A visual timeline demonstrating the interconnected history of slavery, Jim Crow, redlining and mass incarceration in the US. (via Ben and Jerry's)
"The 13th Amendment is credited with ending slavery, but it stopped short of that: It made an exception for those convicted of crimes. After emancipation, Black people, once seen as less than fully human “slaves,” were seen as less than fully human “criminals.” The provisional governor of South Carolina declared in 1865 that they had to be “restrained from theft, idleness, vagrancy and crime.” Laws governing slavery were replaced with Black Codes governing free black people — making the criminal-justice system central to new strategies of racial control."
– Bryan Stevenson, "Why American Prisons Owe Their Cruelty to Slavery," New York Times (2019)
From Emmy(r)-winners Peter, George and Teddy Kunhardt (King in the Wilderness, John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls), this feature documentary follows Bryan Stevenson - lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative - through his experiences as a capital defense attorney and advocate for community-based reform.
Interweaving watershed moments from Stevenson's cases with insights from his clients, colleagues and members of his family, True Justice: Bryan Stevenson's Fight for Equality focuses on Stevenson's life and career - particularly his indictment of the U.S. criminal-justice system for its role in codifying modern systemic racism - and tracks the intertwined histories of slavery, lynching, segregation and mass incarceration.
(Image and Description from Kanopy)
On July 10, 2015, Sandra Bland, a vibrant 28-year-old African American from Chicago, was arrested for a traffic violation in a small Texas town. After three days in custody, she was found hanging from a noose in her cell. Bland's death was quickly ruled a suicide, sparking allegations of a murder and cover-up, and turning her case and name into a rallying cry nationwide.
From the Oscar(r)-nominated, Emmy(r)- and Peabody Award-winning team of directors/producers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner, SAY HER NAME: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF SANDRA BLAND examines this story in depth, revealing previously unknown details. The film follows the Bland family and legal team from the first weeks after her death as they try to find out what really happened in that jail cell in Texas. Embedded with the family and their lawyers, the filmmakers tracked the story for two years, drawing on key documents, jail footage and interviews with those closest to the events. (Image and Description from Kanopy)
Strong Island (2017) by Yance Ford
The forces of family, grief and racial injustice converge in this Oscar-nominated documentary exploring the murder of filmmaker Yance Ford's brother.
(Image and Description from Netflix, currently streaming for free on YouTube)
13th (2016) – Directed by Ava Durvernay
Combining archival footage with testimony from activists and scholars, director Ava DuVernay's examination of the U.S. prison system looks at how the country's history of racial inequality drives the high rate of incarceration in America. This piercing, Oscar-nominated film won Best Documentary at the Emmys, the BAFTAs and the NAACP Image Awards.
(Image and Description from Netflix, currently streaming for free on YouTube)
Central Park Five (2012) – Directed by David McMahon, Ken Burns, and Sarah Burns
THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE, from award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns, tells the story of the five black and Latino teenagers from Harlem who were wrongly convicted of raping a white woman in New York City's Central Park in 1989. This Peabody Award winning film chronicles the Central Park Jogger case, for the first time from the perspective of the five teenagers whose lives were upended by this miscarriage of justice.
On April 20, 1989, the body of a woman barely clinging to life is discovered in Central Park. Within days, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam confess to her rape and beating after many hours of aggressive interrogation at the hands of seasoned homicide detectives. The five serve their complete sentences, between 6 and 13 years, before another man, serial rapist Matias Reyes, admits to the crime, and DNA testing supports his confession.
In 2002, based upon Matias Reyes's confession, a judge vacated the original convictions of the Central Park Five. A year later, the men filed civil lawsuits against the City of New York, and the police officers and prosecutors who had worked toward their conviction. On June 19, 2014, the New York Times reported that New York City had agreed to a settlement.
(Image and Description from Kanopy)
