40 Acres and a Mule Productions

50 movies that address the history of racism in America

Movies give united states perspective and allow us to watch certain events play out in front end of our eyes. They can be educational and entertaining, making proper representation a significant gene in filmmaking. Black representation in Hollywood was virtually nonexistent in the early 20th century, and when images of African Americans were shown, they were given negative stereotypes and criticized with racist imagery and oppression.

Years of systematic racism riddle the Black customs today, but information technology was even more blatant back then. Immature Black children around the state would turn on the television to a lack of positive images outside of racial stereotypes. As the years went on, Black representation slowly only surely began to make its mode through the airwaves, and it started to educate people on the realities of Black lives equally many Blackness filmmakers, actors, and writers created a new cycle of Black cinema with a diversity of genres.

Black films take get a staple in the Black customs, leaving long-lasting impacts on the culture for years to come. Black artistry continues to rise in theaters and on television receiver as the industry learns to cater to dissimilar skin types, film angles, genre diversities, and plot lines inside Black culture.

Stacker extensively researched the history of Blackness filmmaking and Black lives captured on screen in both fiction features and documentaries, and compiled a list of 50 diverse films that address the history of racism in America in one way or the other using IMDb data every bit of June three, 2020. To amplify Black voices and firsthand experience, the overwhelming majority of the films on this list are made by Black filmmakers. The films are organized chronologically.

Check out these stories that smoothen a low-cal on Black voices throughout cinema.

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1 / 50

Micheaux Volume & Film Company

Inside Our Gates (1920)

- Director: Oscar Micheaux
- IMDb user rating: half-dozen.3
- Metascore: data non available
- Runtime: 79 min

"Within Our Gates" follows a mixed-race adult female who ventures Due north during the Jim Crow era in hopes of raising coin for a Black schoolhouse in the South. Oscar Micheaux, the get-go major African American feature-filmmaker, portrays racial violence and strict contrasts between the Black people who lived in rural areas to those who migrated to urban cities. The silent film is highly critiqued to be a response to D.W. Griffith'south "Birth of a Nation," and a turning point for African American movie theater.

two / l

Shadows (1958)

- Managing director: John Cassavetes
- IMDb user rating: seven.3
- Metascore: 86
- Runtime: 87 min

Leila, a white-passing, Blackness woman in New York City, falls in love with a white human, merely the human relationship ends when he meets her dark-skinned blood brother and realizes she is Black. Leila and her two brothers navigate their racial identity with their skin complexion at the forefront of their narratives. This movie brings awareness to the multifaceted problems that surround Black livelihood.

3 / 50

A Raisin in the Sun (1961)

- Director: Daniel Petrie
- IMDb user rating: 8.0
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 128 min

Attempting to fulfill the American dream in a racially segregated Chicago, a Black family looking to buy a home in a white neighborhood becomes a victim of housing bigotry and racial threats. The moving-picture show addresses the racial injustices Black people face up when attempting to follow their dreams, begetting the question, "what happens to a dream deferred?"

4 / 50

Guess Who'due south Coming to Dinner (1967)

- Manager: Stanley Kramer
- IMDb user rating: 7.viii
- Metascore: 63
- Runtime: 108 min

This classic flick depicts a couple's interracial love every bit they face up each other'due south family unit members' initial disapproval. Katharine Houghton and Sidney Poitier's characters swoop deep into the anti-miscegenation laws of the fourth dimension and explore certain hypocrisies that potentially stalk from white-liberalism.

v / 50

In the Heat of the Night (1967)

- Director: Norman Jewison
- IMDb user rating: 7.9
- Metascore: 75
- Runtime: 110 min

In this 5-time University Laurels-winning movie, a Black detective (Sidney Poitier) gets caught in the middle of a murder investigation and eventually proves his innocence. After his release, he's now in charge of the case but faces difficulties when he'due south partnered with the racist sheriff (Rod Steiger), who defendant him of murder. The film was shot during the civil rights motility and examined racial policing and bigotry.

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6 / 50

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One (1968)

- Director: William Greaves
- IMDb user rating: seven.three
- Metascore: 71
- Runtime: 75 min

William Greaves experiments "a movie within a film inside a film." While at times baiting his predominantly white crew over political topics, Greaves allows the actors to follow their narratives on issues of race and sexuality. In fact, the lack of direction is how he wanted to bring out the reality of his crew'southward thoughts on screen.

7 / fifty

The Story of a Three-Day Pass (1968)

- Director: Melvin Van Peebles
- IMDb user rating: 7.0
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 87 min

An African American soldier named Turner is stationed in France and struggles with his own identity equally a Blackness human being in the regular army. Later meeting and spending the weekend with a French woman, Turner finds that he is not exempt from racial prejudices, and he's forced to face his lack of liberty and bigotry within the armed services.

8 / 50

Warner Bros. - Seven Arts.

The Learning Tree (1969)

- Managing director: Gordon Parks
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 107 min

Gordon Parks tackles adolescent sexuality, morality, and racism, centering a young Blackness teenager in 1920s rural Kansas. The tragic trial of events portrayed in the film speaks volumes to the harsh realities Blackness Americans confront beginning at a young age.

9 / fifty

Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)

- Director: Ossie Davis
- IMDb user rating: half-dozen.5
- Metascore: data not bachelor
- Runtime: 97 min

This slapstick comedy is widely known equally ane of the earliest examples of blaxploitation. Popular throughout the 1970s, the genre has been criticized but also praised by the Black community for characters who, at their cadre, promote messages of Black empowerment. The story follows a man attempting to raise money to return to Africa (mirroring the teachings of Marcus Garvey), all of which was actually an elaborate scam.

10 / fifty

Sounder (1972)

- Director: Martin Ritt
- IMDb user rating: seven.v
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 105 min

A Blackness sharecropping family and their dog experience farthermost poverty during the Great Low. They fight to survive later on the father is jailed for stealing food. Starring Cicely Tyson, the story themes prison labor, Black poverty, and admission to education within the Black customs.

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11 / l

The Spook Who Sat past the Door (1973)

- Director: Ivan Dixon
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: data non bachelor
- Runtime: 102 min

"The Spook Who Sat by the Door" follows the get-go Blackness homo in a fictional CIA, who is aware of his token status in the agency. Afterwards learning a few techniques from the agency, he organizes the "Liberty Fighters" to help protect Blackness Americans and ensure their freedom. The film addresses the need for Black people's cocky-defense force, a notion adept during the civil rights motion.

12 / l

Ganja & Hess (1973)

- Manager: Pecker Gunn
- IMDb user rating: 6.3
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 110 min

One of the starting time few horror films to take Blackness representation, Beak Gunn plays his own lead in "Ganja & Hess" and portrays variety and range for Black actors in cinema. The film presents two Black lovers who've been killed and have emerged every bit immortal vampires. Initially pitched equally a blaxploitation film, the motion picture is more experimental and artistic.

13 / fifty

Killer of Sheep (1978)

- Director: Charles Burnett
- IMDb user rating: seven.3
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 80 min

This blackness-and-white motion picture follows a Black man who works in a slaughterhouse to feed his family unit. While the adults face challenges of their own, the children are almost accustomed to their dangerous surroundings. The flick mirrors the harsh realities of the ghetto, trauma, and financial struggle due to racial inequity from childhood to machismo.

14 / l

Losing Footing (1982)

- Manager: Kathleen Collins
- IMDb user rating: six.4
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 86 min

Sara, a young Black woman, is having trouble with her marriage after her husband sparks interest in a Puerto Rican woman, causing Sara to question her own identity and self-worth being both Black and a woman. "Losing Ground" was 1 of the kickoff feature-length films created by a Black woman.

15 / 50

40 Acres and a Mule Productions

She's Gotta Have It (1986)

- Director: Spike Lee
- IMDb user rating: 6.7
- Metascore: 79
- Runtime: 84 min

The themes of "She's Gotta Take It" include gender, Black feminism, and sexual liberation. Nola Darling lives a sexually liberated lifestyle with three men earlier she is forced to choose one lover. Spike Lee examines the representation of Black women's wellness and freedom of stereotypes.

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xvi / fifty

Tongues Untied (1989)

- Director: Marlon Riggs
- IMDb user rating: 6.vii
- Metascore: data non available
- Runtime: 55 min

This documentary focuses on the expression of gay Black men and their civilization. Marlon Riggs explores the intersectionality of being both Blackness and gay in a racist and homophobic society. Riggs shines a light on many bug the community faces, including examples of hypersexualized Black men in relation to their white counterparts.

17 / 50

xl Acres and a Mule Productions

Practise the Right Thing (1989)

- Managing director: Spike Lee
- IMDb user rating: 7.nine
- Metascore: 92
- Runtime: 120 min

A series of racially motivated events is outlined subsequently an Italian-owned eating house has a wall-of-fame with just Italian actors in a predominantly Black neighborhood. Believing there should be Blackness actors on the wall, heightened emotions on race relations lead to a race anarchism. This staple in the Black community is a representation of racial inequity and injustices themed beyond the country today.

18 / 50

Daughters of the Dust (1991)

- Director: Julie Dash
- IMDb user rating: 6.5
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 112 min

This film portrays the furnishings of Blackness enslavement past the borders of America and into West Africa and creolized cultures. A family of women in the Gullah community struggles to carry on their vibrant Yoruba civilization abroad from their homeland. Julie Dash'south flick heavily inspired Beyonce's "Lemonade" video every bit it explores Black womanhood and the search for freedom after slavery.

19 / 50

Boyz n the Hood (1991)

- Director: John Singleton
- IMDb user rating: 7.7
- Metascore: 76
- Runtime: 112 min

Based on his own life, John Singleton portrays three immature Blackness men in a neighborhood riddled with poverty, gang violence, and other harsh issues that hit the community. Each man navigates their path through Central Los Angeles when tragedy strikes, symbolizing a trauma cycle of "what's going on in the hood."

20 / fifty

Only Another Girl on the I.R.T. (1992)

- Manager: Leslie Harris
- IMDb user rating: 6.4
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 92 min

Chantel Mitchell is a Black, 17-twelvemonth-old high schooler from Brooklyn, New York, who dreams of going to college and hopes to become a physician. Her plans fall short when she becomes pregnant. Mitchell copes with her fears of becoming a statistic, riddled with stereotypes that follow young Blackness girls.

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21 / 50

xl Acres and a Mule Productions

Malcolm 10 (1992)

- Director: Spike Lee
- IMDb user rating: seven.vii
- Metascore: 72
- Runtime: 202 min

Malcolm X was a Black activist who taught confronting racism and white violence while promoting Blackness empowerment and separation. Denzel Washington gives a powerful performance of the real-life events in the activist's life and his affect on the Black community; many sentiments still followed and repeated to this mean solar day.

22 / 50

Hoop Dreams (1994)

- Managing director: Steve James
- IMDb user rating: eight.3
- Metascore: 98
- Runtime: 170 min

This documentary follows two Black teenage boys from a predominantly Black neighborhood in Chicago. They nourish a predominately white school in hopes of pursuing their dreams of becoming professional person basketball players. The flick constantly touches on race, social grade, and the educational activity system with topics in code-switching, economic hardships, and racism.

23 / l

Devil in a Blue Clothes (1995)

- Managing director: Carl Franklin
- IMDb user rating: 6.7
- Metascore: 78
- Runtime: 102 min

Denzel Washington makes some other appearance on the list as a World War Ii veteran. He finds himself entangled in a case involving a missing white woman. Racism is at the centre of the story's plot equally Washington'south character is consistently demeaned and belittled, and the flick portrays an overall lack of care for Black lives by society.

24 / 50

The Watermelon Woman (1996)

- Director: Cheryl Dunye
- IMDb user rating: 6.vii
- Metascore: 74
- Runtime: 90 min

In the first feature film directed by a Blackness lesbian woman, Cheryl, who plays herself in the film, is a struggling filmmaker who hopes to make a flick about a Black lesbian character who is often belittled to "mammy" roles in early 20th century movies. The movie explores lesbianism, Black, and womanhood equally each can intersect and coexist to their fullest identity.

25 / 50

Down in the Delta (1998)

- Director: Maya Angelou
- IMDb user rating: half-dozen.seven
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 112 min

Alfre Woodard stars in "Down in the Delta" every bit a character named Loretta, who is sent to Mississippi from Chicago to get clean from drugs and reconnect with her family'due south traditions. As a result of slavery, Black Americans have difficulties post-obit family trees and often hit dead ends. Maya Angelou gives us a story of family unit, heritage, and traditions reborn.

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26 / 50

Bamboozled (2000)

- Director: Fasten Lee
- IMDb user rating: vi.5
- Metascore: 50
- Runtime: 135 min

This satirical piece mirrors early 20th-century moving-picture show every bit a television executive (Damon Wayans) decides to bring minstrel shows back to television. The film hits many racist stereotypes throughout including blackface, "jive" dances, and other racist tropes. The abstract flick leans into former portrayals of Black characters equally an examination of the past, present, and future of Black moving picture.

27 / 50

How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (2005)

- Director: Joe Angio
- IMDb user rating: 7.2
- Metascore: seventy
- Runtime: 85 min

This documentary discusses Melvin Van Peebles' story and his breakthrough into Hollywood. Peebles' filmmaking style of the 1970s is highlighted throughout the film every bit a call for revolution inside the Black customs and more than Black representation in film.

28 / fifty

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005)

- Director: Keith Beauchamp
- IMDb user rating: vii.6
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: seventy min

Emmett Till was a Black, 14-twelvemonth-old child from Chicago who, on a visit to his great-uncle's home in Mississippi, was brutally murdered by two white men. This documentary tells the story of Till, his murderer'southward amortization in courtroom past an all-white, all-male person jury, and the racial uprising that followed in the 1950s. The film emphasizes the injustices of the racist South and white violence against the Black customs.

29 / 50

The Corking Debaters (2007)

- Director: Denzel Washington
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 65
- Runtime: 126 min

Denzel Washington directs and stars in this true story of a Blackness professor's quest to begin a debate team at Wiley Higher, during the Great Depression. The now-legacy was unheard of at the fourth dimension every bit Jim Crow laws were equally prominent equally always, and the fear of violence confronting the Blackness community rang high. The motion-picture show is a attestation to the team and its coach for overcoming a racially unjust gild.

30 / 50

Trouble the Water (2008)

- Directors: Carl Deal, Tia Lessin
- IMDb user rating: 7.3
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 93 min

"Trouble the Water" journeys a young Black couples' tragedy during Hurricane Katrina. The motion-picture show shows predominantly Black neighborhoods flooded, families destroyed, and people killed during the natural disaster. The movie is a visual displaying the lack of government support due to racism and classism during the historical event.

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31 / 50

The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975 (2011)

- Director: Göran Olsson
- IMDb user rating: seven.five
- Metascore: 73
- Runtime: 100 min

"The Black Power Mixtape" documents the Black Power movement and its turning points within Black history. The institute footage touches on many topics presented during the movement, including Dr. King'due south assassination, the War on Drugs, Black nationalism, and more.

32 / fifty

12 Years a Slave (2013)

- Director: Steve McQueen
- IMDb user rating: viii.i
- Metascore: 96
- Runtime: 134 min

This slave memoir accommodation tells the story of a free Blackness human being named Soloman, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. For 12 years, Solomon faced the brutalities of slavery, as he jumps from 1 plantation to the next in hopes to find his mode back home. The film, which can be hard to watch, portrays some harsh realities Black people faced during centuries of enslavement.

33 / 50

Fruitvale Station (2013)

- Director: Ryan Coogler
- IMDb user rating: 7.five
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 85 min

Oscar Grant was a Black, 22-year-one-time man who was shot and killed by a white law officer in Oakland's Fruitvale commune station. Michael B. Jordan portrays the immature human being, who faced with deprivations as a Black homo in America, journeyed through life as a Bay Area resident before his tragic murder. With footage caught on film, Grant's story brought a call for change towards constabulary brutality and racial profiling that happens every day towards Blackness people.

34 / 50

Dear White People (2014)

- Director: Justin Simien
- IMDb user rating: 6.i
- Metascore: 79
- Runtime: 108 min

This Netflix special follows a grouping of Blackness students at a predominantly white university. The students navigate cultural biases at the Ivy League higher, and the story mirrors existent-life social injustices that mark Blackness students in similar positions.

35 / fifty

Selma (2014)

36 / 50

Rat Film (2016)

- Director: Theo Anthony
- IMDb user rating: 6.half-dozen
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 82 min

This documentary examines the rat infestation problem surrounding Baltimore and keys in on topics of bigotry, redlining, and other elements that encourage racial divide. Baltimore filmmaker, Theo Anthony alludes through the report of the infestation that the metropolis's layout is congenital on the back of these racial inequities.

37 / 50

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

- Director: Raoul Peck
- IMDb user rating: seven.viii
- Metascore: 95
- Runtime: 93 min

In the mid-1970s, James Baldwin produced an unfinished manuscript that became the basis of the motion-picture show "I Am Not Your Negro." The film relies heavily on what was left of Baldwin'due south written give-and-take to tell the story of America's racist history and its correlation to today'south racial, political climate.

38 / 50

O.J.: Fabricated in America (2016)

- Managing director: Ezra Edelman
- IMDb user rating: eight.9
- Metascore: data not available
- Runtime: 467 min

O.J. Simpson was arguably one of the about infamous names of the 1990s. Pieced together to make a v-part miniseries, "O.J.: Fabricated in America" is the story that recounts Simpson's trial and acquittal for the murders of Nicole Chocolate-brown Simpson and Ronald Lyle Goldman. A symbol of racial partition, Simpson'due south story left a long-lasting impact on American civilization.

39 / l

Loving (2016)

- Manager: Jeff Nichols
- IMDb user rating: vii.0
- Metascore: 79
- Runtime: 123 min

In 2016, the real-life interracial romance between Richard and Mildred Loving, a white man and a Black woman, was put on the big screen for all to encounter. In 1958, this romance was illegal and was challenged in the U.Due south. Supreme Court determination, Loving v. Virginia, which ultimately led to interracial laws being prohibited across the state.

forty / l

13th (2016)

- Manager: Ava DuVernay
- IMDb user rating: viii.two
- Metascore: 83
- Runtime: 100 min

Ava DuVernay tells another story in Black history, this time of the 13th Amendment (the abolishment of slavery) and how it marked the kickoff of a new blazon of slavery—the mass incarceration of Blackness Americans. The film focuses on the racially asymmetric numbers in American prisons and features interviews from prominent figures like Michelle Alexander, Angela Davis, and more than.

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41 / 50

Exit (2017)

- Director: Jordan Peele
- IMDb user rating: vii.7
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 104 min

"Go Out" follows a Black man (Chris) and his white girlfriend (Rose) as they travel to meet Rose's family unit for the commencement time. This moving-picture show has been critically praised for hitting numerous themes of modern America, including white liberalism, cultural appropriation, racism, racial bigotry in policing, and more.

42 / fifty

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (2017)

- Managing director: Travis Wilkerson
- IMDb user rating: 6.vii
- Metascore: 78
- Runtime: 90 min

"Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?" dives into the South during the 1940s equally a human being investigates the murder of a Black man by his racist, white great-grandfather. Incorporating scenes from "To Kill a Mockingbird," the film mirrors the club that allowed racial injustices and brutal murders to occur.

43 / 50

Strong Island (2017)

- Managing director: Yance Ford
- IMDb user rating: 6.4
- Metascore: 86
- Runtime: 107 min

Yance Ford documents the investigation into the murder of his brother, 24-twelvemonth-old William Ford Jr., in 1992. It is revealed that Ford was killed by a white man who was acquitted past an all-white jury. The film takes us through the heartbreak of a family who could non escape the racial injustices that plague Black families and their lives.

44 / 50

The Force (2017)

- Managing director: Peter Nicks
- IMDb user rating: 6.7
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 92 min

"The Force" highlights the demand for police force reform by the Oakland police department amid the events and protests in Ferguson, Missouri. The film addresses scandals caused by the law section and encourages constabulary accountability.

45 / 50

Mudbound (2017)

- Director: Dee Rees
- IMDb user rating: 7.4
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 134 min

In the midst of Jim Crow, a Black family struggles to build "the American dream" while working on a subcontract. This film'due south timeline is set in the post-World War Ii era, and the strict rules enforced on race relations of the fourth dimension are at the forefront of the moving-picture show, with classism, sexism, and bug surrounding PTSD lingering shut backside.

46 / 50

Hale County This Morning time, This Evening (2018)

- Director: RaMell Ross
- IMDb user rating: half dozen.3
- Metascore: 85
- Runtime: 76 min

Critics have described this avant-garde manner moving picture every bit "pure cinematic poesy." Ii Black men learn to live within the social constructs of society and explore Black people's deep-rooted history and culture. The film captures elements of life that stem from racial injustices placed on Black people.

47 / 50

Annapurna Releasing, LLC.

If Beale Street Could Talk (2018)

- Director: Barry Jenkins
- IMDb user rating: 7.1
- Metascore: 87
- Runtime: 119 min

Tish and Fonny's happily ever subsequently is shattered when Fonny, a Black man, is falsely accused of a crime he did not commit against a white woman. The film explores topics like housing discrimination, racial violence, and mass incarceration. The film questions justice for Black people who are pinned against a guild of systematic oppression.

48 / 50

Annapurna Releasing, LLC.

Sorry to Bother Yous (2018)

- Manager: Boots Riley
- IMDb user rating: 6.9
- Metascore: 80
- Runtime: 112 min

Lakeith Stanfield and Tessa Thompson make a dynamic duo in a film that studies Black in white, corporate spaces. Stanfield, whose character finally reaches a level of success in his career, must choose betwixt his friends and coworkers or his achievements. The flick takes a await at the double-edged sword that exists in the Black middle class.

49 / 50

The Hate U Give (2018)

- Director: George Tillman Jr.
- IMDb user rating: vii.4
- Metascore: 81
- Runtime: 133 min

"The Hate U Give" puts the audience in the shoes of a Black teenage girl named Starr Carter, who lives a double life attending a predominantly white private school. She is placed in the middle of protests and race riots later on her friend, a Black boy, is killed by police. The story implements the strong racial tensions of today.

50 / 50

Merely Mercy (2019)

- Manager: Destin Daniel Cretton
- IMDb user rating: 7.5
- Metascore: 68
- Runtime: 137 min

Based on a truthful story in 1989, "Merely Mercy" follows Bryan Stevenson, a law school graduate, who vows to defend Black inmates falsely sitting on death row. Stevenson, who experiences racial discrimination in the workplace himself, works incessantly to fight for the justice and freedom of Walter McMillian, a Black human being falsely accused of murdering a white adult female.

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