Documentaries
13th
Ava DuVernay
2016
A powerful documentary exploring the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States. Named after the Thirteenth Amendment, it traces the history of racial inequality from slavery to the modern prison-industrial complex.
Speeches
I Have a Dream
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1963
Delivered during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, this speech became a defining moment of the civil rights movement and one of the most iconic orations in American history.
Speeches
The Ballot or the Bullet
Malcolm X
1964
A landmark speech advocating for Black nationalism, political self-determination, and the right of African Americans to defend themselves against racial injustice by any means necessary.
Writings
Letter from Birmingham Jail
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1963
Written while imprisoned for participating in nonviolent demonstrations, this open letter defends the strategy of nonviolent resistance to racism and argues that people have a moral responsibility to break unjust laws.
Documentaries
I Am Not Your Negro
Raoul Peck / James Baldwin
2016
Based on James Baldwin's unfinished manuscript 'Remember This House,' this documentary explores the history of racism in the United States through Baldwin's recollections of civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Martin Luther King Jr.
Clips
James Baldwin vs. William F. Buckley at Cambridge
James Baldwin
1965
A historic debate at the Cambridge Union Society on the motion 'The American Dream is at the expense of the American Negro.' Baldwin's eloquent, devastating argument received a standing ovation and remains a masterclass in rhetoric.
Music
To Pimp a Butterfly
Kendrick Lamar
2015
A genre-defying album that redefined conscious hip-hop, weaving together jazz, funk, soul, and spoken word to explore African-American culture, systemic racism, depression, and the complexities of Black identity in America.
Documentaries
Eyes on the Prize
Henry Hampton
1987
The definitive documentary series on the American civil rights movement, covering the period from 1954 to 1985. Through first-person accounts and archival footage, it chronicles the struggle for racial equality that transformed a nation.
Writings
The Case for Reparations
Ta-Nehisi Coates
2014
A landmark long-form essay published in The Atlantic that traces the economic consequences of slavery and Jim Crow, making a compelling argument for why America owes a debt to its Black citizens that has never been repaid.
Speeches
Ain't I a Woman?
Sojourner Truth
1851
Delivered at the Women's Convention in Akron, Ohio, this extemporaneous speech challenged prevailing attitudes toward both race and gender, becoming one of the most famous abolitionist and women's rights speeches in American history.
Writings
The Souls of Black Folk
W.E.B. Du Bois
1903
Introduced the idea of double consciousness and remains a foundational work of Black political thought.
Writings
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
Frederick Douglass
1845
The most widely read slave narrative and a central work of abolitionist literature.
Writings
Notes of a Native Son
James Baldwin
1955
Essays on race, identity, family, and belonging in mid-century America.
Writings
The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin
1963
A searing meditation on race, religion, and the unfinished struggle for equality in America.
Writings
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston
1937
A landmark novel of the Harlem Renaissance and Black feminist literature.
Writings
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
1952
A defining novel about Black identity, alienation, and invisibility in American society.
Writings
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs
1861
One of the few nineteenth-century slave narratives written by a woman, documenting the distinct violence enslaved women faced.
Writings
The New Jim Crow
Michelle Alexander
2010
Argues that mass incarceration functions as a modern racial caste system in the United States.
Writings
Stamped from the Beginning
Ibram X. Kendi
2016
A history of racist ideas in America and winner of the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
Writings
Black Boy
Richard Wright
1945
An autobiography of growing up Black amid poverty and racial violence in the Jim Crow South.
Speeches
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July?
Frederick Douglass
1852
A devastating indictment of American hypocrisy on liberty and slavery, delivered in Rochester, New York.
Speeches
A Time to Break Silence
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1967
King's condemnation of the Vietnam War, connecting racism, militarism, and poverty.
Speeches
Message to the Grassroots
Malcolm X
1963
Distinguishes the Black revolution from the Negro revolution and calls for solidarity and self-determination.
Speeches
Testimony to the DNC Credentials Committee
Fannie Lou Hamer
1964
A nationally televised account of the violence she endured for registering Black voters in Mississippi.
Speeches
1976 Democratic National Convention Keynote
Barbara Jordan
1976
The first keynote address at a major party convention delivered by a Black woman.
Speeches
A More Perfect Union
Barack Obama
2008
A direct examination of race in America delivered during Obama's first presidential campaign.
Documentaries
4 Little Girls
Spike Lee
1997
Examines the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church and the four girls who were killed.
Documentaries
Slavery by Another Name
Sam Pollard / PBS
2012
Documents the continuation of forced labor after emancipation through convict leasing and peonage.
Documentaries
Freedom Riders
Stanley Nelson / PBS
2010
Chronicles the 1961 rides that challenged segregation in interstate travel across the American South.
Documentaries
The Black Power Mixtape 1967–1975
Göran Hugo Olsson
2011
Swedish archival footage offers an outsider's view of the Black Power movement and its leading voices.
Documentaries
Summer of Soul
Questlove
2021
Rediscovered footage brings the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and its cultural significance back into view.
Documentaries
King in the Wilderness
Peter Kunhardt / HBO
2018
Explores Dr. King's final, most turbulent years as he confronted war, poverty, and opposition within and beyond the movement.
Documentaries
MLK/FBI
Sam Pollard
2020
Uses declassified files to examine the FBI's surveillance and harassment of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Documentaries
The Rape of Recy Taylor
Nancy Buirski
2017
Revisits a 1944 sexual assault case and the organizing networks that helped lay groundwork for the civil rights movement.
Documentaries
When They See Us
Ava DuVernay
2019
A limited series about the five teenagers wrongly convicted in the case commonly known as the Central Park Five.
Clips
I've Been to the Mountaintop
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
1968
King's final speech, delivered in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination.
Clips
Muhammad Ali Refuses the Draft
Muhammad Ali
1967
A press interview capturing Ali's refusal to enter the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
Clips
Malcolm X at the Oxford Union
Malcolm X
1964
Malcolm X debates the proposition that extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.
Clips
Presidential Campaign Announcement
Shirley Chisholm
1972
The first Black woman elected to Congress announces her campaign for a major party's presidential nomination.
Music
Strange Fruit
Billie Holiday
1939
One of the earliest and most powerful musical protests against lynching in the United States.
Music
A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke
1964
A soul standard that became an enduring anthem of the civil rights movement.
Music
What's Going On
Marvin Gaye
1971
A concept album addressing war, poverty, environmental damage, and social injustice.
Music
Say It Loud – I'm Black and I'm Proud
James Brown
1968
A direct, joyful anthem of Black pride and self-determination.
Music
Fight the Power
Public Enemy
1989
Politically charged hip-hop written for Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and built as a call to resistance.
Music
The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill
Lauryn Hill
1998
Blends hip-hop, soul, and reggae with themes of love, identity, spirituality, and womanhood.
Music
Formation
Beyoncé
2016
A visual and lyrical statement on Black Southern identity, heritage, power, and police violence.
Visual Art
The Migration Series
Jacob Lawrence
1941
Sixty panels depict the Great Migration of Black Americans from the rural South to northern cities.
Visual Art
Photography of Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
1942–2006
Includes American Gothic and influential Life magazine photo essays on segregation, poverty, family, and resistance.
Visual Art
Collage Work
Romare Bearden
1960s–1980s
Layered collage work blends African American life, memory, Cubist structure, and the rhythms of jazz.
Visual Art
Silhouette Installations
Kara Walker
1990s–present
Large-scale silhouettes confront slavery, racial mythology, violence, sexuality, and gender.
Visual Art
Portraiture
Kehinde Wiley
2000s–present
Reworks classical European portrait traditions by placing contemporary Black subjects in positions of grandeur and power.
Visual Art
American People Series and Story Quilts
Faith Ringgold
1960s–2010s
Paintings and narrative quilts explore race, gender, family, history, and the struggle for equality.