The struggles of the African American people for their own emancipation, from the very early years of their presence in the New World, have been an inspiration and a beacon casting a spotlight on wider battles for democracy and social change. This includes the struggle for the transition to a new socialist order, as well as the major structural reforms won along the way. No revolution in this country is possible without a deep understanding of this legacy and its full potential for the future.
African American Freedom Struggle
19 Video Lectures in 18 hours by Claybourne Carson of Stanford University Access Here
Black Reconstruction in the South
A one-hour lecture with David Blight, Yale University. Free download of ‘Black Reconstruction’ by WEB DuBois HERE
Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet
One-Hour Video of the 1964 Detroit Lecture Access Here
Angela Davis Interviewed by Julian Bond
Two-Hour Session on Explorations in Black Leadership
Slavery in the Making of America
Four film episodes, each about an hour long, tells the story of slavery in the U.S. from 1619 to the defeat of Reconstruction
Black Poet/Blues People: Amiri Baraka from Jazz to Hip-Hop
Several hours of poetry and music featuring Amiri Baraka, author of ‘Blues People’
Inventing the White Race
King: A Rare Filmed Record. Democracy Now spends an hour featuring an historic look at the movement that led up to that March on Washington. The one-hour video airs major excerpts of the rarely seen 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record…From Montgomery to Memphis. The film was directed by Sidney Lumet and produced by Ely Landau, largely made from original newsreel footage. The film was played at a one-time-only event March 24th, 1970, in theaters across the country. The film was nominated for an Academy Award and is listed in the National Film Registry. But ever since 1970, the documentary has been rarely seen—until now, as the distributors of the film have given us permission to share it with you. The film has just been released as a two-DVD set by Kino Lorber. It begins December 1955 with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addressing a full church in Montgomery, Alabama. It was just days after Rosa Parks was arrested. The African community—the African-American community in Montgomery had gathered to decide whether to begin what became the famous Montgomery bus boycott. Access Here
‘Black Power’ and other works of CLR James. The online archive
Contains links to online version of some of his books, and lesser-know writings.
This powerful one-hour documentary from the 1970s features the rise of Detroit’s League of Revolutionary Black Workers. It’s an excellent introduction to the intersection of race and class, and revolutionary nationalism with class struggle
1971 Film: The Black Panther Party and the Murder of Fred HamptonThis 90-minute black-and-white film has remarkable footage capturing the revolutionary spirit of the BPP. Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 — December 4, 1969) was an African-American activist and deputy chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP). He was killed as he lay in bed in his apartment by a tactical unit of the Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office (SAO), in conjunction with the Chicago Police Department (CPD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Party. His family won a civil suit against the City of Chicago, but his killers remain free. Good for the discussion of insurgent Black youth and revolutionary politics in the 1960s.SNCC and the Black Panther Party Archives. Huey Newton, Bobby Seale, Fred Hampton, Fannie Lou Hamer, Rap Brown, Stolely Carmichael Angela Davis and other Black leaders from the 1960s and 1970s. Some Videos, and dozens of mp3 files.Angela Davis on the Prison Industrial Complex. 17 Lectures as audio files on topics like, Black Men in Prison, Women’s growing incarceration rates and many more. Use a few for a study group, or use them all.
Martin Delaney: Downloadable Book. ‘The Condition, Elevation, Emigration, and Destiny of the Colored People of the United States (1852)’ is one of the classics of Black Nationalism in the U.S. and of the Abolitionist MovementBob Moses’ Remarkable History Lecture. The 2013 Martin Luther King Jr. a Memorial Convocation featured Bob Moses, Harvard-trained educator who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement and later founded the nationwide U.S. Algebra project. Moses discusses the ‘Three Ages’ of the Constitution from the perspective of Radical Democracy and its Expansion, especially in education. Starts at 41 minute, about 45 minutes long.
Slavery by Another Name. Powerful 90 PBS film history of Jim Crow, based on the book by the same name by Douglas A. Blackmon. It challenges one of Americans’ most cherished assumptions: the belief that slavery in this country ended with the Emancipation Proclamation. The film tells how even as chattel slavery came to an end in the South in 1865, thousands of African Americans were pulled back into forced labor with shocking force and brutality until the period after World War2, when it began to be challenged more effectively.
