Social Justice Team: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2021 - Streaming Video Display

For Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2021, the Campus Library Social Justice Team created a virtual display to highlight streaming videos in our collections. Broadly, the videos touch on themes related to fights for racial and social justice in the United States since the mid-20th century. More specifically, we have grouped the videos by their specific themes to enable "browsing" across this display.

Related Resource: QTPOC Film Canon by Psychology & Sociology Librarian Michael Mungin

Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s

All Power to the People!
"Opening with a montage of four hundred years of race injustice in America, this powerful documentary provides the historical context for the establishment of the 60s civil rights movement. Rare clips of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton and other activists transport one back to those tumultuous times."
At the River I Stand
"Documentary of two 1968 events in the civil rights movement-- the sanitation workers strike in Memphis, Tennessee and the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Shows how the black community, local civil rights leaders, and AFSCME mobilized behind the strikers in mass demonstrations and a boycott of downtown businesses."
I am Not Your Negro
"Using James Baldwin's unfinished final manuscript, Remember This House, this documentary follows the lives and successive assassinations of three of the author's friends, Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., delving into the legacy of these iconic figures and narrating historic events using Baldwin's original words and a flood of rich archival material."

BIPOC & LGBTQ Communities

Arc of justice : the rise, fall and rebirth of a beloved community
"This film traces the remarkable journey of New Communities, Inc. and the struggle for racial justice and economic empowerment among African Americans in southwest Georgia. NCI was created in 1969 in Albany, Georgia by leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, including Congressman John Lewis, and Charles and Shirley Sherrod, to help secure economic independence for African American families."
Check It
"A documentary about gay and trans teens in Washington D.C. who form a gang to protect each other."
I am a Man
"This award-winning documentary links everyday black men from various socioeconomic backgrounds with some of Black America's most progressive academics, social critics and authors to provide an engaging, candid dialogue on black masculine identity in American culture."
Streets of dreams: development without displacement in communities of color
"Presents portraits of grassroots activists in communities of color who are using a community land trust (CLT) to preserve affordable housing and promote development without the displacement of longtime residents."

Voting Rights & Voter Suppression

Rigged: the voter suppression playbook
"America’s democracy is threatened. Narrated by Jeffrey Wright, Rigged tells the story of how the principle of "one person, one vote" is being compromised, and how American citizens are fighting back."
Selma: the bridge to the ballot
"The story of a courageous group of Alabama students and teachers who, along with other activists, fought a nonviolent battle to win voting rights for African Americans in the South. Standing in their way: a century of Jim Crow, a resistant and segregationist state, and a federal government slow to fully embrace equality. By organizing and marching bravely in the face of intimidation, violence, arrest and even murder, these change-makers achieved one of the most significant victories in the civil rights era."

Police Violence

Every Mother's Son
"Story of three mothers, Iris Baez, Kadiatou Diallo, and Doris Busch Boskey, fighting for justice for their sons, Anthony Raymond Baez, Amadou Diallo, and Gary (Gidone) Busch. All three men were killed by police."

Civil Rights Actions and Injustices in the 21st Century

Whose Streets?
"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."
America after Charleston
"This new PBS town hall meeting, moderated by Gwen Ifill, explores the many issues around race relations that have come to the fore during this tense few months in 2015, after a white gunman shot and killed nine African-American parishioners in Charleston, South Carolina, and the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds that followed."
I am a Man
"This award-winning documentary links everyday black men from various socioeconomic backgrounds with some of Black America's most progressive academics, social critics and authors to provide an engaging, candid dialogue on black masculine identity in American culture. Featuring interviews with bell hooks, Michael Eric Dyson, John Henrick Clarke, Dr. Alvin Poussaint, MC Hammer, and others."
13th
This film explores the exploitation of the 13th amendment to continue the inhumane legacy of slavery in the United States. By examining incarceration rates and historical events of the late 20th century, the viewer understands that the American way of incarcerating people of color is not an accident, but by design.

History of Racism in the United States

40 Years Later: Our People
"In the 40 Years since the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., how far have African Americans advanced in American society? This film touches on the socioeconomic status of Blacks in America, the election of Barack Obama and explores the question 'does racism still exist?'"
Ida B. Wells: A Passion For Justice
"Documents the dramatic life and turbulent times of the pioneering African American journalist, activist, suffragist and anti-lynching crusader of the post-Reconstruction period."
The Central Park Five
"The Central Park five, a new film from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells 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."

Video Collections and DVDs

The below DVDs may be checked out from the UW Bothell/Cascadia College Campus Library using our Contact-Free Pickup Service.

Let freedom sing: how music inspired the civil rights movement
"One of the most powerful movements in American history is told through the singers and songwriters who fought for change with their music."
Citizen King: 1963-1968
"This story begins on the steps on the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 when a 34-year-old preacher galvanized millions with his dream for an America free of racism. It comes to a bloody end almost five years later on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. In the years since those events unfolded, the man at the center, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., has become a mythic figure, a minister whose oratory is etched into the minds of millions of Americans, a civil rights activist whose words and image are more hotly contested, negotiated and sold than almost anyone else's in American history."
Alexander Street Press: Black Studies in Video