Subject Guides: Racial Inequities and Systemic Racism: Find Videos

Streaming Video from HCC Library Databases (full videos)

4 Little Girls
"In his documentary (and HBO) debut, renowned director/producer Spike Lee takes an in-depth look at one of America's most heinous crimes, a racially motivated bombing that may have been caused by -- and most definitely helped define -- the emerging civil-rights movement championed by Dr. Martin Luther King and others."
~[132]~~[133]~
"4 Little Girls is at once a moving human account by family members and friends of the four girls who perished in the September 15, 1963 bombing, as well as an important historical account of the forces that shaped race relations in Birmingham (called by King "the most thoroughly segregated city in the U.S.") and the nation in the 1960s."

This streaming video is available via Films on Demand. You will need your Owlnet username and password for off-campus access.
Anne Braden: Southern Patriot
"Anne Braden: Southern Patriot provides a moving, in-depth biography of an organizer and journalist who for a remarkable 60 years participated in the most significant movements for racial and economic justice in this country’s most conservative region - the South.
~[132]~~[133]~
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. praised her steadfast activism in support of civil rights and civil liberties, but she was threatened, attacked, indicted and labeled a 'Communist agitator' and 'race traitor' by white supremacists."

This streaming video is available via Alexander Street Press. You will need your Owlnet username and password for off-campus access.

The Office of Student Life also has a copy of this video.
Black Lives Matter
"In 2013 in Sanford, Florida, vigilante George Zimmerman was found not guilty of the murder of 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin. As a result, the struggle against police violence flared up under the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter and turned into one of the biggest grassroots movements in the United States. This film interviewed co-founder Patrisse Cullors about the various forms of violence against black citizens, and why resistance is essential."
February One
"In one remarkable day, four college freshmen changed the course of American history."
~[132]~~[133]~
"February One tells the inspiring story surrounding the 1960 Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins that revitalized the Civil Rights Movement and set an example of student militancy for the coming decade."

This streaming video is available via Alexander Street Press. You will need your Owlnet username and password for off-campus access.

The Office of Student Life also has a copy of this video.
Mr. Civil Rights: Thurgood Marshall and the NAACP
"Civil rights attorney Thurgood Marshall’s triumph in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision to desegregate America’s public schools completed the final leg of an heroic journey to end legal segregation."
~[132]~~[133]~
"For 20 years, during wartime and the Depression, Marshall had traveled hundreds of thousands of miles through the Jim Crow South of the United States, fighting segregation case by case, establishing precedent after precedent, all leading up to one of the most important legal decisions in American history."

This streaming video is available via Films On Demand. You will need your Owlnet username and password for off-campus access.

The Office of Student Life also has a copy of this video.
Reconstruction: America After the Civil War
Part 1 of a 4 part episode series. "Experience the aftermath of the Civil War—a bewildering, exhilarating, and terrifying time. African-Americans who had played a crucial role in the war now grappled with the terms and implications of Reconstruction and their hard-won freedom."
Roots: A History Revealed
"A one hour, unblinking, and fact-filled look at the real history of slavery, as revealed in Roots."
~[132]~~[133]~
"This documentary features leading historians unpacking the history behind Africa at the time of Kunte Kinte and the Middle Passage, slavery on plantations."

This streaming video is available via Alexander Street Press. You will need your Owlnet username and password for off-campus access.
True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality
"This feature documentary follows Bryan Stevenson – lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative – through his experiences as a capital defense attorney and advocate for community-based reform."
~[132]~~[133]~
"Interweaving watershed moments from Stevenson’s cases with insights from his clients, colleagues and members of his family, the film focuses on Stevenson’s life and career – particularly his indictment of the U.S. criminal-justice system for its role in codifying modern systemic racism – and tracks the intertwined histories of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration."

This streaming video is available via Films on Demand. You will need your Owlnet user name and password for off-campus access.

Videos Available from the Office of Student Life

PBS American Experience: Citizen King
"What came to be known as the "I Have A Dream" speech was a high point in the public career of Martin Luther King, Jr. But it was also a turning point in his personal life, as he embarked on a controversial, often lonely struggle to redefine and redirect the movement he had helped lead."

This link leads to the PBS website for the series, which includes video clips, timelines, and articles.
The Office of Student Life has a copy of the full video.
Standing on my Sisters' Shoulders
"In 1965, when three women walked into the US House of Representatives in Washington D.C., they had come a very long way. Neither lawyers nor politicians, they were ordinary women from Mississippi,and descendants of African slaves. They had come to their country’s capital seeking civil rights, the first black women to be allowed in the senate chambers in nearly 100 years. A missing chapter in our nation’s record of the Civil Rights movement, this powerful documentary reveals the movement in Mississippi in the 1950’s and 60’s from the point of view of the courageous women who lived it – and emerged as its grassroots leaders."

This links to the description & trailer for the documentary. The Office of Student Life has a copy of the full video.
HCC Library call # XE185.86.S73 2002

The Making of the King Holiday

"This inspiring program highlights the key moments and accomplishments in the life of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the popular movement that led to congressional legislation establishing a national King holiday."

Video available in the Office of Student Life

Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man

Online Videos

60 Years On, A Look Back at the Little Rock Nine
60 years ago, nine black students were escorted by federal troops into Little Rock, Arkansas' Central High School to integrate the school. Ernest Green, the first African American to graduate from Central, spoke to the AP about his experience.
Booker T. Washington - Mini Biography
The Danger of a Single Story - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
"Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding."
Desegregation of Harford County Public Schools: Janice Grant - Litigation Initiatives with Juanita Jackson Mitchell
Eyes on the Prize: Then and Now
A re-examination of the series, EYES ON THE PRIZE, from the filmmakers’ perspective, and viewpoint of civil rights activists then and now. This intergenerational dialogue takes the civil rights movement and places it under a microscope – revisiting, reframing and re-asking key questions while contextualizing those issues in a contemporary way.
First Mondays: Soundtrack for a Revolution
Filmmaker Dylan Nelson screens clips from the film "Soundtrack for a Revolution" followed by a discussion between Nelson and Heidi R. Lewis, professor of feminist and gender studies at Colorado College
It's Been Ten Days - Saquon Barkley @saquon
I Will Do Better - Drew Brees
Malcolm X - Mini Biography
Rackets Down Hands Up
"Rackets down hands up challenge from tennis players tribute to George Floyd"
Redlining's legacy: Maps are gone, but the problem hasn't disappeared
CBS documentary series about redlining and its impact on the Black community. "A 2008 video of Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg attributing the housing crash largely to "redlining" has thrust the term into the national conversation. Although redlining — a form of lending discrimination — has been outlawed for decades, its scars remain visible in many communities across the U.S., experts say."
Rosa Parks - Legacy
Warriors Don't Cry
Melba Pattillo Beals discussed her book, Warriors Don’t Cry, which details her experiences as part of the first integrated class of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In her book, the author recalls how she and eight other black teenagers integrated the school as a result of the Brown v. Board of Education segregation case decision. President Eisenhower had to enforce integration in the school with National Guard troops in September 1957.

DVDs to Check Out from the HCC Library

The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till ~[172]~ Keith A. Beauchamp
~[134]~: X E185.6 .U58653 2006
~[136]~: 2006
The film that helped reopen one of history's most notorious cold case civil rights murders is the result of the director's 10-year journey to uncover the truth. In August, 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley of Chicago sent her only child, Emmett Louis Till, to visit relatives in the Mississippi Delta. Little did she know that only 8 days later, Emmett would be abducted from his Great-Uncle's home, brutally beaten and murdered for one of the oldest Southern taboos : whistling at a white woman in public. It was Beauchamp's nine years of investigation, summarized in the film, that was primarily responsible for the Justice Department reopening the case.
Freedom riders [videorecording] / a film by Stanley Nelson ~[172]~ Stanley Nelson
~[134]~: X E185.61 .F74 2011
~[136]~: 2011
This inspirational documentary is about a band of courageous civil-rights activists calling themselves the Freedom Riders. Gaining impressive access to influential figures on both sides of the issue, it chronicles a chapter of American history that stands as an astonishing testament to the accomplishment of youth and what can result from the incredible combination of personal conviction and the courage to organize against all odds.

A copy of this video is also available from the Office of Student Life.
Selma ~[172]~ directed by Ava DuVernay ; written by Paul Webb ; produced by Christian Colson, Oprah Winfrey, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner ; Paramount Pictures, Pathé and Harpo Films present a Plan B, Cloud Eight Films, Harpo Films production in association with Ingenious Media.
~[134]~: X E185.97.K5 S456 2015
~[135]~: 032429212115
~[136]~: 2015

Videos available from HCPL

Kanopy at HCPL
Use your Harford County Public Library card to access Kanopy, a streaming film viewing experience.

The Office of Student Life recommends the following titles:

"Eyes on the Prize," the definitive story of the Civil Rights era from the point of view of the ordinary men and women whose extraordinary actions launched a movement.

"King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis" is a 1970 documentary film biography of Martin Luther King, Jr., and his creation and leadership of the nonviolent campaign for civil rights and economic justice.

"I Am Not Your Negro" envisions the book James Baldwin never finished--a radical narration about race in America using the author's original words as read by actor Samuel L. Jackson.