Have you seen these 17 recent Black history films?

Over the past 15 years, Hollywood has invested heavily in stories that center people of color and theater patrons have benefitted from perspectives outside their own thanks to the vivid illustrations of the American experience for those who have often gone unrepresented. With aspects of our country’s controversial history being forcefully omitted in the classroom setting – recent laws in Florida and Tennessee have banned lessons about racism and oppression in schools – we turn to film to immerse us into the past and give us a glimpse of the tone and conflicts of a different time. Some stories we watch with horror, some stories we watch with pride, all in the pursuit of justice and knowledge.

With the recent release of Rustin, the 2023 biopic produced by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production imprint, audiences were granted another vantage point of one of history’s greatest moments, the 1963 March on Washington. Colman Domingo’s charisma and gravitas were on full display as the titular character, civil rights activist Bayard Rustin. The film depicts Rustin’s herculean effort to organize the 1963 demonstration while encountering opposition for being Black and gay in a time where neither was accepted by the masses.

Despite the critical acclaim the film has received in the months since its release, Domingo said in a recent conversation with Vanity Fair that he was “…struck by the amount of people that still haven’t seen Rustin.” Stories like Rustin’s inspire the change makers of the future, ensure they don’t forget the struggles of the past, and serve as a reminder that we have more in common despite our minute differences.

You can stream Rustin today on Netflix. And if you’re looking for more powerful stories about Black history and achievement, check out this list of films you may have missed in recent years and spend some time with some of history’s iconic figures.

Rustin

Directed by: George C. Wolfe

Starring: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Jeffrey Wright

Selma

Directed by: Ava DuVernay

Starring: David Oyelowo, Carmen Ejogo, Oprah Winfrey

The 2015 best picture nominee took audiences to the frontlines of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s quest to secure voting rights in America’s rural south during the early 1960s through non-violent protests.

Detroit

Directed by: Kathryn Bigelow

Starring: John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith

Racial tensions flare during the 1967 Detroit riots as you’re thrusted into the tragic Algiers Motel incident by way of an Oscar winning director and a versatile ensemble of fresh faces and familiar veterans.

When They See Us

Directed by: Ava DuVernay

Starring: Asante Blackk, Caleel Harris, Jharrel Jerome

This Emmy Award-nominated miniseries retells the heartbreaking tragedy of The Central Park Five, a group of young men who were wrongly prosecuted on sexual charges of a young woman in New York City.

Fruitvale Station

Directed by: Ryan Coogler

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Kevin Durand

Ryan Coogler’s feature directorial debut saw the first of his many collaborations with Michael B. Jordan. Jordan shines as Oscar Grant III in a gripping drama where he encounters friends, foes, and reevaluates his life trajectory on New Year’s Eve 2008 in Oakland, CA.

Harriet

Directed by: Kasi Lemmons

Starring: Cynthia Erivo, Leslie Odom Jr., Janelle Monáe

Cynthia Erivo received a Best Actress nomination at the 2020 Academy Awards for her portrayal of the legendary abolitionist who led slaves to freedom through a network of secret passages during the 1800s.

Emancipation

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua

Starring: Will Smith, Ben Foster, Charmaine Bingwa

Will Smith plays an escaped slave jolting through the Louisiana terrain toward freedom after nearly being whipped to death.

Judas and the Black Messiah

Directed by: Shaka King

Starring: Daniel Kaluuya, LaKeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons

LaKeith Stanfield feels the heat as an FBI informant infiltrating the Black Panther Party to gather intelligence on civil rights leader Fred Hampton. Daniel Kaluuya won the 2021 Academy Award for Best Supporting for his moving portrayal of the late Deputy Chairman.

Till

Directed by: Chinonye Chukwu

Starring: Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Frankie Faison

After he is murdered in a brutal, racial motivated attack, Mamie Till-Mobley fights to bring the killers of her 14-year-old son Emmett Till to justice.

Just Mercy

Directed by: Destin Daniel Cretton

Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Foxx, Brie Larson

Michael B. Jordan stars as founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson, who fights to free an innocent man from death row before it’s too late.

Blackkklansman

Directed by: Spike Lee

Starring: John David Washington, Adam Driver, Laura Harrier

Spike Lee adds his artistic flair to the true story of Ron Stallsworth, the black Colorado police officer who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan.

Marshall

Directed by: Reginald Hudlin

Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Josh Gad, Kate Hudson

Set before Thurgood Marshall became the first African American Supreme Court Justice, this film follows one of his early cases as an NAACP lawyer defending a chauffeur whose life teeters on a verdict from a Connecticut jury.

Race

Directed by: Stephen Hopkins

Starring: Stephan James, Jason Sudeikis, Jeremy Irons

Jesse Owens’ journey to track and field immortality sets him on a collision course with racial discrimination at the 1936 Olympic games.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

Directed by: George C. Wolfe

Starring: Oprah Winfrey, Rose Byrne, Renée Elise Goldsberry

Deborah Lacks searches to learn about the mother she never knew, Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose cells changed the course of medicine forever. Based on the book of the same that spent 75 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Directed by: Brian Helgeland

Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Harrison Ford, Nicole Beharie

The late Chadwick Boseman charms as baseball player Jackie Robinson in this biopic depicting the second baseman’s historic signing with the Brooklyn Dodgers, making him the first black player in Major League Baseball.

12 Years a Slave

Directed by: Steve McQueen

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o

A free black man in the 1800s is abducted and sold into slavery in this 2014 Academy Award for Best Picture winner that is inspired by a true story.