Documentaries on Black History

Ocumentaries are wonderful windows into the past and present. They are visual and audio experiences that allow us to gain a greater understanding of a time and/or place in a relatively short amount of time. The African Diaspora has been, quite possibly, the subject of more documentaries than any other group. The epic lives of the men and women whose ancestors hail from the second largest continent has enlivened the genre whether one is focusing on music, social movements, or sports. Below are ten films that provide an incisive look at the political history of the Diaspora over the last 150 years. Many of them are available on YouTube in their entirety.

1. Black In Latin America (directed by Henry Louis Gates): With the media often focusing of Black people in Africa and the United States, Black In Latin America shines a much needed light on the lives of the Diaspora living south of the Rio Grande. With large segmentson Mexico and Brazil, and smaller segments on other nations in Central and South America, as well as in the Caribbean, this documentary shows that there are few places in the western hemisphere that have not been beneficially touched by people of African descent.