It’s MLK Weekend, which means a lot of folks get to enjoy a three-day weekend. If you are using this time to get in more streaming, make sure to add some of these documentaries that speak upon race in America, the Civil Rights Movement, and the lasting legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to your queue.
13th
Legendary director Ava DuVernay explores the “intersection between race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States,” in this award-winning documentary that is titled after the 13th amendment. Although the United States ended involuntary servitude except as a punishment for the conviction of a crime. 13th contends slavery didn’t end after the Civil War because policies that enabled the criminalizing of behavior allowed police to arrest poor freedmen and force them to work for the state under convict leasing. By the late 20th century, mass incarceration was disproportionately affecting minority communities, especially Black ones.
30 for 30: Ghosts of Ole Miss
No matter what naysayers may say, race is at the epicenter of sports in America because race influences everything. Ghosts of Ole Miss revisits when the University of Mississippi football team went undefeated in the midst of racial upheaval on campus. In the Fall of 1962, James Meredith also made history when he walked onto the campus and became the first person to integrate both the school and the football team.
Driving While Black: Race, Space and Mobility in America
Exploring the history of Black Americans on the roads from the early 1900s through the 1960s and beyond, Driving While Black focuses particularly on the experience of Black drivers navigating the nation’s highways during the last four decades of Jim Crow.
John Lewis: Good Trouble
This documentary takes an intimate look into the life and legacy of U.S. Representative John Lewis and his over 60 years of activism of the from the bold teenager on the front lines of the Civil Rights Movement to the legislative powerhouse until his passing on July 17, 2020.