To Kill A Mocking Bird: This 1962 film tells the story of a lawyer in the Depression-era South, who defends a black man against an undeserved rape charge.
A Time to Kill: In this 1996 film starring Samuel L. Jackson, Sandra Bullock, and Matthew McConaughey revolves around the rape of a young girl, the arrest of the assailants and their subsequent murder by the girl’s father.
Higher Learning: This 1995 drama starring Tyra Banks, Laurence Fishburne, Omar Epps, Ice Cube and Michael Rapaport, follows the changing lives of three incoming freshman on a racially charged college campus.
Mississippi Burning: This 1988 film starring Gene Hackman and Willem Dafoe is loosely based on the FBI investigation into the real-life murders of three civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964.
Rosewood: This 1997 dramatic film, starring Ving Rhames, John Voight, Don Cheadle, and the late Esther Rolle, is loosely based on the true story of a 1923 horrific racist lynch mob attack on an African-American community in rural Florida.
In the Heat of the Night: This 1967 film tells the story of a black police detective who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a racist small town in Mississippi. The film won five Academy Awards, including best picture and stars Sidney Poitier.
Ghosts of Mississippi: This 1996 stars Whoopi Goldberg, James Woods, and Alec Baldwin and tells the story of the widow of murdered civil rights leader Medgar Evers and a district attorney struggle to finally bring his killer to justice.
The Hurricane: This 1999 film starring Denzel Washington tells the story of Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
Red Tails: This 2012 action film tells the story of African-American pilots in the Tuskegee training program who faced segregation during World War II.
Bamboozled: This 2000 Spike Lee-directed satire tells the story of a frustrated black TV writer who proposes a blackface minstrel show in protest, but to his dismay it becomes a hit.
Trayvon Martin’s death has sparked a national debate regarding the state of American civil rights.
In the past, there have been numerous Hollywood films that dealt with racially charged issues and brought stories of civil rights injustices to life.
Here are our picks of the most memorable films that dealt with themes of racial injustice.
Follow Chris Witherspoon on Twitter at @WitherspoonC
