Virginia Public Media

Many of the world’s best-known landmarks have been inspired by faith and today more worshippers than ever are flocking to these sacred places. For some people they’re sanctuaries for quiet contemplation. For others, they’re sites for astonishing acts of worship, dangerous challenges and extraordinary deeds of devotion, rarely seen by outsiders.

The Cold War and civil rights collide in this remarkable story of music, diplomacy and race. Beginning in 1955, when America asked its greatest jazz artists to travel the world as cultural ambassadors, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke Ellington and their racially diverse band members faced a painful dilemma: How could they represent a country that still practiced Jim Crow segregation?