[imagesource: Associated Press]

The Black Lives Matter protests in the US have refocused attention on systemic racism, and the experiences not only of African Americans but black people globally.

The movement towards equality has to be accomplished by all people, but for many allies of the movement, or people seeking to be allies, it’s not easy to fully understand the history that has informed the lived reality of black people today.

That can never be achieved in its entirety unless actually lived, but the first step, writes Rolling Stone, is “understanding and compassion”.

For decades, documentaries have been a prime source in terms of detailing the numerous battles African Americans have waged in the U.S. — for basic human rights, freedom and justice to simply staying alive — from almost every angle imaginable.

Below you’ll find five documentaries that act as a starting point for understanding why Black Lives Matter is not only important, but also forms part of a long history of protest and struggle.

The Central Park Five (2012)

Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, and David McMahon tackle the heartbreaking story of the Central Park Five case where five young black youths were wrongly accused of the murder and rape of a woman in Central Park.

The Central Park Five case doubles as an indictment of New York’s feverish political climate at the time, which provoked prosecutors to cut corners in order to get faster convictions.

It’s also a brutal reminder of Donald Trump’s inherent racism. He took out multiple newspaper adverts demanding that the five accused receive the death penalty.

Despite evidence that led to their exoneration, he has never apologised.

Watch the full documentary, here:

Once you’ve watched the documentary, watch When They See Us on Netflix, a dramatisation of these events in a four-part limited series:

A Class Divided (1985)

Stephen Colbert asked recent guest Run the Jewels’ Killer Mike what white people could do in the struggle for racial equality, and he responded: “Spend an hour watching Jane Elliott”.

This Frontline episode covers the diversity educator’s famous experiment, conducted in her third-grade classroom the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, that exposes how easy it is to implant and propagate prejudice.

Elliott divides her class by blue-eyed and brown-eyed students, labeling the former superior and the latter inferior.

Watching the children take to their roles  — one group dominant and ebullient, the other submissive and dejected — is eye-opening and never less than heartbreaking

You can watch the full documentary, here:

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? (2017)

Travis Wilkerson digs deep into his family history to grapple with the guilt of a crime that his great-grandfather committed.

“In 1946, my great-grandfather murdered a black man named Bill Spann and got away with it.”

…Inspired by George Zimmerman’s killing of Trayvon Martin, Wilkerson contemplates the bigots at his own dinner table, and his struggles to in some small way pay reparations for his ancestor’s sin.

White Americans have been, and continue to be, complicit in our country’s shameful mistreatment of people of color. We should all take a page out Wilkerson’s book.

The doccie is vailable on Amazon Prime.

4 Little Girls (1997)

Spike Lee uses his expert storytelling skills to document the bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama church that took the lives of Addie Mae Collins (14), Carole Robertson (14), Cynthia Wesley (14), and Denise McNair (11).

[4 Little Girls] is a forensic account of a chilling domestic terrorist act, from first-person testimonies about the victims and the incident itself to the eventual conviction of the man responsible, Robert Chambliss. But it’s also a penetrating look at what was going on in the city where it happened, the bigotry that fueled it, and the community that mourned their loss

Watch the documentary in full, above.

Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (2012)

Angela Davis is a feminist and political icon who went from college professor and early supporter of the Black Panthers to a fugitive and then a political prisoner.

Filmmaker Shola Lynch lets Davis speak about her life and times in her own words; it’s an excellent introduction (should one be needed) to a crucial figure of the movement.

Watch it on Amazon Prime and Vudu.

For more documentaries, Rolling Stone listed 18 in total, here.

[source:rollingstone]