Race and Racism in the United States

2012 | 119 min | PBS
This Peabody Award winning film chronicles the 1989 Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of the five black and Latino teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice. dir: Ken Burns

2016 | 94 min | Kino Lorber
In 1979, James Baldwin began a project that he never finished: a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and assassinations of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Raoul Peck envisions Baldwin's book in this radical & timely examination of race in America.

2003 | 58min per ep. | Calif. Newsreel
What's this thing we call race? Millions have used this award-winning series to scrutinize their own beliefs about race and explore how our social divisions are not natural or inevitable, but made.
Ep. 1: The Difference Between Us
Ep. 2: The Story We Tell
Ep. 3: The House We Live In

2013 | 69 min | Media Ed. Foundation
A stunning reassessment of any claims that America is now a post-racial meritocracy. Examines race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, arguing that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy perpetuates racial inequality & political resentments.

2017 | 99 min | Gunpowder & Sky
This acclaimed documentary follows "WeCopwatch", an organization dedicated to filming the police. Its members captured the original videos of the deaths of Eric Garner in Staten Island and Freddie Gray in Baltimore that ignited the entire nation.

1997 | 102 min | HBO Studios
When a bomb tears through the basement of the 16th St Baptist in Birmingham on Sept. 15, 1963, it takes the lives of four young girls. This racially motivated crime sparks the nation's outrage and helps fuel the civil rights movement sweeping across the country. Prod. & Dir. by Spike Lee.

2014 | 57 min | PBS
Moderated by NEWSHOUR;s Gwen Ifill. Explores events following Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. Recorded on the campus of UMSL. Includes national leaders & prominent thinkers in the areas of law enforcement, race & civil rights, as well as gov. officials, faith leaders and youth.

2012 | 69 min | Collective Eye
Explores the intersection of race and poverty within the criminal justice system. Through interviews with people caught up in or involved with the system, this film answers and provokes questions on issues walled-off from public scrutiny.

2017 | 116 min | PBS
This film documents the increasingly common conversation taking place in homes across the country between parents of color and their children, especially sons, about how to behave if they are ever stopped by the police.

2011 | 96 min | IFC
In the '60s-'70s, Swedish TV journalists documented the rise of the Black Power Movement and were granted unprecedented access to leaders such as Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and Black Panthers founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. This never-before-seen footage shows the figures and events of the movement in a completely different light than U.S. media at the time.

2018 | 103 | HBO
This documentary examines the 2015 police custody death of Sandra Bland in depth, revealing previously unknown details. The film follows the Bland family and legal team from the first weeks after her death as they try to find out what really happened in that Texas jail cell. Embedded with the family and their lawyers, the filmmakers tracked the story for two years, drawing on key documents, jail footage and interviews with those closest to the events.

2015 | 43 min | First Run Features
This dynamic documentary explores why so many unarmed people of color have been shot and killed by police officers. Police officers, legal experts, local activists all weigh in in this timely documentary, delving into ongoing charges of inequality, unfair practices, and politicized manipulations of America's judicial system. An essential and balanced addition to the ongoing discussion about violence, reform and renewal.

2016 | 54 min | PBS This Frontline documentary is a provocative journey inside one police force that's been ordered to reform by the Department of Justice: the Newark Police Department in New Jersey. A nuanced glimpse into how topics in the national discussion about race and policing are playing out every day on the streets of Newark, in community members' homes, and in the city's police precincts.

2018 | 108 min | Gravitas
What really happened on August 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri? That afternoon, Officer Darren Wilson killed 18-year-old Michael Brown. 'STRANGER FRUIT' is the unraveling of what took place, told through the eyes of Mike Brown's family.

Official Selection at the SXSW Film Festival.

2017 | 74 min | MVD Ent. Group
This documentary closely examines the rust-belt city of Cleveland, one of the most racially divided American cities in the wake of the police murder of Tamir Rice. Follows ordinary people - long shaken by police misconduct, social discrimination, and poverty - whose love for their home pushes them to work together to bring about real change.

2018 | 31min | HBO Documentary Shorts
Focuses on the story of Breaion King, a 26-year-old African-American schoolteacher from Austin, Texas, who was stopped in 2015 for a routine traffic violation - an encounter that escalated into a dramatic and violent arrest. Footage from the disturbing incident is juxtaposed with scenes from Breaion's everyday life as a teacher and dancer, offering a fuller portrait of the woman who now struggles to make sense of her clash with law enforcement.

1986 | 57 min x 14 episodes | PBS
Through contemporary interviews and historical footage, EYES ON THE PRIZE traces the civil rights movement from the Montgomery bus boycott to the Voting Rights Act; from early acts of individual courage through the flowering of a mass movement and its eventual split into factions. Julian Bond, political leader and civil rights activist, narrates.

2011 | 26 min | Video Project

This Oscar-nominated short tells the larger history and impact of the civil and voting rights movement through the personal journey of of 85 year-old barber and life-long civil rights activist James Armstrong. Armstrong's Barbershop was a cultural and political hub in Birmingham, AL, for more than 50 years.

2016 | 113 min x 2 episodes | PBS
Jack Roosevelt Robinson rose from humble origins to cross baseball's color line and become one of the most beloved men in America. A fierce integrationist, Robinson used his immense fame to speak out against the discrimination he saw on and off the field, angering fans, the press, and even teammates who had once celebrated him for "turning the other cheek" ...

1997 | 49 min | New Day Films
Takes a critical look at the long-running practice of "honoring" American Indians as mascots and nicknames in sports. It follows the story of Native American activist Charlene Teters as she struggles to protect her cultural symbols and identity. The doc looks at the issues of racism, stereotypes, minority representation, and the extent to which one university will go to defend and justify its mascot.

2010 | 62 min | Media Educ. Foundation
In a fascinating tour of the good, the bad, and the ugly of American sports culture, this documentary explores how American sports--long at the centre of major political debates & struggles of our time--have glamorized militarism, racism, sexism, and homophobia. It then excavates a largely forgotten history of rebel athletes who stood up to power and fought for social justice beyond the field of play.

1991 | 81 mins | California Newsreel
Revisits some of TVs most popular stars and shows, including Amos and Andy, The Nat King Cole Show, I Spy, Julia, Good Times, Roots, Frank's Place and The Cosby Show but compels us to look at these familiar favorites in a new way. The result is a stunning examination of the interplay between America's racial consciousness and network primetime programming.

Kanopy is a streaming video platform with a great collection of important films, docs, and educational programming. Interface is similar to Netflix.
Support page covers how to: Set up a Kanopy account with your UA credentials, install the Kanopy app on your home streaming devices, search & navigate, make playlists, etc.

SWANK is a platform that provides videos requested for classroom use, so the available titles change every semester. The FAQ page helps with setup, encryption troubleshooting, and device / app access.