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The resources gathered on this page contain examples of both primary, secondary and tertiary sources. Find out more about these source types at our Sources: Primary, Secondary, Tertiary Research Guide.

You can also visit the African American Studies research guide, which highlights more library resources that can assist you with your research.

Feel free to contact a Librarian with questions, and leave comments on any of the posts on this page.

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Let nobody turn us around voices of resistance, reform, and renewal : an African American anthology  (e-Book)

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Let nobody turn us around voices of resistance, reform, and renewal : an African American anthology  (e-Book)

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog.

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The National Archives holds collections of materials that document the African American experience. More information about these resources can be found on their web page.

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Martin Luther King Clip Reel

Nine short stories on Martin Luther King, Jr., produced by the USIA for Black History month. Stories include: King holiday; wreath-laying at the Lincoln Memorial; Jesse Jackson on MLK; King/Civil Rights; Reagan speaking to schoolchildren; MLK bust unveiled at the Capitol; Andrew Young reflects; MLK celebration/Atlanta;and MLK celebration/Washington, DC.

Martin Luther King Press Conference

Martin Luther King, Jr., was interviewed by four journalists for "Press Conference U.S.A.," a U.S. Information Agency (USIA) series that was distributed internationally.

The March (1963, restored)

To mark the 50th anniversary of the March for Jobs and Freedom, the Motion Picture Preservation Lab completed a full digital restoration of James Blue's monumental film, The March, in 2008.

The March on Washington in Photographs

This Inside the Vaults video short follows the subject of the photograph, Edith Lee-Payne of Detroit, who celebrated her 12th birthday by attending the March on Washington with her mother.

"Civil Rights: Then and Now"

Highlights of the National Conversation on Rights and Justice in Atlanta in 2016. Moderated by Jelani William Cobb, contributing editor to the New Yorker and associate professor of history and the director of the Institute for African American Studies at the University of Connecticut.

Emancipation Proclamation 150th Anniversary at the National Archives DC Emancipation Act
African American Life in Washington, DC, Before Emancipation
Madame C.J. Walker in the National Archives A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism Revolutionary Movements Then and Now: Black Power and Black Lives Matter The 14th Amendment's Shield of National Protection Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad Lincoln's Gamble: How the Emancipation Proclamation Changed the Course of the Civil War Facing Slavery's Legacy at Georgetown University Protecting America's Treasures: Black History in the Vault

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The National Archives holds a wealth of material documenting the African American experience and highlights these resources online, in programs, and through traditional and social media. Explore our records documenting African American History through the African American Research page and within the National Archives Catalog.

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James Baldwin Discusses Racism | The Dick Cavett Show

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Autobiography as activism three Black women of the Sixties (e-Book)

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Autobiography as activism three Black women of the Sixties (e-Book)

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog.

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Objects hold history. They're evocative of stories stamped in time. As part of The Washington Post's coverage of the Smithsonian's new National Museum of African American History and Culture, people submitted dozens of objects that make up their own lived experiences of black history, creating a "people's museum" of personal objects, family photos and more.

The Historically Black podcast brings those objects and their stories to life through interviews, archival sound and music. The Washington Post and APM Reports are proud to collaborate in presenting these rich personal histories, along with hosts Keegan-Michael Key, Roxane Gay, Issa Rae and Another Round hosts Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton.

1619 Some 20 enslaved Africans arrive at Britain's Jamestown colony in Virginia.

1776 Thirteen colonies issue "Declaration of Independence" and establish United States of America.

1788 United States Constitution adopted. It declares enslaved individuals as three-fifths of a person and includes a fugitive slave clause.

1808 Congress bans further importation of slaves.

1820 Missouri Compromise bans slavery north of Missouri's southern border.

1831 Nat Turner leads slave rebellion in Virginia.

1857 U.S. Supreme Court hands down Dred Scott decision, which denies citizenship to slaves, former slaves and their descendants.

1860 Abraham Lincoln elected president.

1861 Civil War begins.

Members of an extended Tennessee family talk about their great, great grandfather, a slave owned by his white, biological father. After emancipation, their ancestor managed to buy a farm. Family members reflect on the strength it took to survive slavery and to prosper in the years that followed. Listen.

1863 President Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation.

1865 Civil War ends. Slavery is abolished by 13th Amendment to Constitution. President Lincoln is assassinated. Ku Klux Klan founded in Pulaski, Tenn.

1866 Congress passes first Civil Rights Act, granting African Americans full citizenship and equal rights to whites. Southern states pass laws known as "Black Codes" to limit black freedom.

1870 Hiram Rhodes Revels of Mississippi (Senate) and Joseph Rainey of South Carolina (House) become the first African Americans elected to Congress.

Born into slavery, William Hooper Councill founded one of the nation's first HBCUs, Alabama A&M University. Negotiating the racial politics of Reconstruction and the dawn of Jim Crow was dangerous work. Councill was a peer of Booker T. Washington's and is remembered for his accommodating stance toward whites. His complicated story helps us understand the times he lived in and the legacy of HBCUs. Listen.

1877 President Rutherford B. Hayes withdraws last Federal troops from South. Reconstruction era ends. Rise of Jim Crow laws enforcing harsh racial segregation in the South.

1881 Booker T. Washington appointed first head of Tuskegee Institute.

1909 W. E. B. Du Bois co-founds National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Its mission is "to ensure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights of all persons and to eliminate racial hatred and racial discrimination."

1914 Marcus Garvey forms Universal Negro Improvement Association, a black nationalist fraternal organization.

1915 Start of the Great Migration; more than six million African Americans move from southern states to the west and north.

1917 United States enters WWI.

1920s The emergence of the Harlem Renaissance, a black social and cultural movement in New York and other communities.

1929 Stock market crash; beginning of Great Depression.

1939 Marian Anderson gives free concert at Lincoln Memorial on Easter, with 75,000 people in attendance.

1941 United States enters WWII after Japanese warplanes bomb Pearl Harbor.

During World War II, a labor shortage obliged the military to hire African American women with mathematical skills to help make complicated computations for warplane designs. This small team of black women faced discrimination but eventually would help NASA astronauts land on the moon. One woman whose grandmother was a "computer" helps tell the story. Listen.

1945 End of WWII.

1947 Jackie Robinson debuts for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

1948 President Harry S. Truman orders desegregation of Armed Forces and use of fair employment practices in federal agencies.

1950 Start of Korean War.

1954 U.S. Supreme Court issues Brown v. Board of Education decision, striking down principal of "separate but equal."

1955 NAACP member Rosa Parks refuses to give up bus seat to white passenger, kicking off Montgomery bus boycott.

1955 Start of American involvement in Vietnam.

1957 Martin Luther King, Jr. is elected president of newly founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

1962 Whites at University of Mississippi riot in opposition to registration of a black student named James Meredith.

1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: King delivers "I have a Dream Speech" to massive crowd on the National Mall.

1963 President John F. Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1964 Civil Rights Act signed into law.

1965 Malcolm X assassinated in New York City. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads march from Selma to Montgomery, AL, after civil rights protestors, including John Lewis, were severely beaten in Selma.

1965 Voting Rights Act signed into law.

1965-68 Summer rioting in African American sections of Los Angeles, Newark, Detroit and other U.S. cities.

1967 U.S. Supreme Court hands down Loving v. Virginia ruling, outlawing ban on interracial marriage.

1969 The U.S. lands first man on the moon.

1969 Rep. Shirley Chisholm becomes the first African American woman elected to Congress.

1984 Reverend Jesse Jackson runs for president in Democratic primary, winning one-fourth of votes.

1988 Toni Morrison wins Pulitzer Prize for Beloved.

1991 Start of Gulf War.

The Million Man March of 1995 is recreated through the conversation between a young woman and her father, who attended it. He talks about how the event changed his life, and she recalls what it meant to see a poster of the march hanging on the wall of her father's den since she was a girl. Listen.

1995 Minister Louis Farrakhan hosts Million Man March in Washington, D.C.

2001 Terrorist attack on 9/11; start of war in Afghanistan.

2004 Condoleeza Rice is first African American to serve as U.S. Secretary of State.

2008 Barack Obama elected first African American president of United States.

2015 Supreme Court rules that same-sex marriage is a Constitutional right.

In February 2017, Historically Black was distributed to public radio stations nationwide and heard as a three-part series.

PRODUCERS
Kate Ellis
Stephen Smith

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Historically Black | Podcast | APM Reports

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Hosted by Keegan-Michael Key, Roxane Gay, Issa Rae, Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton.

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5 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most memorable speeches

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5 of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most memorable speeches

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Before he was assassinated at age 39, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and non-violent protest, and became one of the most influential figures in American history.

Fifty years after his death, here's a look back at some of the civil rights leader's most memorable speeches.
"I Have a Dream" - Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963
In his most famous speech, King stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and called for an end to racism in the United States before a crowd of more than 250,000 people.
"I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream." "Our God is Marching On" - Selma, Alabama, March 25, 1965
Delivered after the historic marches from Selma to Montgomery, historians consider King's triumphant deliverance of his "Our God is Marching On" speech to mark the end of the civil rights movement's first phase focusing on legal and political rights. The movement would later focus on fighting for economic equality.
"How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever. How long? Not long, you shall reap what you sow... How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence" - Riverside Church in New York City, April 4, 1967
Exactly one year before his assassination, King condemned the Vietnam War at a time when a majority of Americans still supported the effort. King was criticized for the speech, considered one of his most controversial, and lost supporters for being too political.
"One America is beautiful for situation... millions of young people grow up in the sunlight of opportunity. But tragically and unfortunately, there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that constantly transforms the ebulliency of hope into the fatigue of despair... They find themselves perishing on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity." "I've been to the Mountaintop" - Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968
In his final speech, King addressed a church filled with striking sanitation workers who were protesting their low pay and working conditions. King emphasized the importance of unity and nonviolent protest in the fight for justice, no matter how painful the struggle.
"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop... And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land." CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly listed Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech date as April 28, 1963.

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5 of Martin Luther King Jr.'s most memorable speeches

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Before he was assassinated at age 39, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, organized the 1963 March on Washington, advocated for civil disobedience and non-violent protest, and became one of the most influential figures in American history.Fifty years after his death, here's a look back at some of the civil rights leader's most memorable speeches."I Have a Dream" - Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963In his most famous speech, King stood on the steps of the Linc...

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Notes of a native son: The world according to James Baldwin - Christina Greer

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Notes of a native son: The world according to James Baldwin - Christina Greer

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TEDed lesson

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The Smithsonian collections contain numerous images, exhibitions, stories, videos, and other resources pertaining to Black History.

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Online education initiative

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The Cambridge introduction to Toni Morrison (e-Book)

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The Cambridge introduction to Toni Morrison (e-Book)

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Find this the WLAC Library catalog.

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Kneeling, Fiercely Debated in the N.F.L., Resonates in Protests (article)

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Kneeling, Fiercely Debated in the N.F.L., Resonates in Protests (article)

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Find more articles from the New York Times in the WLAC Library National Newspaper Core database. Remote login required.

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Kneeling, Fiercely Debated in the N.F.L., Resonates in Protests (Published 2020)

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Some demonstrators, and in some cases the police, have paused to kneel, recalling the manner of George Floyd’s death and the gesture by Colin Kaepernick.

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African American women chemists (e-Book)

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African American women chemists (e-Book)

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog.

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JOHN LEWIS, “SPEECH AT THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON” 

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JOHN LEWIS, “SPEECH AT THE MARCH ON WASHINGTON” 

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August 28, 1963

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Voices from the Days of Slavery (podcast)

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Voices from the Days of Slavery (podcast)

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List of podcast episodes

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Malcolm X’s speech addressing police brutality in 1962

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Malcolm X’s speech addressing police brutality in 1962

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Malcolm X’s Fiery Speech Addressing Police Brutality

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Life as activism : June Jordan's writings from the progressive (e-Book)

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Life as activism : June Jordan's writings from the progressive (e-Book)

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog.

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Explore the WLAC Library's Artstor database for works by Basquiat and other artists. Artstor contains over one million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and social sciences.
Remote login required.

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The African American Oral History Project 

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The African American Oral History Project 

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The African American Oral History Project: Part One

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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 with empathy and humor. We explore how race affects every part of society - from politics and pop culture to history, food and everything in between.

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Lesson of the Day: Amanda Gorman and ‘The Hill We Climb’

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Lesson of the Day: Amanda Gorman and ‘The Hill We Climb’

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Sign up for free lesson plans, writing prompts, and activities based on NY Times journalism.

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Lesson of the Day: Amanda Gorman and ‘The Hill We Climb’ (Published 2021)

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In this lesson, students learn about the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history and consider her work as part of a tradition of occasional poetry.

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Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance         (e-Book) 

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Women Artists of the Harlem Renaissance         (e-Book) 

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog.

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Explore the U.S. National Archives official Giphy channel for more animated history.

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Making Black History The Color Line, Culture, and Race in the Age of Jim Crow (e-Book)

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Making Black History The Color Line, Culture, and Race in the Age of Jim Crow (e-Book)

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog.

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Ted Talks Black History Month Video Collection

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Ted Talks Black History Month Video Collection

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13 great TED Talks to celebrate Black History Month

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These fascinating talks offer fresh perspectives on black identity, and fascinating insights on how to finally defeat racism.

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US Open, September 2020

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A Conversation With Black Women on Race | Op-Docs | The New York Times

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A Conversation With Black Women on Race | Op-Docs | The New York Times

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A Conversation With Black Women on Race | Op-Docs

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Carter G. Woodson, the "Father of Black History"

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Carter G. Woodson, the "Father of Black History"

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ASALH | The Founders of Black History Month (est. 1915)

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ASALH is itself part of African American treated, as Carter G. Woodson often said, as "a negligible factor" in American and world history. While he labored with a singularity of purpose, Woodson did not work alone. His co-workers at the Association were many, ranging from college presidents and government officials, to celebrated poets and philosophers, to everyday folks in rural hamlets. To explore the history of ASALH is to glimpse a people's strivings, their institution building. To bring that history to life in one's imagination is to walk with giants.
By Korey Bowers Brown
During the dawning decades of the twentieth century, it was commonly presumed that black people had little history besides the subjugation of slavery. Today, it is clear that blacks have significantly impacted the development of the social, political, and economic structures of the United States and the world. Credit for the evolving awareness of the true place of blacks in history can, in large part, be bestowed on one man, Carter G. Woodson. And, his brainchild the Association for the Study of African American Life and History, Inc. is continuing Woodson's tradition of disseminating information about black life, history and culture to the global community.

Known as the "Father of Black History," Woodson (1875-1950) was the son of former slaves, and understood how important gaining a proper education is when striving to secure and make the most out of one's divine right of freedom. Although he did not begin his formal education until he was [almost] 20 years old, his dedication to study enabled him to earn a high school diploma in West Virginia, his first undergraduate degree from Berea College in Kentucky, and bachelor and master's degrees from the University of Chicago in just a few years. In 1912, Woodson became the second African American to earn a PhD at Harvard University.

Recognizing the dearth of information on the accomplishments of blacks in 1915, Dr. Woodson founded the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, now called the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH).

Under Woodson's pioneering leadership, the Association created research and publication outlets for black scholars with the establishment of the Journal of Negro History (1916) and the Negro History Bulletin (1937), which garners a popular public appeal.

In 1926, Dr. Woodson initiated the celebration of Negro History Week, which corresponded with the birthdays of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln. In 1976, this celebration was expanded to include the entire month of February, and today Black History Month garners support throughout the country as people of all ethnic and social backgrounds discuss the black experience. ASALH views the promotion of Black History Month as one of the most important components of advancing Dr.Woodson's legacy.

In honor of all the work that Dr. Carter G. Woodson has done to promote the study of African American History, an ornament of Woodson hangs on the White House's Christmas tree each year.

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ASALH - The Founders of Black History Month | Our History

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ASALH is itself part of African American treated, as Carter G. Woodson often said, as "a negligible factor" in American and world history. While he labored with a singularity of purpose, Woodson did not work alone. His co-workers at the Association were many, ranging from college presidents and government officials, to celebrated poets and philosophers, [...]

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Want to Start a Revolution? : Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle   (e-Book) 

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Want to Start a Revolution? : Radical Women in the Black Freedom Struggle   (e-Book) 

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Find this in the WLAC Library catalog

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We're an online/irl community dedicated to uplifting POC voices. We do this by highlighting two books each month written by authors of color. In addition to building community with folks across the country we also send our monthly book picks to incarcerated comrades through our Prison Program.

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Find a local book club, start your own unofficial chapter, or join our long-distance twice-a-month book club Zoom meetings by supporting our Patreon.

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Join us on Friday, July 31st at 6pm EST / 3pm PST. We will be streaming live to our YouTube. If you want to be included in the Zoom conversation, fill out the Google form here.

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Your support keeps this project going. Join today for as little as $1 a month. And for $10 a month, get a print edition of our Out of Print newsletter.

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We're an online/irl community dedicated to uplifting POC voices. We do this by highlighting two books each month written by authors of color. In addition to building community with folks across the country we also send our monthly book picks to incarcerated comrades through our Prison Program.

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24 Essential Works of Black Cinema Recommended by Black Directors

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24 Essential Works of Black Cinema Recommended by Black Directors

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Calls for greater inclusion in Hollywood have been at the forefront of recent cultural conversations, after decades upon decades of resistance to change. But even as the barriers to entry have been great and opportunities for Black filmmakers less available due to the larger forces of systemic racism, Black artists have been creating remarkable and culturally significant work since the early days of filmmaking, across many genres and styles.

The importance and beauty of Black cinema lies not only within its storytelling, but also in the visibility of its creators, both on- and off-camera, as models of what is possible. The ability to tell a story from one's own perspective and on one's own terms is freeing, and it has proven essential to the legacy of Black film.

"When you see others doing it, it gives you the confidence that you can do it too," director and screenwriter Gina Prince-Bythewood ( Love & Basketball, The Old Guard) tells TIME, pointing to the work of trailblazing Black female directors like Euzhan Palcy and Julie Dash as major influences on her career. "It inspires you to get into the position to do it. It's also the fact of seeing ourselves up on screen that's so important to me about my work-to put ourselves up on screen so we can see ourselves reflected."

With this rich history in mind, TIME asked 14 Black directors-including Prince-Bythewood, Julie Dash, Nia DaCosta, Lee Daniels, and Dawn Porter-to share the works of Black filmmakers that have most influenced their own movies and careers. From groundbreaking features like Oscar Micheaux's silent film Within Our Gates to experimental documentaries like Marlon Riggs' Tongues Untied, here are 24 essential works of Black cinema, presented in order of their release, recommended by Black directors in their own words.

Within Our Gates (1920), selected by Julie Dash

"I saw Within Our Gates in the late '60s-it was a silent film, black and white, and it just had so many different things in it that I had never seen depicted onscreen before as an old movie," says director Julie Dash, whose 1991 film about a multi-generational Gullah family, Daughters of the Dust, became the first feature by a Black woman to have a wide release in theaters.

The 1920 silent movie is a seminal film that addressed the painful racial violence of the time; Micheaux actually wrote and directed the movie as a response to D.W. Griffith's racist, Ku Klux Klan propaganda film, The Birth of a Nation. "I was able to see it again as a film student at UCLA," Dash said. "And I could appreciate all that he was able to incorporate in that film, like themes of miscegenation, migration, a Black woman taking off on her own, trying to fundraise for a school. You name it, it was in there."

Where to watch: Amazon Prime, Library of Congress

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968), selected by Garrett Bradley

William Greaves' 1968 documentary-turned-narrative feature, Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One is as much about the process of making a movie as it is about the cultural upheaval of the 1960s. "It's really an experiment, and as a filmmaker, he's illuminating the filmmaking process," says director Garrett Bradley, who earlier this year became the first Black woman to win Sundance's directing award for documentaries for her movie Time, due to release on Oct. 9. "In a way, that really shows how the artistic process cannot be disconnected from the political and social complexities when you're on set."

Bradley also recommends Greaves' other work, including Ali, The Fighter, his 1974 documentary about Muhammad Ali's return to boxing, and Wealth of a Nation, a 1966 short documentary short about individualism as a key part of America's strengths. She considers Greaves one of the most important filmmakers in history, "not only for his sheer breadth of work-I think he made over 200 documentary films over the course of his career-but also for his real experimentation of the form, which carried over several decades."

Where to watch: Criterion

I Am Somebody (1970), selected by Dawn Porter and Garrett Bradley

"It's this remarkable verité, beautifully-filmed piece about Civil Rights activists," says director Dawn Porter, whose recent documentary, John Lewis: Good Trouble, about the late civil rights legend, premiered in July. Madeline Anderson's 1970 short documentary film tells the story of a labor strike by Black female hospital workers in South Carolina. "It's just so bold, because she lets the film speak for itself, the storytelling is the main event," Porter says. "There's no bells and whistles, just the purity of the story, of human beings pushing for something that they believe in. The purity of that film is really inspiring to me."

Bradley also points out that Anderson's film helped to "link, in a really visual way, the role that Black women had in the Civil Rights movement, which for the most part was visually illustrated as being predominantly male." Bradley adds, "Stylistically and from a cinematic standpoint, she has a really astounding way of creating something that at first appears to be very straightforward in terms of its structure and approach. She's narrating it...but there are also these really beautiful, almost experimental elements throughout her films."

Anderson is recognized as the first Black woman to produce and direct a televised documentary with her 1960 short, Integration Report 1, which followed the fight for civil rights and the events that led up to the first attempt at a March on Washington. Anderson was also a trailblazer in other aspects of her industry; she was the first Black woman to produce and direct a syndicated TV series (Black Journal) and one of the first Black women to join the film editors' union.

Where to watch: Icarus Films

Ganja & Hess (1973), selected by Julie Dash

"There are pieces of films that have swept me away, like Ganja & Hess," says Dash of Bill Gunn's gory experimental horror flick that took home the critics' choice award, when it premiered at Cannes, for its smart, slyly hilarious inversion of the Blaxploitation genre. In particular, Dash has paid specific visual homage to the film with a scene in Daughters of the Dust. "There's this scene where Dr. Hess or somebody is sitting up in a tree and you just see his legs hanging down, and he's having an argument with someone down on the ground. That's my tree scene in Daughters of the Dust- that's the inspiration for Trula sitting in a tree with her legs dangling."

Where to watch: Amazon Prime

Killer of Sheep (1978), selected by RaMell Ross

"To me, Killer of Sheep is one of the first Black films, in the sense that it was responsive to the problem of imagery, by means of its sheer banality," says director RaMell Ross, whose 2018 documentary film about the intimate moments shared in an Alabama community, Hale County, This Morning, This Evening, won a Special Jury Award at Sundance and was nominated for an Oscar. Charles Burnett's groundbreaking 1978 film centers on the seemingly mundane, yet actually significant, everyday experiences of a Black man in Los Angeles through a series of interconnected events. It was originally written, filmed, edited, directed and produced by Burnett as his graduate thesis film at UCLA.

"It's a mind-blowingly simple conceit, which is that life is enough and it should be represented often, at least, in its purest observational form," Ross says. "I think I've used it to take a look at the trend of representation and the consequences of representational aesthetics of the past. And to use what happens in the majority of one's life and the simplicity of waking up in the morning and going through your daily routines as a measure for the way in which cinema sensationalizes and builds narrative for the sake of entertainment." Killer of Sheep also, he adds, highlights the problem filmmaking presents when it comes to "building narrative and convincing lives into smaller fragments of time."

Where to watch: Milestone Films

Suzanne, Suzanne (1982), selected by Janicza Bravo

" Suzanne Suzanne really shook me to my core," says Janicza Bravo, who directed the 2017 breakup dramedy Lemon and the hotly anticipated upcoming feature . The 1982 semi-autobiographical short documentary was directed by artist Camille Billops and her husband James Hatch and centers on the story of Billops' niece, who is dealing with the aftermath of longtime physical and psychological abuse. "It's quite powerful," Bravo says. "It's a piece about her own family, and I was left floored. It's one of the strongest pieces I've ever seen...it will be with me forever."

Where to watch: Criterion

My Brother's Wedding (1983), selected by Channing Godfrey Peoples

" My Brother's Wedding gave me such a strong specificity of place, set in the 1980s in South Central Los Angeles," says Channing Godfrey Peoples, whose critically acclaimed 2020 film, Miss Juneteenth, tells the story of a resilient former beauty queen and single mother. Peoples points to the realism and beauty of My Brother's Wedding as the standout elements of Charles Burnett's 1983 tragicomedy about complex family dynamics thrown into flux with the return of a black-sheep son.

"It's a film that felt raw and let you just live in the world as you go on a journey with the characters," she says. "It's a beautiful, detailed view of Black life happening. I saw people that I normally did not get to see onscreen," she says. "It also highlights class differences in the Black community. It's heartfelt and has a timeless quality that is magnified by Charles Burnett's poetic storytelling."

Where to watch: Criterion

Sugar Cane Alley (1983), selected by Gina Prince-Bythewood

"If I'm to speak on what's influential on my career, I just remember watching the work of Euzhan Palcy, and Sugar Cane Alley was the first thing I saw from her," says director Gina Prince-Bythewood, whose 20-year career includes her 2000 debut feature, Love and Basketball; the 2014 romantic dramedy Beyond the Lights; and 2020's action thriller for Netflix, The Old Guard. Prince-Bythewood notes that Palcy's coming-of-age film set in Martinique was formative to her work as a filmmaker particularly because it was directed by a Black woman.

"It was pretty phenomenal to see a Black woman back then, making a film like that," she says. "It was also such a powerful film and a powerful subject, and the fact that she got to tell that story really meant a lot to me. She was doing it way before any of us and absolutely an inspiration."

Where to watch: DVD available on Amazon

She's Gotta Have It (1986), selected by Cheryl Dunye

"One of the most important films to me, that made me start making work, was She's Gotta Have It, by Spike Lee," says trailblazing director Cheryl Dunye, whose identity-probing, Black lesbian-centric films like her 1996 feature debut, The Watermelon Woman, have become an important part of the queer canon. Dunye says She's Gotta Have It, Lee's first feature film, released in 1986, which he produced, directed, wrote, edited and starred in, had an outsize influence on the beginning of her career as a filmmaker.

"Why? Because I was at a post-talk back when it came out, at the University of Pennsylvania. Spike was onstage and there was a sort of rumble at the screening among the women who were upset about [protagonist] Nola's portrayal," she said. "I was a budding filmmaker, I hadn't decided what I was going to do with my career. I was at Temple University and I was already queer, I was political, but I hadn't committed to filmmaking as the form of expression that I was going to have. A woman went up, got the mic and said, 'Why did you make Nola like that, such a weak woman? Why couldn't she have choices? Your portrayal of her was wrong.' And Spike's only response to her was, 'You know, I wanted to make this movie. If you want to go make movies that answer all those things, then go make your own movie.' And upon that, I figured it out. I was going to make movies."

Do the Right Thing (1989), selected by Amma Asante

"One film that is always consistent for me is Do the Right Thing," says director Amma Asante, who directed the 2013 drama Belle, which was inspired by the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed race daughter of a British admiral. Asante said that Spike Lee's landmark 1989 movie about racial tensions unfolding on a hot summer day in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn is a film that she often revisits.

"I was about 19 when it came out. I remember the first time I saw it in the movie theater," she says. "I remember going back to it when I made my first film and really studying it. I just find it the perfect movie in many ways and perfectly relevant at any year that you watch it. It strikes me on all levels-artistically, emotionally, and from a filmmaking point of view. Every aspect of it, I have always loved."

Tongues Untied (1989), selected by Roger Ross Williams

"The film that most affected me is Tongues Untied by Marlon Riggs," says Life, Animated director Roger Ross Williams, who was the first Black director to win an Oscar, for his short doc Music by Prudence. Williams says Riggs' 1989 experimental documentary on Black gay communities was hugely influential in helping him determine that he wanted to make documentaries himself.

"As a young, Black, gay man, when I first saw that film, I was almost shocked to see images of myself and my community depicted in a documentary," he said. "It's the film that gave me the confidence to make documentaries myself, but I specifically remember just the shock of how honest and open that documentary was about self-hatred that Black gay men have for themselves. It was just mind-blowingly powerful for me."

Daughters of the Dust (1991), selected by Channing Godfrey peoples and Roger Ross Williams

"Daughter of the Dust is poetic, lyrical and took me to a place that I hadn't experienced on film before," says Peoples of Dash's 1991 film. "Beautifully directed with stunning cinematography, it's a layered and complex portrait of Black life set in the early 1900s on the Sea Islands," she adds. "Visually beautiful, it was an early inspiration for me to experience cinema that so authentically captured Black people on film with intimacy and specificity."

For Roger Ross Williams, the film held special significance because of his family's ties to the culture. "Julie Dash's Daughters of the Dust was [important to me] because my family is Gullah," he says. "I'm from Pennsylvania, but my mother was born in Charleston, South Carolina. It was a film that showed a world that I knew from my family, but to see it on the big screen, depicted in those images of Black women who were like my mother, who were familiar to me, from a sort of culture that was familiar to me-to see that on the screen was a sort of liberating and powerful moment for me as a filmmaker."

The Watermelon Woman (1996), selected by Janicza Bravo

"I am so grateful that I got [to see] Watermelon Woman now, but I wish that I had seen it when I was in college, because it would have totally changed my wiring," says Janicza Bravo of Cheryl Dunye's iconic 1996 lesbian rom-com. "It would have also made me think that I could [become a filmmaker], that there was a chance for me to arrive at it much sooner and I just didn't have that. There was not a version of myself that could see that there was room for me. The roadmap was like 10, 15, 20 years and maybe I'll get there. To me, this is required viewing. Every film school when they're playing filmmakers like George Lucas, Spielberg-you need to be playing Cheryl, she needs to be on that list. It was experimental and funny and sexy-most of all, it was bold."

Eve's Bayou (1997), selected by Nia DaCosta and Gina Prince-Bythewood

"I loved the magical realism of that film," says director Nia DaCosta, who directed the 2018 abortion drama Little Woods and the upcoming Candyman remake, of Kasi Lemmons' 1997 directorial debut. The movie tells the story of a young girl who is privy to dark family secrets in a small Louisiana town. "The way Kasi created a world that was deeply emotionally true but also magical and dark and eerie at the same time-I thought that was really awesome."

DaCosta's sentiments were echoed by Prince-Bythewood, who pointed to Lemmons as an influence for her as a young filmmaker. " Eve's Bayou just changed the game for me, it was so well-made. It just struck me so emotionally, and I saw that we could make films at this level, this woman did it," Prince-Bythewood says. "I met [Lemmons] right before I was going to start Love and Basketball and she was so incredibly encouraging and warm and graceful, just made me feel like 'Yeah, I can do this.' She absolutely influenced my career."

Love Jones (1997), selected by Julie Dash

"What a love story, about two young Black people, just very gentle and inspiring and engaging," says Dash of the 1997 romantic drama written and directed by Theodore Witcher. "I just love films that hold meaning beyond the spectacle of being projected on a large screen. I like films that live in my head for years and years."

Belly (1998), selected by Nia DaCosta

"A movie like Belly, which is problematic in many ways, but also visually very stunning-all those things together showed me that this was such a different way of looking at Blackness and Black experiences," says Nia DaCosta of Hype Williams' 1998 crime thriller that starred Nas and DMX. The pair play childhood friends who turn to street crime; their paths diverge when one decides to go straight, while the other falls deeper into illegal activities. While the film was heavily critiqued for its supposed glamorization of violence, drugs, and hedonism, DaCosta points out that Belly was released during a time where there was an abundance of Black cinema being made, allowing her "to have the foundational diversity of the Black experiences on film."

"Beyond them influencing me, I remember a time when there was a lot of great Black films that were being made," DaCosta said. "I remember when I was growing up, it didn't feel like I was missing that and that time period was really special to me. In particular, I think about Eve's Bayou and Love and Basketball and Set It Off, What's Love Got to Do With It?, Waiting to Exhale, Belly, all these movies."

Love & Basketball (2000), selected by Nia DaCosta

"With Love & Basketball being directed by a Black woman, just knowing that it was happening and that it was possible was hugely important to me in retrospect," DaCosta says of Prince-Bythewood's debut film about young love, which was produced by Spike Lee. DaCosta noted that the significance of Love & Basketball went beyond the film itself, but in the very fact of its existence and Prince-Bythewood's direction as a Black woman, which showed her that this path was available to her.

"It felt like there was a lot of opportunities. I knew it was possible, and not in a conscious way. I didn't have to search or seek out Black films or Black filmmakers in the way that you might have had to a few years ago or you might have to now. And even then, it might not have been enough. But the way that I was brought up, it felt like there was a lot of opportunities. Especially with Eve's Bayou and Love & Basketball. Just knowing that it was happening and that it was possible was hugely important to me in retrospect."

Lumumba (2000), selected by Liesl Tommy

"For me, growing up in South Africa during apartheid, to see a political thriller that tackled big things like colonialism, imperialism, Western interference with Democratic process, the continent of Africa, so elegantly executed, was extremely powerful. It told me that there was a place for my story in filmmaking," says director Liesl Tommy of Raoul Peck's 2000 biopic about Congolese politician and independence leader Patrice Lumumba. Tommy directed Respect, the upcoming Aretha Franklin biopic, and is set to direct the film adaptation of Trevor Noah's memoir, Born a Crime.

"What set it apart is that Peck told the story from the Black gaze," Tommy said. "He centered Blackness, the Black experience, without it having to be a thing. It wasn't even a question. There was no pandering, there was no need to make whiteness feel comfortable. And again, coming from an African country where that was my experience and then coming to the United States, where there's so much accommodation for the white experience that has to happen, it was incredibly liberating to just see that he told the story on his own terms. And just remembering that has power throughout so much of my career. It's so important for us to tell our stories on our own terms, regardless of who is in charge."

White Chicks (2004), selected by Lee Daniels

"Maybe because I have such a profound respect for anybody that can do comedy, I just felt that Keenan Ivory Wayans did Black comedy on a level of excellence," says Lee Daniels, the Oscar-nominated director of Precious, of White Chicks. Wayans' 2004 comedy confronted stereotypes and racial performance with satire and whiteface and was recently included as part of BAMcinématek and Claudia Rankine's The Racial Imaginary Institute 2018 film series On Whiteness, which explored the social and political power of being white in America.

"He was able to nuance the humor," Daniels said. "Black people laughing-he was able to capture the magic of Black comedy. He was really able to tap into how we interact with each other in a comedic way, and that's a specific skill that's hard. I don't think he gets the credit that that he deserves for things like In Living Color and his discovery of talent, of knowing how to make you laugh."

Hunger (2008), selected by Lee Daniels

"I was blown away by Steve McQueen when I saw his movie Hunger," says Daniels of McQueen's 2008 historical film about the 1981 Irish hunger strike. "We're talking about somebody that took cinema, not just African-American cinema, but cinema, to another level. I was inspired by his work. After watching Hunger, I had to up my game, because he went deep into the human condition in a way that I hadn't seen before. He was able to articulate pain and he wasn't afraid let that camera sit on you."

Twelve Years a Slave (2013), selected by Dawn Porter

"The cinematography, the bravery, the unflinching kind of creativity-I was really inspired, because it's beautifully done," Dawn Porter says of McQueen's Best Picture-winning film based on the memoir of a former slave named Solomon Northup. "And to take a subject that we all feel that we know and to see it brought to life that way, in such an elegant way, I would say I think about quite often."

(T)ERROR (2015), selected by Terence Nance

"Lyric R. Cabral's ( T)ERROR is a really profound document of entrapment by the FBI of a man that practices Islam and [whom] they use as an informant," says Terence Nance, who directed the 2012 semi-animated film An Oversimplification of Her Beauty and created, wrote, directed, starred and executive produced the HBO sketch comedy series, Random Acts of Flyness, which debuted in 2018. (T)ERROR was the first film to document a covert terrorism sting as it unfolded, and Cabral directed alongside co-director David Felix Sutcliffe.

Nance notes that the power of the film rests in Cabral's ability to parse out nuance and compassion within a complex situation. "It's a really sort of tragic, intimate and honest and painful portrait of how our ideals of revolution and Black power can operate on a personal level and how they can be corrupted," he says. "Just what human beings will do in their livelihood that they feel trapped. Also, how violent the state is and how it's become even more violent, in terms of quashing out human beings, movements, ideas that are messy, ideas that aren't perfect, ideas that are alternative. I've never seen or heard of a documentary like that. It doesn't engage in the concept of a political binary: good, bad, left, or right. It's really transformative."

Where to watch: Unavailable

I Am Not Your Negro (2016), selected by Dawn Porter

"It's exhilarating to feel like people are out here being creative and innovative," Porter says of Raoul Peck's acclaimed documentary about James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro. The film uses archival footage to illustrate a narration inspired by Baldwin's unfinished manuscript, Remember This House. "It just pushes you to challenge yourself, to take on different topics. I'm always reminded of the importance of the gaze," she says. "It just reaches and grabs your soul. It's so unflinching and creative. Just exhilarating. So often, Black filmmakers have been marginalized. To see these really bold, powerful, uncompromising works is exhilarating."

SHAKEDOWN (2018), selected by Terence Nance

Terence Nance calls Leilah Weinraub's nonfiction art film SHAKEDOWN "transformative." The documentary, about an underground Black lesbian strip club, took over a decade to make, debuted at the 2018 Berlinale and made history when it was distributed on Pornhub in 2020 as the first non-adult film to grace the platform. "It's a document of several characters who created a kind of mobile Black lesbian strip club night, created this space for artistic expression, for sociality, for this particularly Black, particularly queer, particularly expressive, particularly transcendent [expression]. It has this style-audio-visually, the graphic design of it-that is really, to me, what the audio-visual modality of Black cinema is at present, even though it took a decade to make. Even though it's not born of the moment, it is the omnipresent present, in a way."

Where to watch: Criterion

Write to Cady Lang at cady.lang@timemagazine.com.

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24 Essential Works of Black Cinema Recommended by Black Directors

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Calls for greater inclusion in Hollywood have been at the forefront of recent cultural conversations, after decades upon decades of resistance to change. But even as the barriers to entry have been great and opportunities for Black filmmakers less available due to the larger forces of systemic racism, Black artists have been creating remarkable and culturally significant work since the early days of filmmaking, across many genres and styles.

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Dr. Jamie Lathan, Humanities Instructor, North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

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North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics

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Interview, New York, 1968

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To find biographies, articles, photos and other sources try the Gale US History and Gale Biography databases.
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February 2021 - 28 Days of Black Cosplay

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February 2021 - 28 Days of Black Cosplay

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Social Justice and Human Rights Speeches

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Historic Social Justice and Human Rights Speeches

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Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but as in so many cities and towns throughout the country, his impact on Los Angeles was strong and far-reaching. King visited L.A. on numerous occasions to speak about equal rights and encourage voter participation, sometimes under tense, and potentially life-threatening circumstances. When he visited the city, thousands would turn out to hear this great orator and Nobel Peace Prize winner. King was comfortable speaking anywhere and seems to have welcomed every opportunity to get his message out. The venues he appeared in were wildly varied, such as the Los Angeles Sports Arena, the Second Baptist Church, the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and the Hollywood Palladium.

In the wake of King's assassination on April 4, 1968, the city mourned the fallen leader, and then eulogized him with memorial services held at the Los Angeles Coliseum and the First Methodist Church. In 1983, Los Angeles officially honored the activist by renaming Santa Barbara Avenue as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, three years before his birthday was declared a national holiday. The nearby city of Lynwood followed suit in 1989 by rechristening Century Boulevard with King's name.

Over half a century following his untimely and violent death, King's presence in Los Angeles is still apparent. In addition to King Boulevard, where the Kingdom Day parade is held annually, his name is affixed to places around the city like schools, parks, a community college library, and a medical center. Los Angeles may have not been King's home, but that didn't stop countless residents of the city from welcoming him and his ideas.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but as in so many cities and towns throughout the country, his impact on Los Angeles was strong and far-reaching. King visited L.A. on numerous occasions to speak about equal rights and encourage voter participation, sometimes under tense, and potentially life-threatening circumstances.

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California African American Museum Collections

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California African American Museum Collections

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CAAM’s permanent collection consists of over 4,000 objects ranging from the 1800s to the present. This includes paintings, photographs, film, sculpture, historical documents, and artifacts, and it spans nineteenth-century landscape paintings to modern artworks to contemporary mixed-media reflections on cultural and political events.

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CAAM's permanent collection consists of over 5,000 objects ranging from the 1800s to the present. It encompasses paintings, photographs, film, sculpture, historical documents, and artifacts, and it spans nineteenth-century landscape paintings to modern artworks to contemporary mixed-media reflections on cultural and political events.