"I Have a Dream": Film that Best Depicts the Fight for Civil Rights
by rubyfruit76 | created - 15 Jan 2015 | updated - 17 Jan 2015 | PublicIn the U.S., every year, the third Monday in January is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, honoring the slain Civil Rights leader. Which of the following films best illustrates the struggle for racial equality famously called for in his "I Have a Dream" speech?
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1. 4 Little Girls (1997)
TV-14 | 102 min | Documentary, History
A documentary of the notorious racial terrorist bombing of an African American church during the Civil Rights Movement.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Maxine McNair, Walter Cronkite, Chris McNair, Fred Lee Shuttlesworth
Votes: 3,580 | Gross: $0.13M
2. 42 (2013)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1947, Jackie Robinson becomes the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era when he was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers and faces considerable racism in the process.
Director: Brian Helgeland | Stars: Chadwick Boseman, T.R. Knight, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie
Votes: 102,764 | Gross: $95.00M
3. A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Approved | 128 min | Drama
A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
Director: Daniel Petrie | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee, Diana Sands
Votes: 9,572
4. Ali (2001)
R | 157 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
A biography of sports legend Muhammad Ali, focusing on his triumphs and controversies between 1964 and 1974.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Jon Voight, Mario Van Peebles
Votes: 105,584 | Gross: $58.20M
5. Boycott (2001 TV Movie)
PG | 118 min | Drama, History
Black Americans boycott the public buses during the 1950s civil rights movement.
Director: Clark Johnson | Stars: Jeffrey Wright, Terrence Howard, CCH Pounder, Carmen Ejogo
Votes: 1,083
6. Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
PG-13 | 130 min | Drama, History
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to finally bring a white racist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
Director: Rob Reiner | Stars: Alec Baldwin, James Woods, Whoopi Goldberg, Virginia Madsen
Votes: 12,155 | Gross: $13.05M
7. Glory Road (2006)
PG | 118 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1966, Texas Western coach Don Haskins led the first all-black starting line-up for a college basketball team to the NCAA national championship.
Director: James Gartner | Stars: Josh Lucas, Derek Luke, Austin Nichols, Jon Voight
Votes: 48,841 | Gross: $42.64M
8. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Approved | 108 min | Comedy, Drama
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her African-American fiancé.
Director: Stanley Kramer | Stars: Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn, Katharine Houghton
Votes: 48,944 | Gross: $56.70M
9. Hairspray (1988)
PG | 92 min | Comedy, Drama, Family
A 'pleasantly plump' teenager teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show.
Director: John Waters | Stars: Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry
Votes: 23,456 | Gross: $6.67M
10. The Help (2011)
PG-13 | 146 min | Drama
An aspiring author during the civil rights movement of the 1960s decides to write a book detailing the African American maids' point of view on the white families for which they work, and the hardships they go through on a daily basis.
Director: Tate Taylor | Stars: Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Bryce Dallas Howard
Votes: 493,047 | Gross: $169.71M
11. How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (and Enjoy It) (2005)
Unrated | 85 min | Documentary
Feature-length documentary on renegade filmmaker, novelist, musician and theater impresario, Melvin Van Peebles.
Director: Joe Angio | Stars: Marva Allen, Emanuel Azenberg, Shelley R. Bonus, St. Clair Bourne
Votes: 319
12. The Hurricane (1999)
R | 146 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
The story of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Denzel Washington, Vicellous Shannon, Deborah Kara Unger, Liev Schreiber
Votes: 102,515 | Gross: $50.67M
13. In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Approved | 110 min | Drama, Mystery, Thriller
A black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
Director: Norman Jewison | Stars: Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates, Lee Grant
Votes: 83,604 | Gross: $24.38M
14. King (1978)
271 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stretching from his days as a Southern Baptist minister up to his assassination in Memphis in 1968.
Stars: Paul Winfield, Cicely Tyson, Tony Bennett, Roscoe Lee Browne
Votes: 444
15. The Butler (I) (2013)
PG-13 | 132 min | Biography, Drama
As Cecil Gaines serves eight presidents during his tenure as a butler at the White House, the civil rights movement, Vietnam, and other major events affect this man's life, family, and American society.
Director: Lee Daniels | Stars: Forest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, John Cusack, Jane Fonda
Votes: 119,762 | Gross: $116.63M
16. The Long Walk Home (1990)
PG | 97 min | Drama, History
Two women, black and white, in 1955 Montgomery Alabama, must decide what they are going to do in response to the famous bus boycott led by Martin Luther King.
Director: Richard Pearce | Stars: Sissy Spacek, Whoopi Goldberg, Dwight Schultz, Ving Rhames
Votes: 4,851 | Gross: $4.80M
17. Malcolm X (1992)
PG-13 | 202 min | Biography, Drama, History
Biographical epic of the controversial and influential Black Nationalist leader, from his early life and career as a small-time gangster, to his ministry as a member of the Nation of Islam and his eventual assassination.
Director: Spike Lee | Stars: Denzel Washington, Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo, Spike Lee
Votes: 102,087 | Gross: $48.17M
18. Mississippi Burning (1988)
R | 128 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
Two F.B.I. Agents with wildly different styles arrive in Mississippi to investigate the disappearance of some civil rights activists.
Director: Alan Parker | Stars: Gene Hackman, Willem Dafoe, Frances McDormand, Brad Dourif
Votes: 111,125 | Gross: $34.60M
19. Once Upon a Time... When We Were Colored (1995)
PG | 115 min | Drama, Romance
A narrator tells the story of his childhood years in a tightly knit Afro-American community in the deep south under racial segregation.
Director: Tim Reid | Stars: Al Freeman Jr., Phylicia Rashad, Leon, Paula Kelly
Votes: 562 | Gross: $3.38M
20. Remember the Titans (2000)
PG | 113 min | Biography, Drama, Sport
In 1971 Virginia high school football was everything to the people of Alexandria. But when the school board was forced to integrate an all-black school with an all-white one, the very foundation of football's tradition was put to the test.
Director: Boaz Yakin | Stars: Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris, Ryan Hurst
Votes: 232,026 | Gross: $115.65M
21. The Rosa Parks Story (2002 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 97 min | Biography, Drama
A seamstress recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.
Director: Julie Dash | Stars: Angela Bassett, Peter Francis James, Tonea Stewart, Von Coulter
Votes: 1,026
22.
The Wonderful World of Disney (1997–2023)
Episode:
Ruby Bridges
(1998)
TV-PG | 96 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
When six-year-old Ruby is chosen to be the first African-American to integrate her local elementary school, she is subjected to the true ugliness of racism for the first time.
Director: Euzhan Palcy | Stars: Penelope Ann Miller, Kevin Pollak, Michael Beach, Jean Louisa Kelly
Votes: 1,175
23. The Secret Life of Bees (2008)
PG-13 | 114 min | Drama
In 1964, a teenage girl in search of the truth about her mother runs away to a small town in South Carolina and finds a family of independent women who can connect her to her past.
Director: Gina Prince-Bythewood | Stars: Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys
Votes: 27,962 | Gross: $37.77M
24. Selma (2014)
PG-13 | 128 min | Biography, Drama, History
A chronicle of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s campaign to secure equal voting rights via an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965.
Director: Ava DuVernay | Stars: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Wilkinson
Votes: 95,518 | Gross: $52.08M
25. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
R | 97 min | Action, Crime, Drama
After saving a Black Panther from some racist cops, a black male prostitute goes on the run from "the man" with the help of the ghetto community and some disillusioned Hells Angels.
Director: Melvin Van Peebles | Stars: Melvin Van Peebles, Hubert Scales, John Dullaghan, Simon Chuckster
Votes: 5,869 | Gross: $15.18M
26. Talk to Me (2007)
R | 118 min | Biography, Drama, History
The story of Washington D.C. radio personality Ralph "Petey" Greene, an ex-con who became a popular talk show host and community activist in the 1960s.
Director: Kasi Lemmons | Stars: Don Cheadle, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Bruce McFee, Mike Epps
Votes: 10,274 | Gross: $4.47M
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