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4 little girls. 2000, (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 and Streaming video.
O.J. made in America. 3 videodiscs (approximately 463 min.). An essential examination of the rise and fall of Orenthal James Simpson, and parallels between his incredible story with that of race in America. This critically-acclaimed documentary series reveals how he first became a football star, why America fell in love with him off the field, what happened in the trial for his ex-wife’s murder, and finally, why he is now sitting in jail for another crime 20 years later. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13289
The anatomy of hate: A dialogue to hope. 2012, 1 videodisc (86 min.). Reveals the shared narratives found in hate, and how we as a species can overcome them. With unprecedented access to the White Supremacist movement, Christian Fundamentalism, Muslim Extremism, the Palestinian Intifada, Israeli Settlers, and US Forces in Iraq, the film juxtaposes this footage with interview from leading social scientists and intersperses stories told by former 'combatants.'. DVD and streaming video. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10522 and Streaming video.
The birth of a nation. 1915 (1 online resource 1 video file, approximately 192 min.). A profoundly influential and controversial film, this is the epic story of two families, one northern and one southern, during and after the Civil War. D.W. Griffith's masterful direction combines brilliant battle scenes and tender romance with a vicious portrayal of African-Americans. It energized the NAACP and also inspired African-Americans to move into filmmaking as a way to offer alternative images and stories. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 640 and Streaming video.
The birth of a nation. 2016 1 videodisc (120 min). Nat Turner is a literate American slave and preacher. His financially strained owner accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. But as Nat witnesses countless atrocities, he orchestrates an uprising in the hopes of leading his people to freedom. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13700
Blood in the face. 2010 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 78 minutes). A film by James Ridgeway (political correspondent for The Village Voice), Anne Bohlen (Academy Award Nominee) and Kevin Rafferty (The Atomic Cafe) and featuring interviews by Michael Moore (Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, Sicko). A riveting, jaw-dropping view of America's white supremacy movement. Rare archival footage, darkly humorous interviews, and their own promotional materials bring to light the inner workings of the Ku Klux Klan, the American Nazi Party, the Aryan Nation, The Order, and other radical right groups. With a folksy, matter-of-fact certainty, the men and women here speak of imminent race wars, Armageddon, the Holocaust hoax, interracial breeding, the Christian Identity faith, the hordes of foreign troops poised to attack America, and ZOG (The Zion Occupation Government). In the wake of the Oklahoma City attack and their continuing efforts to demonize immigrants and arm themselves to the teeth, its clear the radical right are not the patriotic, bedrock Americans they claim to be, nor harmless in their lunacies either. Controversial and timely, Blood in the Face reveals a dark and dangerous side of America. DVD 3267 and Streaming video.
Fagbug. 2010, 1 videodisc (83 min.). Erin Davies became a victim of a hate crime because of a rainbow sticker on her VW Beetle. Her car was vandalized with the words 'fag' and 'u r gay' on the driver's side window and hood. Despite initial shock and embarrassment, Davies decided to embrace what happened by leaving the graffiti on her car. She took her car, now known worldwide as the 'Fagbug,' on a 58-day trip around the United States and Canada. Now viewers can follow her journey and the metamorphosis of the 'Fagbug.'. DVD 7883
Greensboro closer to the truth. 2009, 1 online resource (60 min.). This documentary explores the Greensboro Massacre of 1979 and its aftermath. Members of the Communist Workers Party massed for a "Death to the Klan" rally in Greensboro, North Carolina when a caravan of Ku Klux Klan and American Nazis arrived. As the police assigned to protect the rally inexplicably disappeared, the Klansmen opened fire, killing five demonstrators and injuring eleven others. Now, a quarter of a century later, the survivors have finally come upon a way to get to the heart of what really happened by mounting a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2004-2006). The film focuses on five of the survivors of the attack, examining the paths they have taken since 1979. These activists have each struggled to stay true to their ideals. Two of the Klan figures -- one a former Grand Dragon who is now repentant, the other still an Imperial Wizard and staunchly unrepentant -- weave their own interpretation on the events and their aftermath. They all converge at the Truth Commission, the first time such an initiative has been utilized in the United States. Against the backdrop of a city which would largely like to forget the attack and pretend it never occurred, the participants come together exploring possibilities of truth, understanding and forgiveness. Streaming video.
Hate crimes in the heartland. 2014 (1 videodisc 52 min.). Hate Crimes in the Heartland is an award-winning documentary film and community outreach project that explores our national epidemic of hate crimes through the lens of Tulsa, Oklahoma. Emmy-winning producer Rachel Lyon explores two stories, over 90 years apart, that both dissect current issues of civil rights and the media's impact on justice. The film begins in Tulsa in 2012, where two white men drove through the African-American Greenwood neighborhood targeting blacks at random, killing three and leaving two others in critical condition. The film follows the murders, the ensuing social media uproar, the manhunt, and ultimate prosecution and death penalty sentencing of two suspects. The film ties this crime back to the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot, an event that left 300 dead, 10,000 homeless, and 35 square blocks of the African-American community burnt to cinders. Sadly, the 1921 Tulsa Race Riot and the 2012 murders are not merely events of the past, but current events that we see echoed in society today, from Ferguson's Michael Brown to Florida's Trayvon Martin. This powerful documentary depicts how racial animosity has defined much of American culture for more than 90 years, and asks important questions about media, race, crime, and punishment. DVD 12251 and Streaming video.
History's Mysteries The Greensboro Massacre. 2011, 1 streaming video file (48 min.). This episode of History's Mysteries exposes the gripping, inside account of one of the most shocking crimes in modern American history: the Greensboro Massacre. On November 3, 1979, members of the Communist Worker's Party held a Death to the Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. A caravan of Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis drove into the center of the protesters. Screamed insults from both sides escalated into physical confrontation. The Klansmen and Nazis removed an arsenal of weapons from their cars and began firing into the terrified crowd, killing five and wounding eleven. Streaming video.
How racism harms white Americans. 2013, 1 videodisc (45 min.). "Distinguished historian John H. Bracey Jr. offers a provocative analysis of the devastating economic, political, and social effects of racism on white Americans. In a departure from analyses of racism that have focused primarily on white power and privilege, Bracey trains his focus on the high price that white people, especially working class whites, have paid for more than two centuries of divisive race-based policies and attitudes. Whether he's discussing the pivotal role slavery played in the war for independence, the two million white Americans who died in a civil war fought over the question of slavery, or how business owners took advantage of the segregation of America's first labor unions and used low-wage, non-unionized black workers to undercut the bargaining power of white workers, Bracey's central point is that failing to acknowledge the centrality of race, and racism, to the American project not only minimizes the suffering of black people, but also blinds us to how racism and white privilege have harmed white people as well."--Container. DVD 11820
I am not your negro. 2017, 1 steaming file ( 1 videodisc 94 minutes). An Oscar-nominated documentary narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO explores the continued peril America faces from institutionalized racism. In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends--Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. At the time of Baldwin's death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript. Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin's original words and flood of rich archival material. I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13955 and Streaming video.
Inside the New KKK. 2013, 1 streaming video file (13 min.). Granted rare access to the Mississippi White Nights of the KKK-the klavern notorious for its involvement in what has come to be known as the Mississippi Burning case-this ABC News program reports on the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan, whose membership has been rising. Nightline's Cynthia McFadden and her camera crew are welcomed by Grand Dragon Steven Howard, who, at a site deep in the woods, presides over a white supremacist barbecue, some pistol practice, and, after nightfall, the ritual lighting of a 16-foot cross. In addition, the Grand Dragon expounds his controversial views on racial segregation and the means for achieving it. "Howard says he's allowed us to come here to show us the new Klan is neither hate-filled nor violent," says McFadden, "yet what we heard and saw during our time with them suggests otherwise." Chilling. Ominous. Streaming video.
KKK The fight for white supremacy. 2015 1 online resource (1 video file (52 min., 39 sec.)). With race relations stretched to breaking point in some American cities, the supremacist group the Ku Klux Klan says it's seeing a surge in membership. They claim that white Americans - angry at what they perceive as attacks on their heritage - are joining in large numbers, convinced they must prepare for a race war. With access to the leaders of the Loyal White Knights chapter in North Carolina, this film follows their secretive rituals. The Klan travels to the South Carolina Statehouse in Charleston to protest against the removal of the confederate flag. But when Black Power groups turn out to demonstrate the two opposing visions of America violently come face to face. Streaming video.
The Ku Klux Klan a secret history. 2002, 1 videodisc (100 min.). Presents a history of the Ku Klux Klan, from its beginnings after the Civil War to recent years, and its practices of terror against minorities. DVD 1332
Ku Klux Klan members hold demonstration in Washington ca. 1925. 1 online resource (1 video file (0 min., 54 sec.)). Founded in 1866 by Nathan Bedford Forrest, the Ku Klux Klan initially sought to maintain white supremacy over blacks after slavery was abolished. The Klan virtually disappeared after Reconstruction and lay dormant for half a century. Thanks in part to the D.W. Griffith film Birth of a Nation, the Ku Klux Klan's popularity and visibility began to increase once again in 1915, and its goals expanded from merely maintaining racial hegemony to suppressing and threatening minorities of all stripes, including Catholics, Jews, and recent immigrants. At its peak in the mid-1920s, the Klan had over 4 million members, and controlled key branches of local government in a number of American cities. Streaming video.
Loving. 2017, 1 videodisc (123 min.). The story of Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, whose challenge of their anti-miscegenation arrest for their marriage in Virginia led to a legal battle that would end at the US Supreme Court. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 13754
The Loving story. 2012, 1 streaming video file (77 min.). On June 2, 1958, Richard Loving and his fiancee Mildred Jeter traveled from Caroline County, VA, to Washington, D.C. to be married. Later, the newlyweds were arrested, tried and convicted of the felony crime of miscegenation. Two young ACLU lawyers took on the Lovings case, fully aware of the challenges posed. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously in their favor on June 12, 1967 and resulted in sixteen states being ordered to overturn their bans on interracial marriage. Streaming video.
A lynching in Marion. 2011, 1 streaming video file (30 min.). On August 7, 1930, in Marion, Indiana, 16-year-old African-American, James Cameron and two friends robbed a white couple. News of this robbery along with the other real and alleged crimes committed by the teens spread far and wide. Subsequently a lynch mob of citizens led by the town sheriff dragged Cameron's friends from the jailhouse and, tragically, did the unthinkable - hanged them both from a tree. Using archival materials, this program chronicles the thousands who did not survive early 20th-century lynch mobs, and presents James Cameron, 65 years later, as he tells his compelling story in vivid detail. Streaming video.
The Matthew Shepard story. 2010, 1 videodisc (92 min.). "In a senseless act of hatred, openly gay college student Matthew Shepard was murdered in 1998. This critically-acclaimed, moving film recounts the final days of Matthew's killers' trial -- and the weeks leading to Matthew's death -- with unnerving detail"--Container. DVD 12368
Mirrors of privilege making whiteness visible. 2006, 1 videodisc (50 min.). Features the up close and personal stories of white activists and their ongoing journeys of transformation. Participants will talk about being unconscious about their learned and internalized sense of white supremacy. They will share what was required and what actions they took to move through the common first stages of denial, defensiveness, guilt, fear and shame into making solid commitments towards ending racism. The video uses art, theatre, movement, photographs and music to amplify stories that share richly varied experiences and life processes informed by deep reflection and social justice action. The individuals' interviews will also be enhanced by historical sources, spoken word, photographs and video archives which will serve to address systemic racist oppression. DVD 2580
Moyers & Company The United States of Ferguson. 2015 1 online resource (1 video file (24 min. 30 sec.)). In the wake of decisions by grand juries in both Missouri and New York's Staten Island not to indict white police officers in the deaths of unarmed African-Americans, this edition of Moyers and Company is an encore broadcast of Bill's conversation earlier this year with journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor for The Atlantic, about his cover story "The Case for Reparations" about why America needs to reconcile with its racist past. Streaming video.
The murder of Emmett Till. 2003, 1 videodisc (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
Nazi America A secret history. 2010 1 streaming video file (45 min.). This A&E Special traces the history of Nazism in America from its early days to today's neo-Nazis, who rely on both their constitutionally protected freedom of speech and radical action to advance their agenda of Aryan purity. Streaming video.
North of 49. 2003, 1 online resource (49 min.). North of 49 examines the aftermath of the Nov. 18, 2001 arson at Gobind Sadan U.S.A., a Sikh temple in upstate New York. The four teenagers found guilty of the Gobind Sadan attack claim they burned down the converted farmhouse because they thought the turbaned Sikhs who worshiped there were rejoicing in the terrorism of 9/11. The teens say they believed the temple s name meant "Go Bin Laden." Two were sentenced for four to twelve years in prison; two others received ninety days in county jail. North of 49 focuses on one perpetrator s transformation from an ignorant and confused teenager to a young woman prepared to accept and respect those different from herself. Designated as a hate crime (a federal offense), the Gobind Sadan arson made international headlines and brought Oswego Coounty the kind of publicity no area wants. The region might well have represented all of America following the 9/11 attacks. "The attacks prompted widespread suspicion and distrust of those different from the mainstream ... the Sikhs have not been alone as targets. Streaming video.
Radical America, left and right. 2006, 1 online resource (46 min). The United States was founded by radicals who deployed guerrilla tactics against the orderly British. Nothing's changed on the edges: America is still the home of radical movements, from the Black Panthers and the Weather Underground to the Militia movement and the Aryan Brotherhood. Every decade of American history has its bombings, terrorist attacks, kidnappings, and threats: sometimes from the left and sometimes from the right. This is the declassified story of the movements that make up Radical America. Streaming video.
Remembering rodney king. 2013 1 streaming video file (7 min.). Rodney King, whose 1991 videotaped beating by Los Angeles police launched a public dialogue about race relations in the United States, died at age 47. NewsHour correspondent Jeffrey Brown, Patt Morrison of The Los Angeles Times, and Darnell Hunt of the University of California, Los Angeles, discuss his complicated life. Streaming video.
The rise and fall of Jim Crow. 2002 1 videodisc and 1 streaming video file (223 minutes). The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow 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 a brutal and oppressive era rooted in the growing refusal of many Southern states to grant slaves freed in the Civil War equal rights with whites. A life of crushing limitation for Southern Blacks, defined by legal segregation known as "Jim Crow" - after a minstrel routine in which whites painted their faces black - shaped the social, political and legal history of the period. In 1954, with the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education, the Jim Crow laws and way of life began to fall.. The story of the struggle during Jim Crow is told through the eyes of those who experienced it. Some are historical figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois, Booker T. Washington, Ida B. Wells and Walter White. Others are everyday local heroes like William Holtzclaw, Charlotte Hawkins Brown, Ned Cobb, "Pap" Singleton and Barbara Johns. DVD 1455 and Streaming video.
Strange fruit. 2002, 1 video file (57 min.). A examination of the anti-lynching protest song made famous by Billie Holiday. Reviews the historical events, contexts and incidents of racial hatred that the song's title represents, and then the subsequent performances by Billie Holiday that brought the song and its message to a national audience. The film also follows the underlying problem of racism that continues into contemporary culture. Streaming video.
Through a lens darkly. 2015 1 online resource (1 video file, approximately 90 min.). The first documentary to explore the role of photography in shaping the identity, aspirations and social emergence of African Americans from slavery to the present, Through a Lens Darkly probes the recesses of American history by discovering images that have been suppressed, forgotten and lost. Bringing to light the hidden and unknown photos shot by both professional and vernacular African American photographers, the film opens a window into lives, experiences and perspectives of black families that is absent from the traditional historical canon. These images show a much more complex and nuanced view of American culture and society and its founding ideals. Inspired by Deborah Willis's book Reflections in Black and featuring the works of Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Anthony Barboza, Hank Willis Thomas, Coco Fusco, Clarissa Sligh and many others, Through a Lens Darkly introduces the viewer to a diverse yet focused community of storytellers who transform singular experiences into a communal journey of discovery – and a call to action. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 11789 and Streaming video.
Tulia, Texas. 2008, 1 video file and 1 videodisc (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" DVD 5205 and Streaming video.
Two towns of Jasper. 1 online resource . On June 7, 1998, three white men from Jasper, Texas, chained African-American James Byrd to a pick-up truck and dragged him until his body disintegrated. This powerful documentary takes you to the white and black communities as it records their separate reactions to the most vicious racially motivated murder in the last 50 years. This film provides an unprecedented opprtunity to see the divisions that separate one person from another. Streaming video.
When I rise. 2011, 1 videodisc (73 min.). An inspirational journey toward finding forgiveness within oneself. A gifted black music student at the University of Texas is cast in an opera to co-star with a white male classmate, fueling a racist backlash from members of the Texas legislature. This small-town girl, whose voice and spirit stem from her roots in East Texas, emerges as an internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano and headlines on stages around the world. DVD 8384
White like me. 2013, 1 streaming video file (69 min.). White Like Me, based on the work of acclaimed anti-racist educator and author Tim Wise, explores race and racism in the US through the lens of whiteness and white privilege. In a stunning reassessment of the American ideal of meritocracy and claims that we've entered a post-racial society, Wise offers a fascinating look back at the race-based white entitlement programs that built the American middle class, and argues that our failure as a society to come to terms with this legacy of white privilege continues to perpetuate racial inequality and race-driven political resentments today. For years, Tim Wise's bestselling books and spellbinding lectures have challenged some of our most basic assumptions about race in America. White Like Me is the first film to bring the full range of his work to the screen -- to show how white privilege continues to shape individual attitudes, electoral politics, and government policy in ways too many white people never stop to think about. DVD 5467 and Streaming video.
The young and the racist. 2014, 1 streaming video file (15 min.). Matt Heimbach, 22, believes the United States should go back to a time of segregation. Matt Heimbach feels Black Nationalists understand his views of wanting races separated. Streaming video.