Selma (2014) – David Oyelowo plays civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in a biopic that explores the civil rights leader’s role in the 1965 Selma protests.
Dear White People (2014) – This biting satire follows four black college students making their way in “post-racial” America.
12 Years a Slave (2013) – Chiwetel Ejiofor led the 2014 Best Picture winner, which is a true story about a freeborn black man who spent over a decade in slavery in the pre-Civil War South.
Django Unchained (2012) – Quentin Tarantino‘s controversial Oscar winner follows a freed slave who fights to liberate his wife from a brutal plantation owner.
Gran Torino (2008) – Clint Eastwood plays a grizzled Korean War veteran who reluctantly takes his young Hmong neighbor under his wing.
Crash (2004) – 2006’s Best Picture Winner traces the intersecting lives of people of different races in present day Los Angeles.
American History X (1998) – Edward Norton plays the leader of a violent neo-Nazi gang who reevaluates his life when he sees his little brother going down the same path.
A Time to Kill (1996) – Based on the best-selling John Grisham novel, Samuel L. Jackson plays a man on trial for murdering the two white supremacists who raped his daughter who turns to an untested lawyer played by Matthew McConaughey.
Schindler’s List (1993) – Steven Spielberg‘s unflinching look at the Holocaust through the eyes of a man who saved thousands of Polish Jews.
Malcolm X (1992) – Spike Lee and Denzel Washington teamed up for the true story of the inflammatory Nation of Islam leader.
School Ties (1992) – Brendan Fraser led this all-star cast (which included Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) in which he played tbe only Jewish student at an exclusive 1950’s prep school.
Boyz n the Hood (1991) – John Singleton‘s hard-hitting look at life in South Central Los Angeles saw Cuba Gooding Jr. trying to avoid the pitfalls of life in the ghetto.
Dances with Wolves (1990) – Kevin Costner won multiple Oscars for this tale of a Civil War soldier who comes to identify with an oppressed native tribe in the American West.
Do the Right Thing (1989) – Spike Lee‘s searing portrait of a day in the life of a mostly black Brooklyn neighborhood during an intense heat wave.
Mississippi Burning (1988) – The true story of the disappearance of three civil rights protesters in 1960’s Mississippi and the FBI agents who investigated.
The Color Purple (1985) – Whoopi Goldberg was nominated for Best Actress in this story of a black woman at the turn of the century fighting for her place in society.
Blazing Saddles (1974) – Mel Brooks and Richard Pryor collaborated on this hysterical look at a black sheriff taking charge of a frontier town.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967) – Sidney Poitier stars in this groundbreaking film about a white woman who brings her black fiancee home to meet her parents.
In the Heat of the Night (1967) – Sidney Poitier again challenged conventions when he portrayed a black detective investigating a murder in a rural Southern town.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) – Gregory Peck cemented his place in film history as Atticus Finch, a white lawyer defending a black man accused of rape, in the adaptation of Harper Lee’s masterpiece.
Birth of a Nation (1915) – Considered the first true narrative film, it attracted widespread criticism for its portrayal of African Americans and its glorification of the KKK.