The civil rights movement took center stage during the ’50s and ’60s, but the fight for better equality and equity is continued by many today. With Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. Day coming up, now is the perfect time of year to reflect on the civil rights movement, how the United States has changed, what it still needs to accomplish, and how it might look in the future. Cinematic mediums offer a chance to see history from a new or different perspective and relate to characters from the past in a way which can’t be experienced in a textbook. Here are five great films that advocate for civil rights.
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6 Remember the Titans
Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
To some people, there is nothing more American than American football. At least that was true of Alexandria, Virginia during the early ’70s. In Remember the Titans, Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) becomes head coach of one of Virginia’s first integrated high school football teams. Because of the local political climate, if Boone ever loses a game, the school board will fire him. With these high stakes, Boone must teach his team to work together and overcome their racial prejudices.
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY
As the movie changes back and forth between the coaches’ perspectives and the players’ points of view, we get to see racial tension across generations and the unique challenges each group faces across the divide of history. The inspiring journey of this football team tugs at the heart strings of all audiences, regardless of previous interest in football (or lack thereof).
5 12 Years a Slave
Fox Searchlight Pictures
12 Years a Slave takes viewers back to 1841 when slavery was still legal in the United States, and is based on the biography of Solomon Northup. Northup lived freely in New York, but was kidnaped away from his wife and children and sold into southern slavery. Audiences follow him on a journey to fight against oppression, maintain dignity, attempt escape, and return to a life of freedom.
The film shows extreme racism at its absolute worst, embodied in earth-shattering and disgustingly accurate performances from people like Michael Fassbender and Sarah Paulson. As Northup makes multiple escape attempts, audiences get to see different plantations and a wide range of attitudes and abuse toward slaves. This film isn’t as light-hearted as many of the others on our list. It is a sobering picture from the brilliant Steve McQueen, with eye-opening scenes about slavery. The heart-wrenching story, made even more impactful by its basis on real life events, is a historical piece everyone in America should watch at least once.
4 Hidden Figures
20th Century Fox
Hidden Figures highlights three black women working for NASA in the early 1940s. They work as essentially human calculators on the ground-breaking team working to launch astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Although each one of these women is brilliant, they face racial prejudice and gender discrimination from both their coworkers and their neighbors.
Hidden Figures tackles two pressing social issues for the price of one. It highlights the strength of women in a male-dominated field, and the importance of racial diversity (especially in science and government). The film was nominated for three Academy Awards including Best Picture in 2017. A killer soundtrack, witty dialogue, and stellar performances by Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae all complete the inspiring narrative. This is a movie that knows when to be playful and when to be serious, and it does both successfully.
3 Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner
Columbia Pictures
Sidney Poitier may have recently passed, but he leaves behind an incredible legacy with films like this one. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner tells one of the greatest love stories of all time, which also happens to be interracial. Johanna Drayton (Katharine Houghton), a white woman, brings her fiancé, a Black doctor named John (Poitier), to meet her parents. Matt Drayton (Spencer Tracy) and his wife Christina (Katherine Hepburn) are shocked by the daughter’s news, but the liberal thinkers that raised their daughter without racial prejudice are more surprised to discover their own closed minds. When John announces that he will not marry Johanna without her parents’ approval, Matt and Christina are forced to weigh their personal hesitations against their daughter’s happiness.
Guess Who’s coming to Dinnergives audiences a look at the everyday prejudices that can subtly creep in without people being fully aware of them. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn’s performances phenomenally embody the inner conflict their characters face. Not all civil rights battles end in large-scale protests in the streets; most of the time, they’re waged at home. The movie gives an example of an everyday family that claims to be inclusive, but has their values put to the test. It is a reminder of the impact each individual has in shaping society.
2 Selma
Paramount Pictures
Martin Luther King Jr. is a household name for good reason. Few people did more for civil rights than this man who literally gave his life to the cause. Selma highlights one moment in history which helped define Marin Luther King Jr. and his tireless effort toward change for good. Although the south was legally desegregated, racial prejudices still made it difficult for Black people to vote in the early ’60s. On March 7, 1965, MLK led a peaceful protest march which was met with violence from local law enforcement.
This historical drama depicts one of the most famous events during the civil rights movement. With a great performance from David Oyelowo and excellent direction from Ava DuVernay, the film is full of powerful emotion and fascinating historical details. According to a study done by Information is Beautiful, Selma is 100 percent accurate (to an almost painfully honest degree), making this film the most historically realistic on this list.
1 To Kill a Mockingbird
Universal
Though To Kill a Mockingbird was first released in 1962 from an even earlier novel, the movie has withstood the test of time. Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck) is a lawyer who believes that everyone deserves equal representation. When he receives an assignment to defend a black man accused of raping a white girl, his family learns about racism up close and personally.
To Kill a Mockingbirdwas among the earliest movies to tackle racial prejudice, and it successfully set a high standard. This film still has a 93% certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the ‘critics consensus’ perfectly summarizing why this movie is so powerful, calling it “a textbook example of a message movie done right–sober minded and earnest, but never letting its social conscience get in the way of a gripping drama.” This movie is too good to forget, and its story never should be, which is why it still tops lists 60 years after its release.
