Television Series
Dear White People
Dear White People has drawn controversy from many who have been afraid to push past the title, but it’s great insight to the inner workings of Black student activists and their campus experiences.
Netflix
Pose
The Black LGBTQ+ community is no stranger to over-policing and brutal violence and Pose gives us a front row seat to the resilience and ingenuity of Ballroom culture and the fight for autonomy and safety.
FX (available on Netflix)
Queen Sugar
Queen Sugar shares the beauty and complexity in family, legacy, and justice through the warmth of a Black family. Over the course of the seasons, we become even more exposed to Black rural advocacy and the power in land ownership.
OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network)
Hulu
YouTube TV
YouTube
FuboTV
iTunes
Google Play
Seven Seconds
Before the hashtags and media, what is it like for a Black family learning they’ve lost a loved one and for a police officer realizing he took a life. How do these stories intertwine and what insight can we glean about repairing harm?
Netflix
When They See Us
Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us stopped the world when she told the stories of the (now) Exonerated Five. This is a cautionary tale for some on the dangers of making the narrative match a racist agenda and insight into the fear of Black families across the country, and world.
Netflix
Documentaries
13th: From Slave to Criminal With One Amendment
3 1/2 Minutes, Ten Bullets
Black 14
Dark Girls
Many cite The New Jim Crow (book by Michelle Alexander) as what woke them up to the extreme injustice in our criminal justice system and arguably Ava DuVernay's 13th would be the documentary version of that, exposing how deep-rooted institutionalized racism is.
Netflix
YouTube
On November 23 2012, 17-year-old Black male Jordan Davis and his friends pulled into a gas station. Minutes later, 10 shots were fired by a 45-year-old white male by the name of Michael Dunn who was motivated by the teens listening to loud rap music. This documentary highlights the events leading up to the shooting, the trial, the role of media, and subsequent protests that followed Davis’s death.
HBO Max
Black 14 features the accounts of 14 Black athletes who played football at the University of Wyoming in 1969. Before a game against the Brigham Young University Cougars (a Mormon-based institution that was receiving attention for racist practices), the group asked their coach if they could stand in solidarity by donning black armbands. With little to no conversation, they were simply dismissed from the team. Black 14 tells the story of the unsung civil rights heroes that sacrificed their dreams of professional football and education for justice and equality.
Prime Video
Dark Girls is a documentary that explores bias against Black women in the world, in our nation, and within the Black community. It highlights the experiences of Black women who struggle with colorism and self-esteem and their journey to find acceptance from others and from themselves.
Prime Video
Dispatches From Cleveland
Four Little Girls
Freedom Riders
Hoop Dreams
Dispatches from Cleveland is a film that tells the account of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, a Black Cleveland native who was fatally shot in the park by a 26-year old white police officer in 2014 for carrying a toy gun. In the film, residents of Cleveland come together in protest to seek justice amongst the city which boasts a long-standing history of police misconduct and social injustice.
Prime Video
Four Little Girls is a documentary that tells the heartbreaking story of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963 that led to the death of four young girls between the ages of 11 and 14: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Carol Denise McNair. The film, directed by Spike Lee, is a heartwrenching account of the events and a memoriam for the four innocent lives lost.
Prime Video
HBO Max
Freedom Riders is the tale of Black activists who challenged segregation head-on via the Freedom Rides of 1961. Though nonviolent, the groups were met with an overwhelming amount of police arrests and brutality from white protesters. The movement gained media attention for the Civil Rights Movement and further fueled the fight for freedom for the Black community.
Prime Video
This iconic 1994 documentary follows the story of two black, inner-city Chicago teenagers who push past social and physical barriers to work towards their dream of playing in the NBA. The film was shot over the course of five years and is a coming-of-age tale of the two boys as they ambitiously fight for their dreams amongst social, racial, economical, and relational pressures.
Prime Video
HBO Max
I Am Not Your Negro
KIKI
LA92
Let it Fall: Los Angeles 1982-1992
(directed by Raoul Peck): James Baldwin has provided novels, personal essays, and prose to last many lifetimes! The film adaptation explores the extended history of racism through Baldwin’s recollections and personal observations.
Prime Video
YouTube
Google Play
iTunes
Vudu
possibly on Netflix
KIKI explores the existence of the Kiki scene—a safe haven for LGBTQ Youth of Color to explore their uniqueness through performance and to escape racial rejection and homophobia. The film boasts a feel-good tone and highlights the lives of those finding their voice among social oppression.
Hulu
Prime Video
It’s important that we never lose sight of the legacy of police violence. To understand the righteous anger of the Black community, learn more about the LA riots following the Rodney King trial.
Netflix
Prime Video
YouTube
Google Play
iTunes
Vudu
Let It Fall is a documentary that takes a cold, hard look at the time period of 1982 to 1992 in L.A.—a decade of police brutality and racial injustice that led to the Rodney King riots of 1992. Accounts are taken from those who lived through and survived the events as the film traces the underlying domino effect that fueled the Los Angeles uprising.
Netflix
Prime Video
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
Stay Woke: The Black Lives Matter Movement
Strong Island
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution
This film is a beautiful biographical documentary highlighting the strong light that is Maya Angelou. Angelou was a writer, dancer, singer, actress, and activist who found her voice after experiencing sexual trauma at seven years old. Her work, including the monumental literary feat I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings, has inspired generations around the world.
Prime Video
If you’re looking for insight into the Black Lives Matter movement, this is the place to start. This documentary highlights the rise of the movement in response to the 2012 fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by a white male in what the man later claimed to be “self-defense.” The film gives detailed accounts by the BLM founders and digs deeply into what it represents.
Prime Video
This documentary tells the account of the chilling 1992 murder of William Ford, Jr., a 24-year-old Black teacher and brother to Strong Island’s director, Yance Ford. William Ford was shot in the chest by 19-year-old white auto shop employee Mark Reilly and the tragic story takes a more than unfortunate turn as Mr. Ford becomes the prime suspect in his own murder. Yance Ford tells his family’s story of the biased circumstances that surrounded William Ford’s murder while reclaiming his brother’s memory.
Netflix
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution gives a firsthand look at the Black Panther Party who fearlessly rose in the 1960s to serve to protect members of the Black community in the face of racial injustice. The film showcases the growth of the movement and the group’s use of the media to abolish oppression and to ensure protection for Black persons despite pushback from traditional law enforcement and beyond.
Prime Video
The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975
The Central Park Five
The Children’s March
The Death and Life of Marsha P. Johnson
The Black Liberation movement of the late 20th century is riddled with stereotypes and propaganda causing many to believe that the movement died following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. This documentary sets the record straight from the source with powerful interviews and recollections.
YouTube
Google Play
Prime Video
iTunes
Sling TV
The Central Park Five exposes the horrifying injustice that was served to five Black and Latino teens (Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana, and Korey Wise) in a 1989 crime. The story follows a weak investigation and police pressure to quickly solve a crime that led to the false conviction of five innocent Harlem teenagers.
Netflix
Youth-led activism has been on the rise since the fearless survivors of Parkland sparked a 21st century gun violence movement. To understand the shoulders on which we stand, learn about the children of Alabama that brought a racist police chief and segregation to its knees.
DVD: https://www.amazon.com/Mighty-Times-Childrens-Robert-Hudson/dp/B000UMRWB8
Possibly available on HBO
This documentary recounts the life and death of Marsha P. Johnson, a transgender Black woman who was a central activist for the LGBT community. When her body was found in the Hudson River in 1992, many who knew and loved her believed that her death was a murder. The film highlights Johnson’s impact on her community and beyond, brings present-day volume to her voice, and brings attention to the ongoing fight for Black/Trans justice of past and current generations.
Netflix
The Force
The Kalief Browder Story
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality
What Happened, Miss Simone?
This piece follows the police force in Oakland, California in its two-year attempt to rebuild trust and peace amongst their community. Black voices from the film describe an out of control history of police brutality and misconduct against the Black community in their area as the police department works to acknowledge their wrongs, take responsibility for the actions of past officers, and rewrite the script starting from the ground up.
Netflix
Prime Video
For many of us, protesting is a right we take for granted. For those in the belly of our criminal justice system, advocating for yourself can be deadly. We must honor Kalief’s sacrifice by knowing his story and ending cash bail.
Netflix
True Justice is the story of Bryan Stevenson’s fight for equality and the launch of the Equal Justice Initiative. Stevenson is a lawyer who has devoted his life to defending those who the criminal justice system has failed. He advocates for his clients who have been “broken by bias, trauma, and discrimination,” fights for justice, and works towards making the dream of a more equitable criminal justice system a reality.
HBO Go
What Happened, Miss Simone? is a biographical documentary highlighting the life and work of Nina Simone, a black female musician and activist who rose to fame during the 1960s. Simone’s story is a tale of fiercely met oppression—in music, in family life, and in the greater world.
Netflix
Whose Streets?
Whose Streets? is a documentary film about the murder of an unarmed Black man by the name of Michael Brown, and the Ferguson uprising. This film takes you to the front line of protests in Missouri and allows an emotional, behind-the-scenes look as activists tell their stories.
Hulu
Prime Video
Movies & Short Films
Do The Right Thing
Fruitvale Station
Hidden Figures
Higher Learning
(directed by Spike Lee): Eric Garner and George Floyd have both drawn connections to a fiction character who preceded them both: Radio Raheem of Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. The film masterfully highlights where unrest stems from and what leads to the rage felt in uprisings and rebellions.
YouTube
Prime Video
iTunes
Google Play
Vudu
(directed by Ryan Coogler): When advocating around police brutality, we often lose touch with the humanity of those we fight for. In this masterful film, we see a glimpse of what is stolen from us each time police use excessive force.
YouTube
Google Play
Vudu
Prime Video
iTunes
The film Hidden Figures is based on a true story and adapted from the novel Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly. The movie tells the untold story of three real-life NASA mathematicians: Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson, as they work tirelessly to launch a man into space and claim their seat at the table.
Hulu
Prime Video
(directed by John Singleton): Since 2016, many have become hyper-aware of the deep rifts that exist in American society and others have always known that we have very different experiences of this country. Higher Learning will surprise you in how relevant it is to today and showing some of the hurdles to achieving a “post-racial” society.
Prime Video
YouTube
Vudu
Google Play
If Beale Street Could Talk
Mudbound
Selma
The Hate U Give
(directed by Barry Jenkins): Activism can be very glorified by those privileged to be advocating from the abstract. This film—part love story, part drama—gives us a look into what is truly at stake for those facing wrongful incarceration head on.
Hulu
Prime Video
YouTube
Google Play
Vudu
Mudbound is a film set in Jim Crow Mississippi during WWII. It tells a tale of a white family and a Black family living on the same farmland. The film exposes challenges of the time era which largely include overt and violent racism, sexism, and post-traumatic stress disorder of returning veterans.
Netflix
Selma showcases the Selma to Montgomery marches by Black activists, lead by Martin Luther King, Jr., in the relentless yet peaceful conquest for equal voting rights. The film is an emotionally powerful portrayal of one of the most influential triumphs of the Civil Rights Movement.
Prime Video
The Hate U Give, based on the bestselling novel The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, follows Starr Carter, a Black teenager who balances life in her home neighborhood with her prep school life where she plays “Starr version two.” When her childhood best friend is shot at the hands of a white police officer, Starr’s two worlds collide and her life is shattered. She works to find her voice as she mourns and seeks change in the face of injustice.
Hulu
Podcasts
1619
About Race
Code Switch
Intersectionality Matters!
An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.
Co-discussants Anna Holmes, Baratunde Thurston, Raquel Cepeda and Tanner Colby host a lively multiracial, interracial conversation about the ways we can’t talk, don’t talk, would rather not talk, but intermittently, fitfully, embarrassingly do talk about culture, identity, politics, power, and privilege in our pre-post-yet-still-very-racial America.
What's CODE SWITCH? It's the fearless conversations about race that you've been waiting for! Hosted by journalists of color, our podcast tackles the subject of race head-on. We explore how it impacts every part of society — from politics and pop culture to history, sports and everything in between. This podcast makes ALL OF US part of the conversation — because we're all part of the story.
Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/intersectionality-matters/id1441348908
Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast
Pod for the Cause
Pod Save the People
Seeing White
Momentum: A Race Forward Podcast features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice. Co-hosts Chevon and Hiba give their unique takes on race and pop culture, and uplift narratives of hope, struggle, and joy, as we continue to build the momentum needed to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. Build on your racial justice lens and get inspired to drive action by learning from organizational leaders and community activists.
https://www.raceforward.org/media/podcast/momentum-race-forward-podcast
From the courts to immigration, we’re seeing unprecedented attacks on the values we hold near and dear. At Pod for the Cause, we’re going to tackle these issues and more. Our friends in the movement will be stopping by to have these conversations, and they promise to be real, straightforward and honest.
On Pod Save the People, organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with fellow activists Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Dr. Clint Smith. They offer a unique take on the news, with a special focus on overlooked stories and topics that often impact people of color.
Where did the notion of “whiteness” come from? What does it mean? What is whiteness for?
Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen took a deep dive into these questions, along with an array of leading scholars and regular guest Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika, in this fourteen-part documentary series, released between February and August 2017. The series editor is Loretta Williams.
TED Talks
Baratunde Thurston on How To Deconstruct Racism, One Headline At A Time
Bryan Stevenson’s We Need To Talk About An Injustice
Emma Harrison’s From Reform to Abolition: The Future of the U.S. Prison System
Heather McGhee’s Racism Has A Cost for Everyone
Racism isn’t funny, but in this TED talk you’ll learn about the pervasive nature of racism and laugh out loud way more times than you’ll be able to count.
Bryan Stevenson is one of the leading racial justice advocates, working with people incarcerated on death row. If anyone can diagnose recent injustices and understand the steps forward it would be him.
More than ever before, people are Googling abolition and exploring what a society without prisons looks like. Have questions about why we can’t reform these systems or what this looks like in reality? Listen up!
My liberation is bound in yours. This is not a feel good statement but a reality when it comes to how racism impacts policy, budgets, and prevents us from achieving a society that works for us all
Kimberle Crenshaw on The Urgency of Intersectionality
Marlon Peterson’s Am I Not Human?
Rayna Gordon’s Don’t Be A Savior, Be An Ally
T. Morgan Dixon and Vanessa Garrison on The Trauma of Systemic Racism is Killing Black Women
Following 2016, ‘intersectionality’ became quite the buzzword, yet gets used out of context often by both the Right and Left alike. Hear from the black woman who coined the term in the ’80s as to how we use intersectionality to defend Black women.
Marlon Peterson is formerly incarcerated and one of the leading national experts on alternatives to incarceration. Learn about why we desperately need more empathy when it comes to addressing harm.
Sometimes with the best intentions we still fall short. Hear from Rayna about thoughtful allyship that seeks to uplift and support not take over or “save.”
Racism is traumatic. Oftentimes we are focused so much on legislative changes and urgent calls to action, that we neglect the emotional well being of Black people everywhere facing PTSD from this cyclical violence. Dive more into self-care as radical preservation with this joint TED talk.
The Human Stories Beyond Mass Incarceration
Verna Meyers on How To Overcome Our Biases? Walk Towards Them
We can never lose sight of the people behind the statistics and in this powerful TED talk, you’ll be reminded of why we fight this fight.
#AllLivesMatter is the new color blind and both terms are proof that people fear being accused of biases more than they feel committed to addressing them. Let’s lose the shame and take bold steps deeper into your allyship.