Embracing Black History Month

I’ve become more interested in history as I’ve gotten older. Maybe I just better understand why history matters, maybe because I now get to learn about it on my terms, or maybe it’s because I’m not being tested on it. 🙂

I’ve also gotten way more into black history thanks to more movies and media covering historical and social justice issues. I had a ton of movies on my list to watch and what better time to binge then during Black History Month. Here’s what I watched and read in the last few months that I loved.

Movies

• Selma: The movie was SO good. I assume I learned some of this in school but have forgotten about it, but I appreciated learning about some of the super shady tactics to keep black people from voting even after they won rights. Yes, it’s heartbreaking in some scenes, but I found it to be more inspirational and informative.

• I Am Not Your Negro: I have seen James Baldwin in documentaries on the past, but I didn’t know much about him until watching this movie. It opened a whole new world to me and now I want to read some of his books/works. It was not lost on me that his commentary of race in America from the 70s are still apropos for today, and it’s just sad whenever I think how little we’ve grown as a nation on equality, justice and respect for all people.

• 12 Years a Slave: Awful and amazing all at once. Such an amazing movie.

• Moonlight: In many ways this isn’t really black history. It’s life and the characters happen to be black. Regardless it was engaging and the acting was so good. The way this was talked about though reflects our current issues in society. This shouldn’t even be classified as a movie about African American life. It should just be positioned up as a coming of age movie.

• Mudbound

Books

• Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story by Martin Luther King Jr. (Audible)

Image Credit: Theatrical one-sheet for I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO, a Magnolia Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Magnolia Pictures.