Cranston Public Library

Master documentary 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 a flood of rich archival material. A journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. --

"In this poignant true story set in Montgomery, Alabama, a Klansman's grandson must choose which side of history to be on during the Civil Rights Movement." --

Adam Hall is an idealistic young attorney who takes on the death row clemency case of his one-time Klansman grandfather, Sam Cayhall. With just 28 days before the execution, Adam sets out to retrace the events leading to the crime for which Sam was convicted. As the impending death sentence looms closer, Adam works quickly to uncover the family's history for any hidden clues. In a white-knuckle series of twists and turns, Adam discovers deceptions...

"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...

Contains 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 led to President Kennedy sponsoring the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the March on Washington. Portions of this film were reenacted using vintage cameras and film...

"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...

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice.

Set against the stirrings of the civil rights movement and a rising wave of burgeoning Black pride. This tells the story of Duff, a railroad section hand who is forced to confront racial prejudice and self-denial when he falls in love with Josie, an educated preacher's daughter. An uplifting story about a man and a woman whose love overcomes racial and class barriers.

"Bryan Cranston stars in a riveting look at the formidable challenges and demons faced by President Lyndon Johnson on his tumultuous first year in office, from his accidental ascension to the presidency in November 1963, to his relentless fight to win passage of a landmark Civil Rights Bill with the election of 1964 looming." --

"Following his journey across the mountaintops and valleys while capturing the Civil Rights Movement at large, the film provides intimate, firsthand insights on Dr. King, exploring moments of personal challenge and elation, and an ongoing movement that is as important today as when Dr. King first shone a light on the plight of his fellow African Americans." --