12 Must See Black History Movies

Black History Movies

Decades of struggle and hardship paid off when United States elected a black president. It is still too early to say that discrimination has been completely abolished from U.S as different races are being targeted instead of blacks. The blacks who used to be traded to western countries and kept as slaves are now seen as the equal member of the white society. In the past it was not an easy thing to depict black experience without getting banned and barred. Still many writers stood up to shed light on the matter through the medium of books, for instance, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. With the passage of time the relentless struggle of those African Americans, to be accepted in the society and seen as equals, came to be captured by the several silver screen productions of Hollywood. The following mentioned must-watch black history movies highlight their role in the American history and presents tribute to their hardships and perseverance.

Driving Miss Daisy
Driving Miss Daisy
In 1989 a film titled, Driving Miss Daisy was released starring the celebrated black actor Morgan Freeman. The movie brings to light the mid-twentieth century Southern prejudices. Also elucidating that race and religion can go beyond these trivial matters of color and creed and help overcome it. The lead character seventy-two year old Daisy hires a black driver and during her travel she gets to know about the life of a victim of overtly prejudiced and discriminatory society of hers. The resolution of the film shows the dawn of a new beginning as Daisy attends Martin Luther King Jr. speech.

Gone with the Wind
Gone with the Wind
One of the cinema’s classic epic-historical-romance Gone with the Wind (1939), is a narrative of impact of Civil War and the reconstructive period in Southern America. Similar to other films released during this period, this movie portrays the staunch racism rampant in the Southern States. The film also marks the first black actor, Hattie McDaniel, to win an Oscar for her performance. However, she was barred from attending premiere of her own film due to notorious Jim Crowe’s laws, who was an unrelenting supporter of prejudice against blacks.

The Butler
The Butler
In recent times Lee Daniel’s epic cinematic masterpiece, The Butler, got released. Forest Whitaker in the lead illustrates the character of a real life person Eugene Allen, who served the job of a black butler for generations of elected presidents of United States. Whitaker flawlessly plays the role of an eye-witness to ups and downs in American politics that shaped the future of black population. Moreover, the film realistically captures his personal struggle and his place in all this.

Ray
Ray
Besides representing African-Americans in only political and socially prejudiced context, some films also depict the prodigious side of them, for instance, the biopic of musical genius Ray Charles entitled, Ray (2004). The titular character is played by Jamie Foxx, who won an Academy Award for his spectacular performance in the said role. Ray was not just a musical artist but a prodigy who revolutionized the music scene and left a huge legacy of gospel, country, jazz and orchestral work. Additionally, he fought for the rights for his black fellow musician to come out of the shadows and embrace their musical heritage.

The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Another famed biopic that graced the small screen, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, was an adaptation of Ernest J. Gaines’s publication. Cicely Tyson is lauded for playing the title character who is shown to be born in the slavery in the Southern state and subjected to innumerable hardships as a black woman. Her unabated believe in freedom renders her to live to see the day when she becomes the part of the Civil Rights Movement.

The Color Purple
The Color Purple
Based on Alice Walker’s book, Steven Spielberg adapted The Color Purple to the silver screen. It narrates a heart-wrenching tale of Celie Johnson’s youth in the early twentieth-century. The movie captures the trial and tribulation that the central character suffered throughout her life while simultaneously shedding light on the predicaments of black women in general.

Malcolm X
Malcolm X
American cinema is teeming with the films that portrayed controversial American figures. It may not come as a surprise that such films based on African-American figures are few and far between. Nonetheless, the valiant and industrious filmmaker Spike Lee lent hand to this staggeringly monumental task, Malcolm X. The biopic is based on the most influential Muslim African Americans who passionately and incessantly fought for the civil rights. The film illustrates his entire life from his sordid youth to stoic adulthood.

Ali
Ali
The list of epic autobiographical movie adaptations is incomplete without this larger than life athlete and political activist figure, Ali. Michael Mann starred Will Smith as the title character in his film that effortlessly captures the struggle of the athlete through his youth and also engulfs certain figures who surrounded and influenced Muhammad Ali.

A Time to Kill
A Time to Kill
Joel Schumacher the famed director takes his audience on a brutal and a gut-wrenching ride with his film, A Time to Kill. The movie dramatizes the real-life injustices held against the African Americans women in modern day America. Sandra Bullock playing the lead as a young lawyer defends a black man (Morgan Freeman), who is accused of allegedly killing two white men who violated his young daughter. The film also highlights the rebirth of a heinous terrorist organization called Ku Klux Klan which is still very much alive in the present day America.

The Help
The Help
Most of these films portraying the black history are based on the books. In 2009 Kathryn Stockett published a novel, The Help, which was soon adapted into a motion picture. It demonstrates the socially prejudiced Southern society through the black maids’ perspective. Set in 1963, the film stars Emma Stone as a white journalist, who explores the world of black domestic help for her book that would help her gain a prestigious job opportunity.

Glory
Glory
Another must see adaptation is Ed Zwick’s Glory, presenting a heartfelt tribute to the unsung heroes of the Civil War. The adaptation is based on the memoirs of Col. Robert Gould Shaw. Additionally, it encapsulates the rise of a black laborer to a respected commander of all-black 54th regiment and a beautiful formation of bond between black and white soldiers.

To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird
The final installment in this list of great black history films is the aforementioned classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. The American cinema has never seen a film quite like it told from a child’s perspective. The lead character Atticus Finch, a white lawyer displays great courage in defending a black man who is wrongly accused of violating white trash. The film hardly narrates much about blacks in particular but what it does reveal through a child’s eyes is the Southern double standards that is thought-provoking idea and speaks volumes about injustice done against blacks.

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