With the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King in January and Black History Month in February, films about the Civil Rights Movement began to trend.
Protests. Sit-ins. Police brutality. Voting rights. Refusal to back down. All in a marathon toward humanity. The Civil War was a benchmark of when people fought for change in America. It was one of the worst times in our country’s history. You would think we learned something from it. Yet, a century later, this country reached another boiling point about race.
The Civil Rights Movement may have been the pivotal point of the 1960s but consider that decade the uprising for civil rights. The “movement” began back in 1640 when people were brought to this free country–in chains. Then came 1776.
It’s no secret whenever the government creates change, it sticks about as long as marriage vows in Hollywood. The advent of the colonies becoming a country began with the Declaration of Independence. We have this sacred document brave men and women protect all it represents. Yet, there are clauses that centuries of ignorant troglodytes say certain people do not have what it takes to be given 100% of what this document reads.
You know? Those ham-handed sentiments in the Declaration of Independence like “all men are created equal,” government gibberish like “the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God entitle them,” and hogwash like “they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” Oh yes, don’t forget how that roll of legal writ toilet paper ends:
And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
If you aren’t a scholar of history or even someone who passed your 12th grade U.S. Government class, you may not realize that we were supposed to “mutually pledge to each other our lives, fortunes, and honor.” No qualifying term. No inherent definition. No room for wrong inference. Yet, before the ink was dry on the papyrus, it was clear that specific implications should have been understood.
As in, folks who don’t look like us get what we get. Well, if you haven’t been watching the news lately, the time to remove the powdered wigs is now. We are a nation of all people who deserve respect from all others. And to remind us of the bold strides many people more courageous than you or I took to ensure that we have these films.
Here are (arguably) the Top 10 Best films about the Civil Rights Movement.
10. Loving (2016)
Few people would want to become the near martyrs for humans committing to each other, but it is a pleasing coincidence that Richard and Mildred Loving were those who fought for the right to love despite the color of their skin. (Yes, that’s their real name.) Today, seeing an interracial couple is familiar—no shock or surprise. Sure, some random dolts want to stare, but that’s only because their genealogy isn’t based on a family tree–more like one long branch.
These were two people (played by Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga) from Virginia who fell in love and wanted to marry. Only their state had miscegenation laws, so they went to Washington D.C. when Mildred discovered she was pregnant. For their passion and commitment, they were arrested in Virginia, put on trial, and even banned from living in their home state. They could either run away or fight everyone who wouldn’t allow them to live as man and wife. These pioneers of what would become known as the Civil Rights Movement earned a unanimous decision from the U.S. Supreme Court to eradicate the last few segregation laws on the books.
All the trailer wonderfully exclaims: “Their love changed the world.” Amen to that.
9. Mississippi Burning (1988)
You may not have heard of the “Freedom Summer Murders,” but the Civil Rights Movement may not have come to fruition without the tragedy of what happened in June 1964. Some young activists–two white and one Black–were attempting to register Black people in the South despite the threats of the KKK. Following a series of peculiar events, the KKK set a trap on a rural highway in Meridian, Mississippi. Their blue station wagon was torched, and the bodies disappeared. The case was a federal label “MIBURN” for Mississippi Burning.
Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe played two bold FBI agents who travel through a place that time seemed to forget for justice of three people no one ever should. This movie is important and influential because it shows people receiving justice during the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. Also, it shows that even ghosts come back to haunt the wicked. This happened, and the outcry was enough even to exorcise the “ghosts of Mississippi.” (Yes, that was a pun because of No. 5.)
8. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967)
You may be thinking, “Wait. This movie isn’t about the Civil Rights Movement.” Guess again. It was made during the Civil Rights Movement about interracial relationships. When people are fighting over how someone looks, this movie sat bigots on their sanctimonious asses and made them pay attention. Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy, and Katherine Hepburn are Hollywood royalty, so who better tell this story?
One of the most poignant lines in this film came from Poitier while speaking to his father, who has a problem with his son being engaged to a white girl (again, in 1967), “Dad, you still think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man.” And yet, it has taken these many years later for folk to cool out on the labels finally. This movie was essential to the mission of why people marched, sat, protested, and shouted for freedom. When you see that quote happen, you will realize the movie still is today.
7. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Yes, if you went to public school, you probably had to read this novel by Harper Lee. And you know what? It would help if you were wholly thankful. Likewise, this movie should be a mandatory watch at least once during the year, and February couldn’t be a better time. One other note: If you know anyone who desires to be a thespian, Gregory Peck, as Atticus Finch (still a badass name) is one of the most remarkable heroes in cinematic history. He champions an unfairly charged Black man accused of a crime against a White woman.
Even Harper Lee thought so: “When he played Atticus Finch, he had played himself, and time had told all of us something more: when he played himself, he touched the world.” This quote was so memorable that Peck’s co-star, Brock Peters, who played Tom Robinson, shared it during Peck’s funeral.
Although it’s a little white girl’s perspective on Black America (Scout), let’s not forget this movie was made in 1962. One year later, Medgar Evers would be assassinated. This was an important book that made an essential movie during one of the most critical times in U.S. history. Lee won the Pulitzer Prize. Peck won an Oscar for best actor. Horton Foote won an Oscar for best-adapted screenplay. And every person who has read the book, seen the movie, or both have not walked away without understanding the double standard that has lasted too long in America.
6. 12 Years a Slave (2018)
And speaking of mammoth performances, Chiwetel Ejiofor delivers just that in this wonderful film directed by Steve McQueen. He plays a real-life free man from upstate New York in 1841, Solomon Northup. He enjoyed civil liberties like anyone, until he was kidnapped away from his family for a price in the Antebellum South one day. Imagine that? One day, you’re free. The next? You’re property. And that heinous plight is depicted horrifyingly unforgettable–if that can be a thing.
Ejiofor had help in this Oscar-winning film from the magnetic Michael Fassbender (see what I did there), and the fabulous Sarah Paulson were sardonic individuals. And we can trust, slave owners acted even worse then. This is a movie that sticks with you after you reach for the remote and turn the T.V. off. People lived–and died–like this. The abuse is uncomfortable. The violence is squeamish. And the visage we are given about the South makes most people who live there today (present company included) a little ashamed.
This is a difficult but necessary watch to make you understand why the Civil Rights Movement was so critical for humankind.
5. Ghosts of Mississippi (1997)
This movie is easily one of Rob Reiner‘s most underrated films. Everyone loves to bring up the memories some of his more playful movies conjure, such as Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, and When Harry Met Sally. But it seems a little of Norman Lear’s magic for tackling difficult subject matter because this film about the courageous, three-decade battle of Myrlie Evers is nothing short of masterful storytelling. (FYI, Rob Reiner was “Meathead” in the pioneering 1970s sitcom All in the Family.)
The acting of Whoopi Goldberg as the wife of the slain Civil Rights leader, Medgar Evers, is haunting. If you have seen Myrlie Evers in old news footage, you’d know. Alec Baldwin is surprisingly convincing as Jackson ADA Bobby DeLaughter. And James Woods becomes every bit of that lowdown White Supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. If you don’t already have a problem with him as a person, you will hate his guts in this movie. In June 1963, Beckwith shot Evers in the back as he pulled into his home driveway. Evers’ home in Jackson, Mississippi is a museum today. In fact, the assassination was shot at that home–talk about the “Ghosts of Mississippi” haunting the film.
And in line with biopics, this movie is a fascinating tale of truism. As a matter of coincidence, you’ll see Myrlie and Medgar’s children as adults in the film. The eldest daughter, Reena, is played by Yolanda King. (Yes, that King.) Do yourself a favor and see this movie.
4. Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)
“You hear nothing, you see nothing. You only serve.” These are the words we’re reminded of through the eyes and memories of real-life inspiration Cecil Gaines (Forest Whitaker), a White House butler who served eight American presidents over 30 years. As he lives and serves, Gaines still fights and stands against the tyrants of racism and bigotry. Lee Daniels directed Precious with triumph, but this movie is a rich standing ovation. Oprah Winfrey plays his proud dedicated wife, Gloria Gaines, and leads a star-studded cast including the late, great Robin Williams, David Oyelowo, Terrence Howard, and Jane Fonda.
The term “servant leadership” is a popular moniker from motivational speakers but what Whitaker shows in Gaines’ life is living it through some of the most agonizing times in American history. From the depths of a cotton field to the heart of the White House, this is a story of a man who lived it all from the shadows. However, that’s the thing about living in the shadows–to cast one, there must be a powerful light shining on you.
The Butler proves that light in a blinding fashion.
3. Remember the Titans (2000)
Oh, Appalachia. What used to be the thriving, ass-backward region of bowling pins. You know? Big, white bellies and tall “red necks.” Virginia and Mississippi were two of the most rigid states in the Union. Another film that depicts how one state can keep the South alive is high school football coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington). It was 1971, and Virginia lawmakers and school board members were forced to integrate an all-white school with an all-black school.
Football was religion in Virginia then (and still is throughout the South today), so integrating a high school football team was sacrilege. The students, the coaches, the city of Alexandria all had a problem with this integrated team. Then, something interesting happened. The students and coaches became a galvanized team. From them came a unified vision of what could happen if prejudice is set aside and peace for humanity prevails. And if you don’t get the feels watching this movie, check your pulse. You are missing a heart.
2. Selma (2014)
When people went to the theaters to see this landmark film, the universal question was, “What the hell took Hollywood so long to give us a good movie with MLK?!” No one knows, and after David Oyelowo‘s portrayal as the slain civil rights leader, no one cares. This film was masterfully done because it handpicks a section of his life, one of the most historic — the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, across the Edmund Pettis Bridge.
For three specific months, Dr. King and the late Sen. John Lewis led a group of bold and courageous people straight into the crosshairs of a bigoted police force. On that day in March 1965, now known as “Bloody Sunday,” 600 protestors were mauled by dogs, chewed up by dogs, and beaten by police officers because they wanted to vote like white Americans. The only thing White (Hooded) America didn’t count on was how the story would affect the rest of us. When witnessed on national T.V., most importantly, by President Lyndon B. Johnson, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was as good as signed and sealed.
If you need a jolt of red, white, and blue mixed with a monstrous dose of Black and proud, Selma could be watched on a loop all month long.
P.S. Ava DuVernay is a force of nature. And we were robbed by WarnerMedia and D.C. Films that she didn’t get to present Jack Kirby’s other vision of “New Gods.” (He created “Eternals,” too.)
1. Malcolm X (1992)
Conspiracy theorist or not. Aware of Islam or not. Even a scholar of the Civil Rights Movement or not. Denzel Washington as Malcolm Little / El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz is a testament to storytelling and possessing your role. Make no mistake: Denzel was Malcolm X. There are moments in this film when Daniel Day-Lewis would marvel at that kind of method-acting. Three acts and all three were worthy of an Oscar.
When we first see Malcolm, we trek with him into this life of crime. He is perplexed about who he should be the entire time, up until he tries to trick West Indian Archie (the fantastic Delroy Lindo) out of $600. Prison life was the caterpillar’s metamorphosis into the butterfly he was meant to be. He turns to Allah, comes face-to-face with his inspiration, and follows his mentor into the streets of Harlem, proselytizing to any Black person he was privileged enough to find. This was some of Washington’s best work when he clones Malcolm X. Then, he faces betrayal, makes his pilgrimage, and theorists prevail in the third act. The Black Nationalist Leader fought for freedom for his family and his faith. And the assassination is raw with Betty Shabazz (the incomparable Angela Bassett) wailing. That happened. Whatever you think of how that happened — taken from this planet way too soon.
According to the screenplay taken from the award-winning biography from Alex Haley, the demons came from within when the NOI leader was slain in the Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 (now known as Malcolm X Day). Regardless of where you stand at the ending of the film, no one was sitting during the Spike Lee signature end of “I Am Malcolm X,” featuring an appearance of Nelson Mandela. The thing still gives out chills.
Only Lee could make this film. And only Washington could have performed it. This was a tour de force of storytelling and should become mandatory viewing every year as we are reminded of Black history and the Civil Rights Movement. It’s that spectacular and depicts a grim reality of how the struggle still is real.
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Since he saw ‘Dune’ in the $1 movie theater as a kid, this guy has been a lover of geek culture. It wasn’t until he became a professional copywriter, ghostwriter, and speechwriter that he began to write about it (a lot).
From the gravitas of the Sith, the genius of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, or the gluttony of today’s comic fan, SPW digs intelligent debate about entertainment. He’s also addicted to listicles, storytelling, useless trivia, and the Oxford comma. And, he prefers his puns intended.