African American History and Culture

Opening with a montage of four hundred years of race injustice in America, this powerful documentary provides the historical context for the establishment of the 60's civil rights movement. Rare clips of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, and other activists transport one back to those tumultuous times.

Revisit the turbulent 1960s, when a new revolutionary culture emerged with the Black Panther Party at the vanguard. Stanley Nelson tells the vibrant story of a pivotal movement that feels timely all over again.

Brick by Brick is not only a brilliant legal history of one of the most important cases in civil rights law, it narrates through the passionate experiences of Yonkers residents on both sides of the issue. The film demonstrates how courageous citizens and dedicated lawyers can enforce the constitutional rights of African Americans in the face of dangerous demagogues fomenting racial hatred.

Eleven African-American first-grade children initiated the desegregation of previously all-white elementary schools in Nashville, Tennessee on Sept. 9 and 10, 1957. Nashville was one of the first cities in the South to act on the Supreme Court 1954 decision, Brown vs. The Board of Education. The film compares the Nashville story with events that took place the same week at Little Rock High School. Some of their parents discuss the events of those first two days, including the bombing of one of the schools, and the courage required to respond to the Court's landmark decision.

The inspiring story of the non-violent Civil Rights Movement, as it shared the struggle for Black equality, is narrated by Andrew Young. We witness the courage of African Americans like Rosa Parks, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Fannie Lou Hamer as they boldly confronted racist oppression.

An overview of the Civil Rights movement, focusing on the 1960's and the struggle for equal rights.

The Powerbroker portrays the life of Whitney Young, once called “the inside man of the black revolution.” As Executive Director of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971, he helped thousands of people struggling against discrimination.

Frontline figures in the Civil Rights Movement reflect on their experiences, their colleagues, and where America now stands on the issue of race in a series of NewsHour conversations and discussions. Included are conversations with Dorothy Height, Vernon Jordan, and John Lewis about their memoirs and remembrances of the March on Washington, Rosa Parks, and Hamilton Holmes.

Langston Hughes was one of the most prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance and is often referred to as Harlem's poet laureate. This film shows how Hughes successfully fused jazz, blues and common speech to celebrate the beauty of Black life. Hughes' Dream Harlem presents a vision of the esteemed poet in present-day Harlem and makes an important case for Hughes' impact on hip-hop and the spoken-word community.

Langston Hughes wrote of the beauty, dignity, and heritage of blacks in America. Interviews, music, and dance performances convey his work and influence, discussed by James Baldwin and biographer Arnold Rampersad.

Paris Noir - African Americans in the City of Light' is the most comprehensive and compelling documentary on the remarkable migration of pioneering African Americans who sought freedom from America's strife and found acceptance and great achievement abroad. Beginning with World War 1 soldiers, the film weaves together the contributions and influence of writers, musicians, intellectuals, entertainers and artists in Paris of the 1920s to 1950s.

In 1955, as the Soviet Union's pervasive propaganda about the U.S. and American racism spread globally, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. convinced President Eisenhower that jazz was the best way to intervene in the Cold War cultural conflict. For the next decade, Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Dave Brubeck traveled the globe to perform as cultural ambassadors.

The ambitious and hard-hitting documentary Blacking Up: Hip-Hop’s Remix of Race and Identity looks at the popularity of hip-hop among America’s white youth. It asks whether white identification is rooted in admiration and a desire to transcend race or if it is merely a new chapter in the long continuum of stereotyping, mimicry and cultural appropriation? Does it reflect a new face of racial understanding in white America or does it reinforce an ugly history?

Presented in particular in the form of clips, the document “Through The Years Of Hip-Hop” spans the years 1984 to 1989 and launches a healthy bridge between old school rap and international explosion. Significantly, the first two tracks sum up this oh-so-creative setting with Crash Crew and their addictive funky beats, and with Run-DMC whose 1984 "Rock Box" announces "Walk This Way" and the golden age of the labels Tommy Boy and Def Jam.

'Business as Usual' is a feature length documentary that asks the questions: Has Hip-Hop been exploited for economic gain, to the detriment of the masses of urban youth who embrace it? Who's really making the money, controlling the systems and influencing the youth?

The remarkable story of how a group of inspired mavericks made an unlikely marriage of hip-hop and history the biggest musical show in America...and are getting ready to conquer the world.