Best Movies for Black History Month

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at the age of seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mother who insisted he make his own way in the world, Charles found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered incorporating gospel, country, jazz and orchestral influences into his inimitable style. As he revolutionized the way people appreciated music, he simultaneously fought segregation in the very clubs that launched him and championed artists' rights within the corporate music business. The movie provides a portrait of Charles' musical genius as he overcomes drug addiction while transforming into one of his country's most beloved performers.

A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.

12 Years a Slave is an historical drama film based on the autobiography Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup, a free black man who was kidnapped and sold into slavery. The film is directed by Steve McQueen and written by John Ridley. Chiwetel Ejiofor stars as Solomon Northup. * 12 Years A Slave received nine (9) 2014 Oscar Nominations: "Best Picture" "Best Actor in a Leading Role" (Chiwetel Ejiofor) "Best Actor in a Supporting Role" (Michael Fassbender) "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" (Lupita Nyong'o) "Costume Design" (Patricia Norris) "Directing" (Steve McQueen) "Film Editing" (Joe Walker) "Production Design" (Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker) "Writing - Adapted Screenplay" (John Ridley) *'12 Years A Slave' won a Golden Globe Award (2014) for "Best Motion Picture - Drama". * '12 Years a Slave' received seven (7) 2014 Golden Globe Nominations: "Best Drama" in motion pictures "Best Director" (Steve McQueen) "Best Actor in a Drama" (Chiwetel Ejiofor) "Best Supporting Actress" (Lupita Nyong'o) "Best Supporting Actor" (Michael Fassbender) "Best Screenplay" (John Ridley) "Best Score" (Hans Zimmer)

Biography of Jackie Robinson, the first black major league baseball player in the 20th century. Traces his career in the negro leagues and the major leagues.

Robert Gould Shaw leads the US Civil War's first all-black volunteer company, fighting prejudices of both his own Union army and the Confederates.

Set in 1944 Italy, the story of four black American soldiers who get trapped in a Tuscan village during WWII.

The film tells the story of boxing icon Muhammad Ali from 1964 to 1974 featuring his capture of the heavyweight title from Sonny Liston, his conversion to Islam, criticism of the Vietnam War, banishment from boxing, his return to fight Joe Frazier in 1971, and, lastly, his reclaiming the title from George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle fight of 1974. The movie also discusses the great social and political upheaval in the United States following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

A crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program, having faced segregation while kept mostly on the ground during World War II, are called into duty under the guidance of Col. A.J. Bullard.

The true story of how a group of African American pilots overcame racist opposition to become one of the finest US fighter groups in World War II.

On the hottest day of the year on a street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, everyone's hate and bigotry smolders and builds until it explodes into violence.

A manipulative Southern belle carries on a turbulent affair with a blockade runner during the American Civil War

The film is an ensemble piece about a young white woman, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids during Civil Rights era America in the early 1960s. Skeeter is a journalist who decides to write a controversial book from the point of view of the maids (known as the Help), exposing the racism they are faced with as they work for white families.

In Harlem, an overweight, illiterate teen who is pregnant with her second child is invited to enroll in an alternative school in hopes that her life can head in a new direction.

Cool Runnings is a comedy film that is loosely based on the Jamaica national bobsled team at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

In the mid-1960's, a group of high school friends who live on the Near North Side of Chicago enjoy life to the fullest...parties, hanging out, meeting new friends. Then life changes for two of the guys when they meet a pair of career criminals and get falsely arrested in connection with stealing a Cadillac. We follow their lives through the end of high school and the dramatic end to their school year

Fact based story about the all-black US Cavalry Troop H which protected the Western territories in post Civil War times. The story focuses on the troops attempts to capture an Apache warrior named Vittorio who slaughters the settlers in New Mexico. The film examines the racial tensions that existed between the black soldiers and some of the white soldiers and the truths about the Indian invaders.

A modern day adaptation of the ancient Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, set against the backdrop of gang violence in Chicago.