True independence looks different for everyone. While people look forward to their time off celebrating the Fourth of July tomorrow, Black folks found their freedom in different ways. Check out a list of freedom films that celebrate Black figures and the community at large on their quest for true liberation.
Liberation looks like expression through music, art and activism for Black people. Black folks have always found innovative ways to find true agency over our lives and legacies. In the films listed below, iconic Black leaders like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and Shirley Chisolm’s stories are celebrated and uplifted. Meanwhile, fictional stories like The Color Purple and Alice, rooted in the realities of Black people, focus on freedom from oppression, both outside and within our communities.
These topics are all so layered, but ultimately they discuss the core of what the Fourth of July is about – freedom. However, the real question is who’s truly gained independence?
Independence Day, known colloquially as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America.
This “great” country was essentially started by immigrants who set out for a better future for themselves and their families. Now, it’s turned into the very place that they once escaped. It’s an especially haunting experience for the people who built this country.
While we can’t change that, we can absolutely honor the stories of Black people who have sought out freedom for themselves.
Check out a list of our favorite Black freedom films below:
1. Alice
Alice yearns for freedom as an enslaved woman under iron rule by the brutal owner of a rural Georgia plantation. After a violent clash, she flees through the neighboring woods and stumbles onto the unfamiliar sight of a highway, soon discovering the year is actually 1973. Rescued on the roadside by a disillusioned political activist, Alice quickly comprehends the lies that have kept her in bondage.
Stream for free on Tubi.
2. Harriet
From her escape from slavery through the dangerous missions she led to liberate hundreds of slaves through the Underground Railroad, the story of heroic abolitionist Harriet Tubman is told.
Stream on Netflix.
3. Sarafina!
Sarafina (Leleti Khumalo) is a young black South African struggling for freedom during the apartheid. While she has remained relatively silent in her opposition of the racist government in her country, the movement to make the language of Afrikaans the official language in her school leads her to protest in the streets with her fellow students. Her anti-government views become even more intense when her favorite teacher (Whoopi Goldberg) is arrested for protesting.
Rent on Prime Video.
4. Freedom Writers
A dedicated teacher (Hilary Swank) in a racially divided Los Angeles school has a class of at-risk teenagers deemed incapable of learning. Instead of giving up, she inspires her students to take an interest in their education and planning their future. She assigns reading material that relates to their lives and encourages them all to keep journals.
Stream on Hulu.
5. Hotel Rwanda
Hutu Paul Rusesabagina manages the Hôtel des Mille Collines and lives a happy life with his Tutsi wife and their three children, but when Hutu military forces initiate a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Tutsi minority, Paul is compelled to allow refugees to take shelter in his hotel. As the U.N. pulls out, Paul must struggle alone to protect the Tutsi refugees in the face of the escalating violence later known as the Rwandan genocide.
Stream for free on Tubi.
6. Selma
Although the Civil Rights Act of 1964 legally desegregated the South, discrimination was still rampant in certain areas, making it very difficult for Blacks to register to vote. In 1965, an Alabama city became the battleground in the fight for suffrage. Despite violent opposition, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (David Oyelowo) and his followers pressed forward on an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, and their efforts culminated with President Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Stream on MGM+.
7. Till
The true story of Mamie Till-Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who was brutally lynched in 1955 while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
Stream on MGM+.
8. Shirley
In 1972, the first-ever Black congresswoman, Shirley Chisholm, launched a trailblazing campaign to become the president of the United States.
Stream on Netflix.
9. Just Mercy
After graduating from Harvard, Bryan Stevenson heads to Alabama to defend those wrongly condemned or those not afforded proper representation. One of his first cases is that of Walter McMillian, who is sentenced to die in 1987 for the murder of an 18-year-old girl, despite evidence proving his innocence. In the years that follow, Stevenson encounters racism and legal and political maneuverings as he tirelessly fights for McMillian’s life.
Stream on Prime Video.
10. The Long Walk Home
Odessa Carter (Whoopi Goldberg) needs to get to work as a nanny in the home of the affluent Miriam Thompson (Sissy Spacek), but she refuses to take the bus. Odessa is participating in the Montgomery bus boycott, protesting against the inequality between blacks and whites, so Miriam decides to offer Odessa a ride to work every day. Though the community and Miriam’s husband (Dwight Schultz) insist she not get involved, the relationship between Miriam and Odessa has already changed for the better.
Stream for free on XUMO Play.
11. The Hate U Give
Starr Carter is constantly switching between two worlds — the poor, mostly black neighborhood where she lives and the wealthy, mostly white prep school that she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is soon shattered when she witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend at the hands of a police officer. Facing pressure from all sides of the community, Starr must find her voice and decide to stand up for what’s right.
Rent on YouTube.
12. The Rosa Parks Story
This biopic tells the story of civil rights activist Rosa Parks (Angela Bassett) from her days as a private-school student to her public battle against racism and segregation. As a secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Parks defends local children who have been victimized by racism. But when she is arrested after refusing to give up her bus seat for a white passenger, Parks inspires the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott.
Stream for free on Tubi.
13. Summer of Soul
Over the course of six weeks during the summer of 1969, thousands of people attend the Harlem Cultural Festival to celebrate Black history, culture, music, and fashion.
Stream on Hulu.
14. BlacKkKlansman
Ron Stallworth is the first African-American detective to serve in the Colorado Springs Police Department. Determined to make a name for himself, Stallworth bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan. The detective soon recruits a more seasoned colleague, Flip Zimmerman, into the undercover investigation of a lifetime. Together, they team up to take down the extremist hate group as the organization aims to sanitize its rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream.
Rent on youTube.
15. The Color Purple
An epic tale spanning forty years in the life of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg), an African-American woman living in the South who survives incredible abuse and bigotry. After Celie’s abusive father marries her off to the equally debasing “Mister” Albert Johnson (Danny Glover), things go from bad to worse, leaving Celie to find companionship anywhere she can. She perseveres, holding on to her dream of one day being reunited with her sister in Africa. Based on the novel by Alice Walker.
Rent on Prime Video.
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