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Film

Do the Right Thing

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Film

Do the Right Thing

Spike Lee · 1989

A day in the life of a Brooklyn neighborhood explodes into racial violence, offering a searing portrait of systemic racism, neighborhood displacement, and the limits of nonviolent protest.

Appears in Curriculum

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Related Cultural Works

12 Years a Slave
Featured Film

12 Years a Slave

Steve McQueen · 2013

Freedom and ResistanceCivil Rights

Based on Solomon Northup's 1853 memoir, this Oscar-winning film offers an unflinching depiction of American slavery and the brutal dehumanization of enslaved people.

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13th
Featured Documentary

13th

Ava DuVernay · 2016

Civil RightsFreedom and ResistanceVoting Rights

Examines the intersection of race, justice, and mass incarceration in the United States, tracing the loophole in the 13th Amendment that allowed involuntary servitude to continue.

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1619
Featured Literature

1619

Nikole Hannah-Jones · 2019

Freedom and ResistanceCivil RightsEducation

The Pulitzer Prize-winning magazine project that reexamines the founding of the United States by centering the year 1619, when the first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia.

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Featured Music

A Change Is Gonna Come

Sam Cooke · 1964

Civil RightsMusic and ArtsFreedom and Resistance

Cooke's soul classic became a rallying cry of the civil rights movement, expressing hope and resilience in the face of racial injustice — often called the greatest civil rights song ever written.

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Literature

A Raisin in the Sun

Lorraine Hansberry · 1959

Civil RightsBlack BusinessFreedom and Resistance

The first play by a Black woman on Broadway, it follows the Younger family's dreams and struggles in 1950s Chicago, confronting housing discrimination and Black aspiration.

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Featured Photography

American Gothic, Washington, D.C.

Gordon Parks · 1942

World War IIBlack BusinessFreedom and Resistance

Parks photographed Ella Watson, a Black government employee, standing beside the American flag and symbols of domestic labor. The image uses portraiture to ask questions about citizenship, work, patriotism, and the meaning of American democracy.

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