Racial Justice and Anti-racism Resources

Recommended by JS Filmmaker Ava DuVernay explores the history of racial inequality in the United States, focusing on the fact that the nation's prisons are disproportionately filled with African-Americans.

This PBS town hall meeting, moderated by PBS NEWSHOUR co-anchor and managing editor Gwen Ifill, explores events following Michael Brown's death in Ferguson, Missouri. The program, recorded before an audience on the campus of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, will include national leaders and prominent thinkers in the areas of law enforcement, race and civil rights, as well as government officials, faith leaders and youth. Distributed by PBS Distribution.

the first feature length documentary to explore the Black Panther Party, its significance to the broader American culture, its cultural and political awakening for black people, and the painful lessons wrought when a movement derails. Master documentarian Stanley Nelson goes straight to the source, weaving a treasure trove of rare archival footage with the voices of the people who were there: police, FBI informants, journalists, white supporters and detractors, and Black Panthers who remained loyal to the party and those who left it. Featuring Kathleen Cleaver, Elaine Brown, Emory Douglas, Jamal Joseph, and many others, it's an essential history and a vibrant chronicle of this pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America.

During the rise of The Black Power Movement in the '60s and '70s, Swedish television journalists documented the unfolding cultural revolution for their audience back home, having been granted unprecedented access to prominent leaders such as Angela Davis, Stokely Carmichael, and Black Panther Party founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Now, after more than 30 years in storage, this rarely seen footage spanning nearly a decade of Black Power is finally available. Director Göran Hugo Olsson presents this mixtape, highlighting key figures and events in the movement, as seen in a light completely different from the narrative of the American media at the time. Talib Kweli, Erykah Badu, Abiodun Oyewole, John Forte, and Robin Kelley are among the many important voices providing commentary, adding modern perspective to this essential time capsule of African-American history.

The story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park in 1989. The film chronicles The Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of these five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.

The powerful story of a group of Boston mothers who seek true justice for their sons' murders. For these women, justice is not about revenge or mass incarceration but about healing, accountability, and community peace. This documentary speaks to the practice and power of restorative justice. After the brutal slaying of her teenage son, Dorchester mother Janet Connors reached out to her son's killer to offer a chance for forgiveness. She lobbied the Department of Corrections for a year to become the first person in Massachusetts to hold a Victim-Offender Dialogue. The film opens a rare window into the reconciliation between a murderer and the survivor of his victim. This story is unique in that the perpetrator now works with Janet and other mothers to help prevent further violence. Their form of community-based restorative justice is a welcome alternative in a time when hate and retribution have become state-sanctioned. Circle up is a call to action for reframing approaches to crime and punishment through the lens of restorative justice, forgiveness, and accountability.

Incarcerated men and women at Eastern and Taconic Correctional facilities are admitted to the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI). When classes begin, they discover they must meet the same high standards as students on Bard College main campus.

In 1860, the nation founded upon an idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness had as many as four hundred thousand slave-owners and almost four million slaves. By denying these rights to more than twelve percent of its population, America would soon pay with the blood of a generation. The story of African Slavery in America started with the first permanent English Colony in the 17th century ... and ended with the Civil War. But those two hundred and fifty years of struggle were just the beginning..

Recommended by JS As kids, we all get advice from parents and teachers that seems strange, even confusing. This was crystallized one night for a young Clint Smith, who was playing with water guns in a dark parking lot with his white friends. In a heartfelt piece, the poet paints the scene of his father's furious and fearful response.

Recommended by JS An Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, this film explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends--Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript. Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and flood of rich archival material. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.

Recommended by JS In this animated interview, the sociologist Bruce Western explains the current inevitability of prison for certain demographics of young black men and how it's become a normal life event. "We've chosen the response of the deprivation of liberty for a historically aggrieved group, whose liberty in the United States was never firmly established to begin with," Western says.

Recommended by JS The United States incarcerates more people, in both absolute numbers and per capita, than any other nation in the world. Since 1970, the number of incarcerated people has increased sevenfold to 2.3 million in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime. Not everyone is treated equally in the criminal justice system. Racial bias keeps more people of color in prisons and on probation than ever before. One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys — compared with one of every 17 white boys. Black people are also subject to pretrial detention at a higher rate than white arrestees with similar charges and history. Here are the stories of three people whose experiences show the toll that an abusive and unjust criminal system takes on individuals, families, and communities.

Recommended by JS Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj is an American comedy streaming television talk show hosted by Hasan Minhaj that premiered on October 28, 2018, on Netflix and ran until June 28, 2020. It also had all the episodes, exclusives, and deep cuts on its YouTube channel with the same name.

On July 13, 2015, Sandra Bland was pulled by a Texas state trooper for failing to signal for changing lanes. After a conversation with the officer, Bland was arrested; three days later, she was found dead in her jail cell. Medical examiners ruled her death suicide by hanging, but her family—who were a part of the documentary's making—are doubtful. Say Her Name is yet another depiction of what an interaction with police can lead to for a Black individual.

Challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality. It was a system in which men, often guilty of no crime at all, were arrested, compelled to work without pay, repeatedly bought and sold, and coerced to do the bidding of masters.

Recommended by JS United Shades of America follows comedian and political provocateur W. Kamau Bell as he explores communities across America to understand the unique challenges they face.

Recommended by JS In 1982, at the height of anti-Japanese sentiments arising from massive layoffs in the auto industry, a Chinese-American named Vincent Chin was murdered in Detroit by two white autoworkers. Chin's killers, however, got off with a $3,000 fine and 3 years probation, but no jail time. Outraged by this injustice, Asian Americans around the country united for the first time across ethnic and socioeconomic lines to form a pan-Asian identity and civil rights movement. Among its significant outcomes, the movement led to the historic broadening of federal civil rights protection to include all people in America regardless of immigrant status or ethnicity. Vincent Who? explores this important legacy through interviews with the key players at the time as well as a whole new generation of activists whose lives were impacted by Vincent Chin. It also looks at the case in relation to the larger narrative of Asian American history, in such events as Chinese Exclusion, Japanese American Internment in WWII, the 1992 L.A. Riots, anti-Asian hate crimes, and post-9/11 racial profiling. Ultimately, Vincent Who? asks how far Asian Americans have come since the case and how far they have yet to go.

Recommended by JS White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise's bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen -- to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about.

Told by the activists and leaders who live and breathe this movement for justice, Whose Streets ? is an unflinching look at the Ferguson uprising. When unarmed teenager Michael Brown is killed by police and left lying in the street for hours, it marks a breaking point for the residents of St. Louis, Missouri. Grief, long-standing racial tensions and renewed anger bring residents together to hold vigil and protest this latest tragedy. Empowered parents, artists, and teachers from around the country come together as freedom fighters. As the National Guard descends on Ferguson with military grade weaponry, these young community members become the torchbearers of a new resistance.

Recommended by JS Historian Elizabeth Stordeur Pryor leads a thoughtful and history-backed examination of one of the most divisive words in the English language: the N-word. Drawing from personal experience, she explains how reflecting on our points of encounter with the word can help promote productive discussions and, ultimately, create a framework that reshapes education around the complicated history of racism in the US.

A sharp and funny comedy about a group of African-American students as they navigate campus life and racial boundaries at a predominately white college. A sly, provocative satire about being a Black face in a white place.

The true story of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who wakes up on the morning of December 31, 2008 and feels something in the air. Not sure what it is, he takes it as a sign to get a head start on his resolutions: Being a better son to his mother, being a better partner to his girlfriend, and being a better father to their beautiful four-year-old daughter. He starts out well, but as the day goes on, he realizes that change is not going to come easy. Filmmaker Ryan Coogler makes his feature directorial debut with this drama centered on the tragic shooting of Oscar Grant, a vibrant 22-year-old Bay Area father who was senselessly gunned down by BART officers on New Year's Day in 2009.

Starr Carter navigates the perilous waters between her poor, black neighborhood and her prestigious, mainly white private school. This all changes when she finds herself in the middle of racial activism after her best friend is shot by police officers, and she's forced to make a decision. Allow the media to skewer her friend to protect the status quo, or stand up and tell the truth in memory of Khalil?

A timeless love story set in early 1970s Harlem involving newly engaged nineteen-year- old Tish and her fiance Fonny who have a beautiful future ahead. But their plans are derailed when Fonny is arrested for a crime he did not commit. Now the pair and their families must fight for justice in the name of love and the promise of the American dream.

Recommended by JS Based on Alex Haley's best-selling novel about his African ancestors, Roots followed several generations in the lives of a slave family. The saga began with Kunta Kinte (LeVar Burton), a West African youth captured by slave raiders and shipped to America in the 1700s. The family's saga is depicted up until the Civil War where Kunte Kinte's grandson gained emancipation.

The unforgettable true story chronicles the tumultuous three-month period in 1965, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a dangerous campaign to secure equal voting rights in the face of violent opposition. The epic march from Selma to Montgomery culminated in President Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one of the most significant victories for the civil rights movement. Director Ava DuVernay's "Selma" tells the story of how the revered leader and visionary Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his brothers and sisters in the movement prompted change that forever altered history.

Recommended by JS An audio series on how slavery has transformed America, connecting past and present through the oldest form of storytelling.

Resommended by JS NPR's multi-racial, multi-generational team of journalists look into the overlapping themes of race, ethnicity and culture, how they play out across America.

Recommended by JS A long-running, nationally syndicated program dedicated to all facets of the African American experience. John Hanson profiles a diverse selection of current and historically significant figures whose stories help illuminate life in Black America. Guests include civil rights leaders, educators, artists, athletes and writers describing their experiences, achievements and work in chronicling and advancing the quality of African American life.

Recommended by JS Hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, an American civil rights advocate and a leading scholar of critical race theory.

Features movement voices, stories, and strategies for racial justice. Co-hosts Chevon and Hiba give their unique takes on race and pop culture, and uplift narratives of hope, struggle, and joy, as we continue to build the momentum needed to advance racial justice in our policies, institutions, and culture. Build on your racial justice lens and get inspired to drive action by learning from organizational leaders and community activists.

Recommended by JS Brittany Luse and Eric Eddings gleefully explore all the beautiful, complicated dimensions of Black life.

Organizer and activist DeRay Mckesson explores news, culture, social justice, and politics with fellow activists Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Sam Sinyangwe, and writer Dr. Clint Smith.

In Season 2, the Peabody-nominated Seeing White, John Biewen and collaborator Chenjerai Kumanyika explored the history and meaning of whiteness.