2021 - 2 43 min. episodes
This two-part special begins with first years of the European slave trade but fundamentally focuses on the individuals who fought & struggled against colonialism, slavery, and their legacies. Insisting on the importance of individuals and their ability to resist historical conditions – to shoulder burdens and to break down walls – it covers five centuries of intertwining British and American histories. Divided in two parts, the first investigates the different struggles in the gradual labour of breaking down the system of slavery. It looks to the violent resistance that occurred within the Atlantic system, inspiring defiance, and fracturing the machine piecemeal, but also to the literary and political organising in the abolitionary process. The second part deals with very different sorts of struggles: the legacies of slavery and colonialism and how they have been patterned out and resisted up to the present day. It turns again to literary composers, political organisers and to especially resonant symbolic moments, reminding us of the importance of remembering those who have pioneered, resisted, spoken out and paved the way.

1996 - 1 hr. 27 min.
Ask most people who led the 1963 March on Washington and they'll probably tell you Martin Luther King, Jr. But the real force behind the event was the man many call the pre-eminent black labor leader of the century and the father of the modern civil rights movement: A. Philip Randolph.

2013 - 1 hr. 16 min.
Against a backdrop of sex, politics, and race, Anita reveals the intimate story of a woman who spoke truth to power. An entire country watched as a poised, beautiful African-American woman sat before a Senate committee of 14 white men and with a clear, unwavering voice recounted the repeated acts of sexual harassment she had endured while working with U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. Anita Hill's graphic testimony was a turning point for gender equality in the U.S. and ignited a political firestorm about sexual harassment and power in the workplace that resonates still today.

2023 - 1 hr. 24 min.
Evanston, Illinois Alderwoman Robin Rue Simmons leads the passage of the first tax-funded reparations bill in U.S. history for Black Americans. What follows is conflict as she and her community struggle with the burden to make repair and restitution for Black Americans harmed by centuries of slavery, systemic injustice, and exploitation while racial and social crisis engulfs the country.

2021 - 1 hr. 25 min.
At the heart of this feature documentary is the groundbreaking “Two Centuries of Black American Art” exhibition curated by the late African American artist and scholar David Driskell in 1976. Held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, this pioneering exhibit featured more than 200 works of art by 63 artists and cemented the essential contributions of Black artists in America in the 19th and 20th centuries. The exhibit would eventually travel to the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and the Brooklyn Museum. The film shines a light on the exhibition’s extraordinary impact on generations of African American artists who have staked a claim on their rightful place within the 21st-century art world.

1984 - 1 hr. 15 min.
This 1984 feature documentary explores the role of black actors, black directors, and the black audience in American movies. Lorenzo Tucker, known as the Black Valentino, discusses his career with Oscar Micheaux. Joel Fluellen and Vincent Tubbs tell memorable stories of what life was like for the few blacks working in Hollywood in the 50s and 60s including Dorothy Dandridge. Also included are interviews with Diahnne Abbott, Rosalind Cash, and Alfre Woodard, who talk about negative stereotyping. Jim Brown, Vonetta McGee, and D'Urville Martin come up with alternative solutions to the one-way street that was "blaxploitation" and discuss new ways of advancing an independent black cinema. Included is a marvelous speech by Sidney Poitier on accepting the Black Hall of Fame "Oscar.” Grandmaster Flash and his "Message" is the theme tune and the writer Oscar Williams holds the whole show together with his advice to the creative outsider.

“Little Black cowboys need their heroes too,” sings Black country-western singer Jae R. Mason, as part of a movement to recapture the Black presence in the Old West. This program from Tony Brown's Journal highlights the rich history of Black contributions to the settling of America’s western frontier, exposing this legacy through song, rare photos, and film.

2021 - 1 hr. 29 min.
For decades, trailblazing photographer Gordon Parks brought the human struggle of the Black community out of the shadows and onto the pages of LIFE magazine. This documentary explores Parks' enduring legacy through the lens of three contemporary photographers, and spotlights his visionary work and its impact on the next generation of artists.

2024 - 2 23 min, episodes
The Color of Space captures the personal stories of seven current and former Black astronauts, each selected to become part of NASA’s astronaut corps and train for space missions.

2024 - 55 min.
This documentary explores the complex issue of reparations in the United States using a thoughtful approach to history, historical injustices, systemic inequities, and the critical dialogue on racial conciliation. Through personal narratives, community inquiries, and scholarly insights, it aims to inspire understanding of the scope and rationale of the reparations debate.

2021 - 4 1 hr. episodes
Exterminate All the Brutes is an eye-opening journey through time, offering an incisive look at the history of European colonialism in Africa and the Americas. The groundbreaking series explores the lasting impact of exploitation and genocide on society today, pushing the boundaries of traditional documentary filmmaking by weaving director Raoul Peck’s (I Am Not Your Negro) personal voyage into the darkest hours of humanity with scripted scenes starring Josh Hartnett (Pearl Harbor). Across four episodes, Peck deconstructs the making and masking of history, digs deep into the ideology of white supremacy, and challenges audiences to rethink the very notion of how history is written.

2021 - 43 min.
Looks at the impact key movements throughout U.S. history have had in shaping our society, laws and culture. From the labor movement of the 1880s, women's suffrage and civil rights, to the LGBTQ+ and Black Lives Matter movements, protest is in the American DNA and this documentary gives an unfiltered look at the ways it has evolved the world in which we live.

2010 - 5 46 min. episodes, 2 hr. 11 min. additional supplemental footage.
If prevalent and accepted accounts of American history—both scholarly and those portrayed by Hollywood—are to be believed, the face of the U.S. armed services has always been white. For Love of Liberty: The Story of America’s Black Patriots finally, and for the first time, sets the record straight with an all-star cast who read from a collection of letters, diaries, speeches, and military records that document and acknowledge the sacrifices and accomplishments of African-Americans across four centuries of warfare. This acclaimed series has generated intense support from scholars, students, and parents and has been endorsed by all of the major African-American veterans groups and civil rights organizations as well as by prominent senators and congressional representatives. A viewable/printable episode guide is available online.

2021 - 1 hr. 34 min.
Who owns the rights to the violence of the past - the victim or the perpetrator? tells the story of Tamara Lanier, an African American woman determined to force Harvard University to cede possession of daguerreotypes of her great-great-great grandfather, an enslaved man named Renty. The daguerreotypes were commissioned in 1850 by a Harvard professor to "prove" the superiority of the white race. The images remain emblematic of America’s failure to acknowledge the cruelty of slavery, the racist science that supported it and the white supremacy that continues to infect our society today.

2024 - 57 min.
Starting with the accidental discovery of the significant history of a modest dwelling on a traditionally African-American street in Hagerstown, Maryland, this documentary traces the roots of middle America’s racial, economic and social interactions. Through the lens of this house, the rise and fall of the African-American community in small rust belt towns and cities across America is told. The film also explores how the house's discovery, renovation and renewal could also signal a change in the fortunes of the street and the larger community.

2024 - 1 hr. 32 min.
From Executive Producer Al Roker, Kenyatta is part love story and part political thriller about Malcolm Kenyatta’s historic run for the US Senate. This race is about more than taking on the political competition; it’s about taking on an entire system.

2022 - 4 52 min, episodes
This four-hour series, hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., chronicles the vast social networks and organizations created by and for Black people-beyond the reach of the “White gaze.” Gates takes viewers into an extraordinary world that showcases Black people’s ability to collectively prosper, defy white supremacy and define Blackness in ways that transformed America itself.

2008 - 52 min.
Black Nationalist pioneer and First Hero of Jamaica, Marcus Garvey is discussed by contemporaries, historians, family and friends. The film traces his early successes in organizing West Indian contract labor, to the phenomenal rise of his Universal Negro Improvement Association, which took America by storm in the 20s.

2008 - 32 min.
Presents the life of a daughter of a former slave, 102-year-old Daisy Turner. She recalls childhood incidents and her father's Civil War experiences and talks about life in her homestead in Vermont. Folklorist Jane Beck fills in details about traditions preserved in the Turner family. Originally produced in 1986 by the Vermont Folklife Center.

2012 - 45 min,
Cultural historian Dave Zirin, whose influential blog and bestselling books have offered searing insights into the politics of American sports, examines the myriad ways sports culture has worked both to reproduce and challenge the wider culture's dominant ideas about race and racial difference.

2012 - 1 hr. 24 min.
Slavery by Another Name, narrated by Laurence Fishburne, is a 90-minute documentary that challenges one of Americans' most cherished assumptions: that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South after the Civil War, new systems of involuntary servitude took its place with shocking force and brutality. The film documents how for more than 80 years, thousands of African Americans, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of white masters. Tolerated by both the North and South, forced labor lasted well into the 20th century.

1990 - 56 min.
Like many industrial centers, Corbin, Kentucky—birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken—attracted African-American sharecroppers looking for better-paying jobs during World War I. But when white veterans returned from the war, economic competition heated up, and on one October night in 1919 black citizens were literally railroaded out of town. The events of that night are reconstructed in this documentary with the help of newsreel clips and interviews with eyewitnesses and scholars, while Corbin’s current residents deny the town’s “whites only” reputation and evade its haunting past. Contains harsh and inflammatory language.