Mississippi Burning DVD
MGM Studios, 1989
Rated R
Mississippi Burning, using the real-life 1964 disappearance of
three civil rights workers as its inspiration, tells the story of two
FBI men who come in to try to solve the crime.
Ghosts of Mississippi DVD
Turner Home Entertainment, 1996
Rated PG13
Tells the story of civil rights activist, Medgar Evers.
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till DVD
Velocity, 2006
Rated PG13
Combining archival photos and footage with deeply felt interviews, this documentary tells the story of what happened when a 14 year old black boy from Chicago, visiting his relatives in Mississippi, whistled at a white woman in the street. The lynching that followed was so gruesome that a media circus surrounded the trial--and what stunned the nation was not only the crime, but the blithe unconcern the citizens of a small Mississippi town felt toward the brutal murder of a black teenager. The interviews suspensefully unveil the story, moving from the viewpoint of Till's mother to the perspective of his Southern cousins to actual film of Till's uncle, who had the astonishing courage to accuse the two killers in court. Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, addressed the entire country in news footage, begging that something be done so that her son did not die in vain.
Scottsboro: An American Tragedy DVD
PBS 2005
Not Rated
After two women accused the young men of raping them aboard a freight train in 1931, the men were locked up and put on trial in Scottsboro, Alabama. To no one's surprise they were convicted, but eventually the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the defendants did not receive adequate legal representation and granted them a new trial. A prominent and flamboyant New York attorney, Samuel Leibowitz, then took on their case and began to make legal history. Eventually the men were set free, but their lives had been ruined. With understated drama this film shows how American attitudes about race and justice were changed forever by the case of the nine young men who stood accused in Scottsboro.
Remember the Titans
Walt Disney Video
2001
REMEMBER THE TITANS is a rousing celebration of how a town torn apart by resentment, friction, and mistrust comes together in triumphant harmony. The year is 1971. After leading his team to 15 winning seasons, football coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton) is demoted and replaced by Herman Boone (Washington), tough, opinionated, and as different from the beloved Yoast as he could be. How these two men overcome their differences and turn a group of hostile young men into champions, plays out in a remarkable and triumphant story full of soul and spirit.
Malcolm X
Warner Home Video
2000
Biography of Malcolm X, the famous African American leader. Born Malcolm Little, his father (a minister) was killed by the Ku Klux Klan. He became a gangster, and while in jail discovered the Nation of Islam writings of Elijah Muhammad. He preaches the teachings when let out of jail, but later on goes on a pilgrimage to the city of Mecca.
Rosewood
Warner Home Video
2007
A movie based on the massacre that occurred in the nearly all-black town of Rosewood, Florida, in 1922. An estimated 40 to 150 blacks were killed in Rosewood by an all-white lynch mob from the neighboring town of Sumner, where a white woman falsely claimed she'd been assaulted by a black man. The resulting mayhem ignited a tinderbox of resentment toward the flourishing citizens of Rosewood, and those few who survived were so traumatized that they remained silent until the truth was revealed by an investigative journalist in 1982.