Movies: Black history

The story of Jack Johnson, the first African American Heavyweight boxing champion....

A look at the Black revolution in 1970s cinema, from genre films to social realism, from the making of new superstars to the craft of rising auteurs....

Using innovative animation and expert insights, this documentary based on Ibram X. Kendi's bestseller explores the history of racist ideas in America....

When the Civil War ended in 1865, more than four million slaves were set free. Over 70 years later, the memories of some 2,000 slave-era survivors were transcribed and preserved by the Library of Congress. These first-person anecdotes, ranging from t...

The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper-tier NASCAR race....

The incredibly powerful and timely true story of the all-black Twenty-Fourth United States Infantry Regiment, and the Houston Riot of 1917. The Houston Riot was a mutiny by 156 African American soldiers in response to the brutal violence and abuse at...

Documents the race riot of 1921 and the destruction of the African-American community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma. With testimony by eyewitnesses and background accounts by historians....

Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy is a feature-length documentary film highlighting the history of the Crownsville State Mental Hospital in Crownsville, MD....

The history of warfare as it relates to global Black society, broken down into 7 chapters that examines the ways the system of racism wages warfare from a historical, psychological, sexual, biological, health, educational, and military perspective....

By the end of his illustrious career, Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves may well have been the preeminent lawman of the Old West. He brought upwards of 3,000 outlaws to justice and served in law enforcement for 32 years during Reconstruction after the ...

Explore the tumultuous life of Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., a Jamaican political activist and advocate for Black Nationalism. From founding UNIA-ACL and finding prosperity through economic ventures to navigating financial hardships, assassination attemp...

Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier travel down memory lane to see what life was like back in the 1920s. Harry Belafonte introduces this musical, written by poet and playwright Langston Hughes, which pays tribute to Harlem in the 1920's. Sidney Poitie...

Maurice Hines, a charming, gay African-American entertainer navigates the complications of show business while grieving the loss of his more famous, often estranged younger brother, tap dance legend Gregory Hines....

This documentary captures the sounds and images of a nearly forgotten era in film history when African American filmmakers and studios created “race movies” exclusively for black audiences. The best of these films attempted to counter the demeaning s...

In 1936, 18 African American athletes dubbed the "black auxiliary" by Hitler defied Nazi Aryan Supremacy and Jim Crow Racism to win hearts and medals at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Berlin. The world remembers Jesse Owens. But, Olympic Pride Amer...

Documentary film on events that happened on August 28th in African-American history, shown at the Smithsonian African-American History Museum....

An animated satire on the question of self-image for African American women living in a society where beautiful hair is viewed as hair that blows in the wind and lets you be free. Lively tunes and witty narration accompany a quick-paced inventory of ...

Le Chevalier de Saint-Georges overcame class and race prejudices in 18th century France to become a musical genius who would inspire Mozart....

Hebrews to Negroes 2 : Revelation is a documentary that uncovers the 'True Biblical Identity" and Ancestral Homeland of the people living in North Africa, the Middle East and the Levant (Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Israel). Find out what "secr...

A documentary about lesbians preserving their history, with a focus on the work of the Lesbian Herstory Archives. Includes interviews with Joan Nestle, Jewelle Gomez, and Mariana Romo-Carmona, among others. Profiled are Mabel Hampton, Marge McDonald,...