How is it possible to tell the history of either without race being a very big issue in both ? You think Jackie Robinson playing for the Dodgers wasn't a very, very big issue at the time ? You don't think that in both sports and entertainment 'crossover' isn't a decisive event ?
And as for moving things to DVD, during the 80's PBS had a superb series on the history of the English language. It had episodes on Old-English to Chaucer, Tudor/Stuart English, Scottish English (Scotch-Irish to hillbilly to Texas twang), Irish English, Black English, Cockney, etc. This isn't even available on VHS.
However, it all got very heavy handed in the final episode of "Jazz". Did you see it?