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4 little girls. (102 min.). When a bomb tears through the basement of a black Baptist church on a peaceful fall morning, it takes the lives of four young girls; Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. This racially motivated crime, taking place at a time when the civil rights movement is burning with a new flame, could have doused that flame forever. Instead it fuels a nation's outrage and brings Birmingham, Alabama to the forefront of America's concern. DVD 1888 African American lives. (ca. 240 min.). A compelling combination of storytelling and science, this series uses genealogy, oral histories, family stories and DNA to trace roots of several accomplished African Americans down through American history and back to Africa. DVD 1861 Afrocentricity. (160 min.). A complation of seven short films, in-depth interviews and commentary by emerging African American film directors. "Meet here the next generation ... unadulterated by the Hollywood filmmaking process.” DVD 166 Ain't gonna shuffle no more. (ca. 60 min. each episode). "Ain't gonna shuffle no more" illustrates the renewed push for Black unity in America. Cassius Clay becomes Muhammed Ali and refuses to fight in Vietnam. The National Black Political Convention is organized in Gary, Indiana and students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. try to bring the Black consciousness movement into the university. "A nation of law?" shows that by the late 1960's, the anger in poorer urban areas over charges of police brutality was smoldering. In Chicago, Fred Hampton formed a Black Panther Party chapter. As the chapter grew, so did police surveillance. In a pre-dawn assault by the police, Panthers Hampton and Mark Clark were killed. The deaths came at a time the movement activists were increasingly becoming targets of police harassment at both the local and federal levels through COINTELPRO, the F.B.I.'s Counter Intelligence Program. During this same period, inmates at New York's Attica prison took over the prison in an effort to publicize intolerable conditions. During the police assault which ended the takeover, several inmates and guards were killed. For some, Attica came to symbolize the brutality of a hardened political regime. DVD 2306 Ain't scared of your jails. (ca. 60 min. each episode). "Ain't' scared of your jails" chronicles the courage displayed by thousands of young people and college students who joined the ranks of the civil rights movement and gave it new direction. In 1960, lunch counter sit-ins spread across the South, many organized by the new, energetic Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). In 1961, on the Freedom Rides, many young people faced violence and defied death threats as they labored to obliterate segregation in interstate bus travel below the Mason-Dixon Line. The growing movement toward racial equality influenced the 1960 Presidential campaign, and federal rights versus states' rights became an issue. "No easy walk" focuses on a crucial phase in the civil rights movement: the emergence of mass demonstrations and marches as a powerful protest vehicle. In Albany, Ga., police chief Laurie Pritchett challenged Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s tactics of nonviolent mass demonstration. In Birmingham, Ala., school children steadfastly marched against the violent spray of fire hoses and were jailed as a result. The triumphant 1963 march on Washington, D.C. captured worldwide attention and garnered broad national support, helping to shift federal policy. DVD 2302 Ali. (157 min.). Dramatic biography of boxing great Muhammad Ali, which focuses on the ten-year period of 1964-1974. In that time, the brash, motor-mouthed athlete quickly dominates his sport, meets and marries his first wife, converts to Islam (changing his name from Cassius Clay), and defies the United States government by refusing to submit to military conscription for duty in Vietnam. His world heavyweight champion title thus stripped from him entirely for political reasons, the champ sets about to win back his crown, culminating in a legendary unification bout against George Foreman in Zaire, dubbed the "Rumble in the Jungle." DVD 157 The Angel that stands by me Minnie Evans' paintings. Visions of paradise--contemporary folk artists of the United States. (28 min). Presents a study of Minnie Evans, an 88-year-old Black painter from Wilmington, N.C., showing the connections between her visions, religious fervor, and art. Traces her slave ancestry and her life as an impoverished gatekeeper. Shows her in her church worshipping with her 101-year-old mother and six generations of her. ONLINE RESOURCE Baadasssss! (109 min.). A candid portrait of Melvin Van Peeble's struggles as a young, black director during the society-shifting 70's. Determined to make a film that matters, Melvin deals with two-faced backers, a rag-tag crew, threatening creditors, and various shades of Hollywood hypocrisy. With everything on the line, his only choice is to stick to his guns and do whatever it takes to get his neo-blaxploitation epic to the audience for which it was envisioned. DVD 2941 Banished. (84 min.). Documentary about three communities which forcibly expelled African American residents between the Civil War and the Great Depression. Includes interviews with residents from those communities: Pierce City, Missouri; Harrison, Arkansas; Forsyth County, Georgia. DVD4035 Berkeley in the sixties. (117 min.). Captures the events of the 1960's - the birth of the Free Speech Movement, civil rights marches, anti-Vietnam War protests, the counter-culture, the women's movement, and the rise of the Black Panthers - in all their immediacy and passion. Archival footage is inter-woven with present-day (1991) interviews and 18 songs from the Grateful Dead, Jimi Hendrix, the Band, and many others to present a history of Berkeley, California, in the 1960s. DVD 5238 The birth of a nation. (87 min.). This epic story of the Civil War as seen through the lives of two families is a controversial classic of film history as it portrays life in the South during and after the Civil War. Made without a script under the personal direction of Griffith. The fictional plot line, a romance/melodrama, is interwoven with historical events (Civil War battles, Lincoln's assassination, et al.) that are documented by the filmmaker as "facsimiles." Portrays the Ku Klux Klan as a means of suppressing black anarchy. Intended to be an authentic depiction of the Civil War era, the film was strongly criticized for its racial stereotypes and its white Southern bias. DVD 640 Black film collection a special collection from the G. William Jones Film & Video Collection/ Hamon Arts Library at Southern Methodist University. (543 min.). A collection of rare African-American films from the 1930s, 40s and 50s which were nearly destroyed, have been rescued by William Jones, founder of Southern Methodist University's film collection. Called to a warehouse in the early 1980s to dig through a pile of old film canisters which the managers of the warehouse were preparing to throw out, Jones found a treasure trove of feature films and newsreels made by black directors, starring black actors, and unseen for many years. DVD 2475 Black Indians an American story. (60 min.). Narrated by James Earl Jones and with music by The Neville Brothers this video explores the issue of racial identity among Native and African Americans. This in-depth documentary examines the coalescence of these two groups in American history. DVD 1791 Black on white/white and black. (26 min). An intimate and humorous look at the life and career of the legendary blues pianist Alex Moore, a native of Dallas, was the first African American Texan to receive a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Moore taught himself to play the piano by watching others and practicing whenever he got a chance. Because he had no formal training, Moore developed a distinctive improvisatory piano style that included elements of blues, ragtime, barrelhouse, stride and boogie-woogie. He combined steady left hand bass figures with fluid right hand melodies. His lyrics were both traditional and original and were a response to his playing of the piano and to the moment at hand. The film shows his mastery of the piano at a tribute held in his honor at the famous Majestic Theater - his last public performance. ONLINE RESOURCE Born for hard luck Peg Leg Sam Jackson. (29 min). A biographical study of Arthur Jackson, known as Peg Leg Sam, a Black street corner musician, telling of his days as a hobo and performer with patent medicine shows in the South. ONLINE RESOURCE Boycott. (113 min.). On December 1, 1955, one black woman refused to give up her seat in a "white's only" section of a public bus. The bus stops. Montgomery, Alabama stopped. In a time when resentment gave birth to rebellion and a gesture has the power to bring about change, Rosa Parks, by her single act, inspired the will to make history and helped make a leader out of Martin Luther King, Jr. This single act is considered the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. DVD 1457 Boyz n the hood. (112 min.). For three young men growing up in South Central Los Angeles, the "hood" is a place of drive-by shootings, unemployment, drugs and pain. But their reactions to the world around them vary- one is an unambitious drug dealer, his brother is a college bound teenage father, and the brother's best friend is guided by a strong father who hopes for a better life for his son. DVD 327 Brother to brother. (90 min.). Critically acclaimed drama that invokes the glory days of the Harlem Renaissance. As an elderly man, poet Bruce Nugent meets a young, black, gay artist struggling to find his voice, and together they embark on a journey through his inspiring past. DVD 1399 Chappelle's show. (142 min.). Comedian Dave Chappelle hosts this sketch-comedy show that parodies many of the nuances of race and culture. DVD 4821 - 4826 Citizen King. (ca. 120 min.). "In exploring the last few years of his life, this ... American experience production traces King's efforts to recast himself by embracing causes beyond the civil rights movement, by becoming a champion of the poor and an outspoken opponent of the war in Vietnam. Tapping into a rich archive of photographs and film footage and using diaries, letters, and eyewitness accounts of fellow activists, friends, journalists, political leaders and law enforcement officials, this film brings fresh insights to King's impossible journey, his charismatic leadership and his truly remarkable impact."--Container. DVD 789 The Civil War. (157 min.). Episode 4: Defeat hovers over the Union Army as President Lincoln prepares the landmark Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves. While Lincoln waits for a victorious moment for this announcement, Union troops lose repeatedly to generals Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Finally with the victory at Antietam Creek, the bloodiest day of the war gives way to the dawn of emancipation. Episode 5: The turning point of the war is reached at the Battle of Gettysburg. While 150,000 men face death in Pennsylvania, the war spreads westward to Chattanooga and Chickamauga. As the Union drafts more soldiers, riots rage in New York, and African American trrops join the fight. At Gettysburg cemetery, President Lincoln gives his famous speech. DVD 4731 - 4735 Clockers. (129 min.). Two brothers grow up together in the same Brooklyn housing projects, but they are as opposite as good and evil. Victor Dunham has a family, works two jobs and leads a respectable life. His 19-year-old brother, Strike, hangs out with his friends on a bench and sells crack cocaine. Strike agrees to kill a rival dealer as a favor to Rodney, the neighborhood drug kingpin, but when the man is murdered, it is Victor who confesses. Detective Rocco Kleine won't buy Victor's confession, and begins to attempt to break down the stories of both brothers in order to save Victor. DVD 162 Crisis behind a presidential commitment. (53 min.). In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy and his brother, U.S. Attorney General, Robert Kennedy, forced one of the gravest racial confrontations of the 20th century. Despite a federal court order, Alabama Governor George Wallace vowed he would prevent 2 black students from entering the all-white University of Alabama. Watch as the crisis unfolds, capturing the story from all sides up until the dramatic end. DVD 664 Daughters of the dust. (113 min.). Story of a large African-American family as they prepare to move North from the Sea Islands off the coast of Georgia at the dawn of the 20th century. DVD 111 Deep Ellum blues. (10 min). This film is about Deep Elum, the main street of an African-American neighborhood in Dallas, Texas during the 1930's and features blues singer Bill Neely. ONLINE RESOURCE Down in the delta. (ca. 111 min.). A troubled single mother from a tough Chicago neighborhood is sent to spend a summer at her family's home in rural Mississippi. DVD 60 Ethnic notions. (57 min.). Covering more than one hundred years of United States history, traces the evolution of Black American caricatures and their role in political and social conflicts concerning race. DVD 1981 Eyes on the prize. (ca. 60 min. each episode). "Vol. 1. Awakenings, 1954-1956 ; Fighting back, 1957-1962 -- v. 2. Ain’t scared of your jails, 1960-1961 ; No easy walk, 1961-1963 -- v. 3. Mississippi : Is this America?, 1962-1964 ; Bridge to freedom, 1965 -- v. 4. The time has come, 1964-1966 ; Two societies, 1965-1968 -- v. 5. Power! 1966-1968 ; The promised land, 1967-1968 -- v. 6. Ain’t gonna shuffle no more, 1964-1972 ; A nation of law? 1968-1971 -- v. 7. The keys to the kingdom, 1974-1980 ; Back to the movement, 1979-1985. DVD 2301 - 2307 Fannie Bell Chapman gospel singer. (43 min). Shows Fannie Bell Chapman, gospel singer in Centreville, Miss., and her family singing traditional gospel music as well as original songs. Relates her activities as family leader and faith healer. ONLINE RESOURCE The fight. (90 min.). This documentary captures the anticipation that the bout between African American heavyweight Joe Louis and his German opponent Max Schmeling generated, the events leading up to it, the impact Louis's victory had on Blacks and its significance for Jews. DVD 1181 Flag wars. (86 min.). Examines the results of gentrification in Columbus, Ohio, when African American inner-city residents are met with an influx of white gay home buyers. DVD 4578 From the journals of Jean Seberg. (98 min.). A bio-pic about actress Jean Seberg is presented in a first-person, autobiographical format. Mark Rappaport seamlessly interweaves cinema, politics, American society and culture, and film theory to inform, entertain, and move the viewer. Seberg's many marriages, as well as her film roles, are discussed extensively. Her involvement with the Black Panther Movement and subsequent investigation by the FBI is covered. Notably, details of French New Wave cinema, Russian Expressionist films, and the careers of Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, and Clint Eastwood are also examined. Much of the film is based on conjecture, but it encourages viewers to re-examine their ideas about women in film. DVD 431 Gandy dancers. (30 min). Musical traditions and verbal recollections of eight retired African-American railroad men from Alabama, Georgia, and other southern states who sing ballads, blues, and work songs. Discusses the role of music in coordinating the work of the gandy dancers, or railroad track laborers. ONLINE RESOURCE Gangsta king Raymond Lee Washington: the definitive history of the Crips and the man behind the gang. In an exclusive first-time interview, Gregg "Batman" Davis, an original member of the Crips, sheds light on the group and the man behind it. "The social and racial upheaval of the 60's sparked the creation of politically and socially active clubs. Groups like the Black Panthers tried to protect their communities from the violence that was perpetrated against them in the name of racism. The demise of these groups led a young Raymond Lee Washington to create his own club with the same ideals and political ideologies that he admired. He formed one of the most infamous and feared L.A. gangs, the Crips. In an exclusive first-time interview, Gregg "Batman" Davis, an original member of the Crips, sheds light on the group and the man behind it all." - from container. DVD 813 Glory. 1997. (ca. 117 min.). Two idealistic young Bostonians lead the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, America's first Black regiment in the Civil War. DVD 1171 Gravel Springs fife & drum. (10 min). A documentary on black folklore. Uses the words and music of Othar Turner, a farmer-musician from Gravel Springs, Miss., to focus on the way of life of the townspeople, and to compare their fife and drum music to that traditionally played in west Africa. ONLINE RESOURCE The great debaters. (124 min.). Melvin B. Tolson is a professor at Wiley College in Texas. Wiley is a small African-American college. In 1935, Tolson inspired students to form the school's first debate team. Tolson turns a group of underdog students into a historically elite debate team which goes on to challenge Harvard in the national championship. Inspired by a true story. DVD 4232 Hip-hop beyond beats and rhymes. (61 min.). A look at the conceptualization of masculinity in hip-hop culture. Includes interviews with prominent rappers, music industry executives, and social critics. DVD 2314 Hoop dreams. (171 min.). This documentary follows two inner-city basketball phenoms' lives through high school as they chase their dreams of playing in the NBA. DVD 1890 How to eat your watermelon in white company (and enjoy it). (85 min.). A tale of how a young black kid from Chicago, Melvin Van Peebles, ended up making one of the most controversial movies in American history, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, the film that sparked the Blaxploitation era in Hollywood. DVD 5129 The hurricane. (146 min.). Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, in the prime of his boxing career, finds himself wrongfully convicted of murder. Sentenced to life in prison, Carter's published memoir, The Sixteenth Round, inspires a teenager from Brooklyn and three Canadian activists who believe in the truth, to join forces with Carter to prove his innocence. DVD 491 I ain't lying folktales from Mississippi. (22 min). Captures the humor and drama of Black folktales in rural Mississippi. ONLINE RESOURCE Idlewild. (121 min.). Set in the Prohibition-era American South, a speakeasy performer and club manager Rooster must contend, not only with gangsters who have their eyes on the club, but also his piano player and partner Percival. Percival must choose between his love for Angel or his obligations to his father. DVD 4915 In the heat of the night. (112 min.). A black homicide expert is asked to help solve the murder of a wealthy businessman in a small town. DVD 5168 The Jackie Robinson story. (83 min.). An autobiographical account of Robinson's journey through the Jim Crow sports establishment to baseball's major leagues. Robinson plays himself in a film that frames vignettes of racial prejudice against the personal courage of the first baseball player to break the color barrier in the Major Leagues. ONLINE RESOURCE Jazz icons. (595 min.). Profiles nine important Jazz musicians in rare footage of different concerts. DVD 2531 - 2539 July '64. (54 min). In the summer of 1964, a three-night riot erupted in two predominantly black neighborhoods in downtown Rochester, New York--the culmination of decades of poverty, joblessness and racial discrimination and a significant event in the Civil Rights era. Using archival footage and interviews with those who were present, the film explores the genesis and outcome of these three nights. DVD 2009 The keys to the kingdom. (ca. 60 min. each episode). "The keys to the kingdom, 1974-1980" shows how antidiscrimination legal rights gained in past decades are put to the test. School desegregation orders are violently resisted in Boston and the Bakke Supreme Court case challenges a policy of affirmative action. "Back to the movement" shows Miami's Black community exploding in rioting, but in Chicago, a grassroots movement triumphs - Harold Washington is elected the city's first Black mayor. Concludes with a review of the people who made the civil rights movement a force for change. DVD 2307 Killer of sheep. (80 min.). Examines daily life in a poor Black community, in which relationships between friends and within families are strained due to the struggle to survive. DVD 3408 Little Rock Central 50 years later. (70 min.). In 1957, Little Rock Central became a symbol of the struggles and hopes of the Civil Rights Movement. African-American students were not allowed into the building. An eye-opening look at racial equality, education, and class at the high school today. DVD 3637 Made in Mississippi Black folk art and crafts. (19 min). Documents folk art, crafts and architecture in rural Mississippi. Individual craftspersons discuss their work and tell how they learned each tradition. ONLINE RESOURCE Martin Luther King "I have a dream" speech. (60 min.). I Have A Dream contains King's entire inspirational speech in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. DVD 5210 Menace II society. (104 min.). A young street hustler attempts to escape the rigors and temptations of the ghetto in a quest for a better life. DVD 1092 Mighty times the children's march. (40 min.). This video contains vintage film footage, re-stagings of some activities, and interviews with some of the protesters. In May of 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. asked black people of Birmingham, Alabama to go to jail in the cause of racial equality. The adults were afraid to go to jail and so the school children marched and over 5000 of them were arrested. This lead to President Kennedy sponsoring the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the march on Washington. DVD 2096 Muhammad Ali the greatest. (135 min.). "1964: Cassius Clay becomes heavyweight champion of the world; a date in sports history, and in the black power movement. The day after his victory, Clay reveals that he is a Black Muslim. He defies white America, and changes his name to Muhammad Ali. 1974: Ali fights George Foreman for the championship at the incredible cultural event in mobutu's Zaire. Ali reclaims his glory, his crown, and his legend." --from container. DVD 515 The murder of Emmett Till. (ca. 60 min.). The shameful, sadistic murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a black boy who whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955, was a powerful catalyst for the civil rights movement. Although Till's killers were apprehended, they were quickly acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury and proceeded to sell their story to a journalist, providing grisly details of the murder. Three months after Till's body was recovered, the Montgomery Bus Boycott began. DVD 783 The murder of Fred Hampton. (88 min.). Mike Gray started out to make a film about the Black Panther Party, but on Dec. 4, 1969, the Chicago police raided a Panther apartment and his film became a documentary about the murder of Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party. The film footage of the raid directly contradicted the State Attorney's version of the raid and so filmmakers and Panthers came together to prove that Hampton had been the designated target of the violent, punitive raid. The film's inquiry pursues official spokesmen and traps them in their attempts at covering up an orchestrated assassination. DVD 4244 Negroes with guns Rob Williams and Black power. (53 min.). Documents the life and times of political activist, Robert F. Williams. From his childhood in Monroe, North Carolina to his self-exile and eventual return to the U.S., the film uses interviews and stock footage to tell the story of the forefather of the Black power movement in the United States. DVD 4033 New Orleans. (110 min.). Nick, the proprietor of a Bourbon Street gambling joint, an artistic haven for African-American musicians who gather and jam from dusk til dawn, falls in love with an opera-singing socialite. After losing his nightclub Nick tries over the course of many years to get jazz the respect and audience it deserves. DVD 105 New York, a documentary film. (140 min.). The seventh segment in an 8-part series chronicling the history of New York City from 1609 through 2003. Episode seven: Chronicles the history of New York from the end of World War II to the present. Explores the complexities of the city and the physical, social and cultural change in the years following the war. The episode treats the great African American and Puerto Rican in-migrations; the beginnings of white flight and suburbanization and the massive physical changes wrought by highways and urban renewal. DVD 4807 Nothing but a man. (92 min.). A 1960s African American couple must overcome racial and class barriers when Duff, a railroad section hand, falls in love with Josie, an educated preacher's daughter. The film features 1960s music by Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, The Miracles, Stevie Wonder and the Marvelettes. DVD 2933 Pizza pizza daddy-o. (18 min). Shows Afro-American girls playing singing games on a Los Angeles playground. Provides an anthropological and folkloric record of eight of these games. ONLINE RESOURCE Power! (ca. 60 min. each episode). "Power!" shows how Blacks looked for new ways to take control of their communities. This program explores the political path to power for Carl Stokes, the nation's first Black mayor of a major city. It also describes the founding of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, Calif., and the struggle of Black and Hispanic parents in Brooklyn, N.Y., to improve their children's education through community control of the schools. "The promised land" shows how Martin Luther King, in the final year of his life, began to organize a Poor People's Campaign, a march of the poor to Washington, D.C., where they would erect Resurrection City to embarrass and motivate a reluctant government. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated. Soon after its construction, Resurrection City was shut down, marking the end of a chapter of the civil rights movement. DVD 2305 Race films at war in World War II. (ca. 104 min.). Presents eight American Second World War propaganda films on race. Challenge to democracy: The Internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II is here explained according to the Government's point of view. Children of Japan: A documentary of the life of a typical Japanese middleclass family, filmed earlier the same year as the attack on Pearl Harbor. Close harmony: Attempts to show the need for good labor/management relations in the U.S. arms industry, resorting to the "step 'n fetch it" stereotype of Black Americans. Farmer Henry Browne: Shows how a black Georgian farmer does his part for the war, with his farm, his family and the service of his Tuskegee fighter pilot eldest son. Japanese relocation: A propaganda film designed to show the co-operation and satisfaction of the Japanese American internees in terms of being relocated, re-employed, re-educated and interned. My Japan: One of the most flagrant American anti-Japanese propaganda films utilizing the racial stereotypes common for the period, presented here with special intensity, and put to the purpose of selling war bonds. Negro colleges in wartime: An exposition of the teaching and training of Black Americans for war, science, industry, agriculture, husbandry, meteorology, medicine, engineering and technical trades at black colleges. Our enemy: the Japanese: Purports to educate its audience about the Japanese culture but instead is a recitation of a wide range of racial stereotypes, ethnic misrepresentations and hatred. DVD 1383 A raisin in the sun. Columbia classics collection. (ca. 128 min.). Film of the award-winning play about a struggling black family living on Chicago's South Side and the impact of an unexpected insurance bequest. Each family member sees the bequest as the means of realizing dreams and of escape from grinding frustrations. DVD 424 Rebels with a cause. (109 min.). Uses archival footage and interviews with activists involved to trace the history of Students for a Democratic Society through the 1960's. Growing out of student involvement with the black civil rights movement in the South, SDS grew quickly with the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Discusses how the Black Power movement shook the SDS, and the women's movement grew out of it. After 1968, the SDS was thrown into internal conflict with the Weathemen faction and the surveillance of the FBI. Interviewees talk about the legacy of the SDS for them. DVD 558 The rise and fall of Jim Crow. (224 min.). Offers the first comprehensive look at race relations in America between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement. This definitive four-part series documents the context in which the laws of segregation known as the "Jim Crow" system originated and developed. DVD 1455 Say amen, somebody. (100 min.). A documentary that follows gospel singer Willie Mae Ford Smith from her home to jumping church services to emotionally galvanic singing convention. Also features Thomas A. Dorsey, her mentor and the man credited with inventing gospel music ; Delois Campbell Barrett and other gospel singers. DVD 4818 School daze. (121 min.). A music-filled, off-beat contemporary comedy that takes an unforgettable look at black college life. DVD 357 A Singing stream a black family chronicle. (57 min). Bertha Landis is a black farmer's widow who lives in Granville County, North Carolina. She had eight sons and three daughters, all of whom either sing or play some musical instrument. She recalls that her parents and her husband's parents were all musical and so as she puts it, "a singing stream came down from both the families." Some of Bertha's sons formed an amateur singing group known as The Golden Echoes, and they perform in churches and on the radio throughout the southeast. This film takes us to a Landis family reunion where Bertha and members of her immediate and extended family share with us their life experiences and their joy in singing. Musical performances in the film span almost a century of black religious song styles, from shape-notes to contemporary gospel. ONLINE RESOURCE Slavery and the making of America. (ca. 60 min.). Episode 3. One by one the Northern states, led by Vermont in 1777, adopted laws to abolish and phase out slavery. Simultaneously, slavery in the Southern United States entered the period of its greatest expansion. Episode three, which starts at the beginning of the 1800s, examines slavery's increasing divisiveness in America as the nation develops westward and cotton replaces tobacco as the country's most valuable crop. The episode weaves national events through the personal histories of two African American slaves -- Harriet Jacobs and Louis Hughes -- who not only managed to escape bondage, but also exposed the horrific realities of the slave experience in autobiographical narratives. These and other stories of physical, psychological, and sexual exploitation fed the fires of a reinvigorated abolitionist movement. With a diverse membership comprised of men and women, blacks and whites, and led by figures including Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, and Amy Post, abolitionist sentiment gathered strength in the North, contributing to the widening fissure and imminent break-up of the nation. DVD1255 - 1258 A soldier's story. (97 min.). A black army attorney is sent to Fort Neal, Louisiana, near the end of World War II to investigate the murder of Sgt. Waters, a black man who despised his own roots. DVD 5186 Sonny Ford, delta artist. (41 min). This film focuses on the life of blues musician James "Sonny Ford" Thomas, who plays Delta "gut-bucket" blues in the tradition of Robert Johnson and Elmore James. In addition, it gives us a touching depiction of the daily life and simple pleasures of poor blacks living on the Mississippi Delta. ONLINE RESOURCE The time has come. (ca. 60 min. each episode). "The time has come" shows that a new call for power is heard in the civil rights movement. Malcolm X takes nationalism to urban streets as Black leaders listen. "Two societies" tells how Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference aid in the non-violent struggle against segregated housing. The Kerner Commission concludes that America is becoming "two societies -one Black, one white - separate and unequal." DVD 2304 Tongues untied. (55 min.). In an experimental amalgam of rap music, street poetry, documentary film, and dance, a gay African-American man expresses what it is like to be gay and black in the United States. Although he deals with social ostracism and fear of AIDS, he affirms the beauty and significance of the gay black man. DVD 2775 Treasures from American film archives 50 preserved films. (ca. 161 min.). Audiences associate American film with Hollywood studio productions. This anthology however celebrates other types of early films including documentaries, newsreels, avant-garde and independent works, amateur and home movies, animated and industrial films, and silent movies from the earliest years of motion pictures. Program 3 of this 4 part series contains 10 films. DVD 3281 - 3284 Tulia, Texas. (54 min.). "In 1999 undercover narcotics agent Thomas Coleman executed one of the biggest drug stings in Texas history. Coleman and his drug task force arrested 46 Tulia residents - of which 39 were African American - on charges of suspected drug dealing. TULIA, TEXAS is the story of a small town's search for justice and the price Americans pay for the nation's war on drugs" -- http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/tuliatexas. DVD 5205 The Tuskegee airmen. (ca. 60 min.). A history of the pilots who faced discrimination in their effort to fly combat aircraft for their country. DVD 1321 Unforgivable blackness the rise and fall of Jack Johnson. (220 min.). The in-depth and intimate story of one of the most important African Americans to live in the first half of the 20th century. Tells the story of Jack Johnson, who was the first African American boxer to win the most coveted title in all of sports - Heavyweight Campion of the World. Includes his struggles in and out of the ring and his desire to live his life as a free man. DVD 1254 The untold story of Emmett Louis Till. (68 min.). A biography of Emmett Louis Till, an African-American teenager who was murdered for whistling at a white women in Mississippi in 1955. Chronicles director Beauchamp's decade-long effort to determine the true identities of Till's killers. DVD 3375 Waiting to exhale. (ca. 124 min.). The story of four African-American women who journey through a modern labyrinth of husbands and lovers, jobs and makeovers. DVD 2276 We are dad. (68 min.). Chronicles the story of Steven Lofton and Roger Croteau and their extended family of five foster children. Back in the 80s, these two pediatric AIDS nurses took in four African American infants with HIV whom nobody wanted, and fostered them as their own. One child was born HIV positive, but at age 3 he tested HIV negative, and the state of Florida reclassified him as adoptable. As Florida is the only state with a blanket ban on gay adoption, this disqualified the family. The case of Lofton v. State of Florida, which challenged Florida's ban on adoption by gay couples, went all the way to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear the case and let the Florida law stand. DVD 3517 What we want, what we believe the Black Panther Party library. (720 min.). Features three films on the Black Panther Party made in 1968-1969 by the Newsreel film collective and additional footage on Black Panther history and legacy from Roz Payne and the Newsreel filmmakers. Includes extensive video and audio interviews with party members and movement participants as well as documents from the Roz Payne Archives chronicling both the movement and government attempts to suppress it. DVD 2515 When my work is over The life and stories of Louise Anderson. (38 min). Louise Anderson, a gifted African American storyteller, tells her family stories and folk tales and recites poetry in this film taped in Jacksonville, NC, in the last years of her life. ONLINE RESOURCE Zora's roots the life of Zora Neale Hurston. (60 min.). This program examines the life of author and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston. The film follows Hurston, best known for her novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, to the subtropical paradise that shaped her childhood and her life's work - where she returned again and again for inspiration and solace. This documentary tells her story through the people who knew her and the places and events that she brought to the world through her writing. 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