To Learn More About Race in America: Movies, Documentaries and TV Series - Black Americans

A young black man meets his white girlfriend's parents at their estate, only to find out that the situation is much more sinister than it appears.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s historical struggle to secure voting rights for all people. A dangerous and terrifying campaign that culminated with an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1964.

Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Now, facing pressures from all sides of the community, Starr tries to find her voice in order to stand up for what's right.

The setting is a dusty Southern town during the Depression. A white woman accuses a black man of rape. Though he is obviously innocent, the outcome of his trial is such a foregone conclusion that no lawyer will step forward to defend him--except the town's most distinguished citizen. His compassionate defense costs him many friendships but earns him the respect and admiration of his two motherless children.

Story of Malcolm X, as he rises up from poverty, encounters the law, achieves spiritual enlightenment, and reaches out to others in the fight for human and civil rights.

"Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. A common occurrence in the Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks to Alabama, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice."--Container.

Tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free black man who was abducted in Washington, D.C., and forced to spend the next twelve years of his life in captivity as a slave on a Louisiana cotton plantation.

A portrait of black urban America, focusing on three friends growing up in a South Los Angeles neighborhood where friendship, pain, and love are just some of the lessons learned on the streets.

A White House butler serves eight American presidents over three decades. The film follows changes in American society during this time, from the civil rights movement to past the Vietnam War, and how those changes affected this man's life and family.

A timeless love story set in early 1970s Harlem involving newly engaged nineteen-year- old Tish and her fiance Fonny who have a beautiful future ahead. But their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Now the pair and their families must fight for justice in the name of love and the promise of the American dream.

Bernadine is a stoic prison warden, but two back-to-back executions put a strain on her marriage, career and convictions.

Ron Stallworth, an African-American police officer from Colorado, successfully managed to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan and became the head of the local chapter.

The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court.-- adapted from summary on container.

A sharp and funny comedy about a group of African-American students as they navigate campus life and racial boundaries at a predominately white college. A sly, provocative satire about being a black face in a white place.

When a young African-American doctor operates on two white brothers brought in for gunshot wounds, it sets off a chain of violent confrontations between a vicious psychopath, his gang and the black community.

A powerful and thought-provoking true story follows young lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his history-making battle for justice. After graduating from Harvard, Bryan had his pick of lucrative jobs. Instead, he heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or who were not afforded proper representation, with the support of local advocate Eva Ansley. One of his first and most incendiary cases is that of Walter McMillian.

"Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the national guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance. For this generation, the battle is not for civil rights, but for the right to live."--www.whosestreetsfilm.com (Official movie website).

Follow the courageous journey of John Lewis, a civil rights hero, congressional leader, and human rights champion whose unwavering fight for justice spans the past 50 years. The son of sharecroppers, Lewis grew up in the segregated South and rose from Alabama's Black Belt to the corridors of power on Capitol Hill. His humble origins have forever linked him to those whose voices often go unheard.

Master documentary filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material. A journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter.

From award-winning director/producer Peter Kunhardt, King in the Wilderness follows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during the volatile last three years of his life, from the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 to his assassination in April 1968. Drawing on revelatory stories from his inner circle of friends, the film provides a clear window into the civil rights leader's character, showing him to be a man with an unshakeable commitment to peaceful protest in the face of an increasingly unstable country.

On May 13, 1985, a longtime feud between the city of Philadelphia and controversial Black Power group MOVE came to a deadly climax. By order of local authorities, police dropped military-grade explosives onto a MOVE-occupied rowhouse. TV cameras captured the conflagration that quickly escalated and resulted in the tragic deaths of eleven people (including five children) and the destruction of 61 homes.

Roberto Miniverni tells the story of a black community in the American South during summer 2017, when a string of brutal killings of young African American men sent shockwaves throughout the country. A meditation on the state of race in America, this film is an intimate portrait of those who struggle for justice, dignity, and survival in a country that is not on their side.

In the hot and deadly summer of 1964, the nation could not turn away from Mississippi. Over ten memorable weeks known as Freedom Summer, more than 700 student volunteers joined with organizers and local African Americans in a historic effort to shatter the foundations of white supremacy in one of the nation's most segregated states, even in the face of intimidation, physical violence, and death.

The documentary unearths the complicated, painful, often disturbing history of housing policy in America, shifting perceptions about what the idea of home means.

Delivering a candid portrait of citizens, police, community advocates, and government officials on the frontlines during three years of unparalleled, escalating violence in Baltimore. The film highlights the positive actions undertaken by groups and individuals, who come together to rebuild, heal, and forge a better way forward.

Witness the compelling and dramatic story of the 1963 March on Washington, where Dr. Martin Luther King gave his stirring "I Have a Dream" speech. This watershed event in the Civil Rights Movement helped change the face of America. Recounts the events when 250,000 people came together to form the largest demonstration the young American democracy had ever seen.

Documents the story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple whose fight for equality resulted in Loving v. Virginia, which invalidated laws prohibiting interracial marriage.

A painfully funny new comedy series which follows best friends Issa and Molly as they navigate the tricky professional and personal terrain of Los Angeles while facing the challenges of being two black women who defy all stereotypes. Insecure explores the black female experience in a subtle, witty, and authentic way, as Issa and Molly stumble their way toward pulling their lives together while trying their hardest to never settle for less

Tells the story of a group of black students navigating the daily slights and slippery politics of life at an Ivy League college that's not nearly as post-racial as it thinks.

Andre "Dre" Johnson (Anthony Anderson) has it all...a job as a top ad exec, a beautiful doctor wife (Tracee Ellis Ross), four great kids and a lovely, well- appointed house in the suburbs. And he's not about to let his family forget how they got there in this fresh new, boundary-pushing comedy, ABC's black-ish. Keeping cultural identity alive is not without its challenges for this man on a mission. With perpetual pushback from clueless co-workers, an outspoken father (Laurence Fishburne) and even the wife and kids, Dre's efforts to enlighten are exhausting! Forced to straddle two worlds and three generations, he's one man determined to make his point.

Based on Matt Ruff's novel, this series follows Korean war vet Atticus Freeman, his friend Letitia and his Uncle George on a journey across 1950s Jim Crow America where they face racist terrors and the terrifying monsters of an H.P. Lovecraft paperback.

In this workplace comedy from writer/executive producer/star Quinta Brunson and executive producers Justin Halpern & Patrick Schumacker, a group of teachers is brought together in a Philadelphia public school, because they love teaching. Though outnumbered and underfunded, they love what they do even if they don't love the school district's less-than-stellar attitude toward educating children.