.

The story of Jews in this state is the story of North Carolina itself. Jewish energy in search of opportunity and advancement entered an initially very rural and substantially impoverished region. But North Carolina emerged as the leading New South state in its industry and its often progressive leadership, and Tar Heel Jews have genuinely contributed to that growth and change.The Jewish presence has made itself felt in small towns and growing cities, encouraging ties with centers elsewhere in the country and abroad, helping to bring NC into the wider world.

Making a successful new life in this welcoming state, Jews have found sanction to preserve their multicultural identities, and have responded in kind with significant contributions to economy, education, culture, and health care.

This shared journey is the heart of our story.


Click here to view the trailer.


The Down Home documentary will provide a unique view of Jewish emigration to, and life in North Carolina. This story will illustrate how the Jewish search for opportunity and religious freedom played out in a region that, while deeply rural and impoverished, was also ready for growth and change. Jews, an immigrant people, were welcomed to communities that were overwhelmingly conservative and Christian. They maintained a multicultural identity as local citizens and neighbors and as members of a global Jewish community. For more than three centuries Jews have helped transform the culture and economy of North Carolina, while the state's rich southern culture has resonated strongly with these immigrants to Dixie.

Themes throughout the program will include: