The activist and comedian examines key events in black history, from the beginnings of the slave trade in Africa and the Middle Passage to the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Lives Matter movement.

This biography of Malcolm X draws on new research to trace his life from his troubled youth through his involvement in the Nation of Islam, his activism in the world of Black Nationalism, and his assassination. Years in the making, it is a definitive biography of the legendary black activist. Of the great figures in twentieth-century American history perhaps none is more complex and controversial than Malcolm X. Constantly rewriting his own story,...

"Marcus Mosiah Garvey, b. Jamaica 1887, d. 1940, organized the black nationalist movement of the 1920's in the United States. Garvey went to New York City in 1916 and recruited followers for his Universal Negro Improvement Assosiation. Its program was to unite all black peoples through the establishment in Africa of a country and government of their own. garvey was a magnetic speaker and led his followers in parades through Harlem. In 1921 he claimed...

Comprised of found footage and sound bites, Let the fire burn describes the conflict between the Black Power group MOVE and the people and city government of Philadelphia, culminating in the armed standoff of May 13, 1985, in which one police officer and eleven MOVE members were killed, ending when Philadelphia police dropped a bomb on the row house that served as MOVE headquarters.