VHS, 56 min., 1987

An award-winning documentary which takes viewers on a disturbing voyage through American social history. It traces for the first time the evolution of the deeply rooted stereotypes which have fueled anti-black prejudice. Light is shed on the origins and devastating consequences of this 150-year-long parade of bigotry. Situating each stereotype historically in white society's shifting needs to justify racist oppression from slavery to the present, Ethnic Notions reveals how popular culture both shapes and reflects public attitudes.

VHS, 60 min. each, 1987, Study guide available CC

Six part comprehensive television documentary on the American civil rights movement, 1954-1965. The series focuses on the people, the events, and the issues of those turbulent years.

1. Awakenings (1954-1956) - Highlights of the events that began the modern black freedom struggle.

2. Fighting Back (1957-1962) Federal Troops in front of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas - Exploration of the lawsuits brought by parents on behalf of their children when blacks rejected the notion of "separate but equal" education.

3. Ain't Scared of Your Jails (1960-1961) - Four related stories are explored: the lunch counter sit-ins of 1960; the formation of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC; the impact of the movement on the 1960 presidential campaign; and the freedom rides of 1961.

4. No Easy Walk (1962-66) - The civil rights phenomenon is placed in a broad historical context, describing the growing commitment of activists to nonviolent tactics.

5. Mississippi: Is This America? (1962-1964) - Focuses on the extraordinary personal risks faced by ordinary citizens as they assumed responsibility for social change, particularly the 1962-1964 voting rights campaign inMore than 25,000 marchers joined the historic march from Selma to Montgomery. Mississippi.

6. Bridge to Freedom (1965) - Highlights the historic fifty mile march for freedom in Selma, Alabama as the last great gathering of the southern-based movement, and provides an opportunity to examine the gains made by the civil rights protests. 

VHS, 55 min. each, 1989, Study guide available CC

Eight-part continuation of the powerful civil rights series that brought together millions of blacks and whites in an affirmation of the democratic process. Here is the most comprehensive reappraisal of the leaders and events that brought the civil rights movement from the south to the rest of the nation from 1965 through the 1980's.

1. The Time Has Come (1964-1966) - Explores the influence of Malcolm X and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in their call for "Black Power" and the 1966 Meredith March Against Fear in Mississippi.

2. Two Societies (1965-1968) - Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference travel to Chicago in an attempt to apply southern movement tactics to the urban north. In Detroit, frustration and anger build to urban violence as blacks and law officers clash on city streets and America appears to be a nation out of control.

3. Power! (1966-1968) - Blacks look for new ways to control their communities - the ballot box, the streets, and the schools. Among the events profiled: Carl Stokes becomes the first black mayor of Cleveland; in Oakland, young blacks form the Black Panther Party in an effort to quell continuing police harassment.

4. The Promised Land (1967-1968) - Moved by an increasing level of poverty, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his staff begin to organize a Poor People's Campaign in Washington, DC, in an effort to embarrass and motivate a reluctant federal government. In the midst of the campaign, Dr. King is called away to help black sanitation workers on strike in Memphis and is assassinated there on April 4, 1968.

5. Ain't Gonna Shuffle No More (1964-1972) - An awareness and sense of pride emerge through the struggle of World Heavyweight Champion Cassius Clay to be called by his new Islamic name, Muhammad Ali. A new generation of African Americans begins to redefine itself.

6. A Nation of Law? (1968-1971) - In Chicago, Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark are killed during an early morning raid by police; inmates at New York's Attica prison take over the prison in an effort to attract national attention to intolerable conditions. These events come to symbolize the violence of a hardened political regime.

7. The Keys to the Kingdom (1974-1980) - Examines the relationship between law and grassroots political struggle as it chronicles black efforts to inject substance into promises of equality. The movement's focus is on the keys to the kingdom: jobs and education.

8. Back to the Movement (1979-mid 1980's) - Conclusion of the series with an examination of the political and economic changes experienced concurrently by two cities in the north and south: Chicago and Miami. Includes retrospective of the people who made this movement a force for change in America. We listen as those who have worked for justice reflect on their continuing struggle. 

VHS, 30 min., 1994

Skills and work songs are documented of the gandy dancers, the railroad section crew members whose physical movements were synchronized by a "caller." The caller sung work chants ensuring safety and pacing, while spiritually uplifting the men at their toil. The gandy dancers expertise in railroad track maintenance and their work song tradition is unparalleled. 

VHS, 58 min, 1994

Chronicles one of the most momentous and least known sagas of American history the great migration of African Americans from the rural South to Northern and Western cities. Between 1917 and 1970, in two great waves interrupted by the Depression, 6 million blacks created a dynamic culture outside the South, changing America forever. 

VHS, 56 min.,  2003

The 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision by the United States Supreme Court required school districts to integrate the schools and end the long standing 'separate, but equal' policy that had been in place for many years.  Many districts opposed the court's ruling; but a few, including the school board in the small town of Hoxie in Northeast Arkansas, voted to comply voluntarily, beginning with the start of school in July of 1955.  They felt that it was the right thing to do.  This video details the conflicts and emotions that erupted after the media and other outsiders became involved.

VHS, 57 min., 1989

A classical tribute to the life and philosophy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. interpreted through a dramatic ballet focusing on five key events of the 1960s civil rights movement: Rosa Park's refusal to relinquish her seat on an Alabama bus, the historic march to Selma, Dr. King's letter from a Birmingham jail, his assassination, and funeral. 

VHS, 25 min., 1986

When 200,000 civil rights marchers, black and white, gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, they expected to hear strong words from their spiritual leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. What they did not expect was a speech of such heartfelt passion and poetic eloquence that it echoes still in our memory.