The Toledo-Lucas County Public Library offers many African American titles.  Choose from a variety of fiction and non-fiction films dealing with various themes and featuring many different African-American actors and directors.  Here are some suggestions.

For more suggestions, email the Audio-Visual Department Staff at Main Library, or call 419-259-5285.

Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman – Cicely Tyson.  Jane Pittman, a former slave, is celebrating her 110th birthday as the Civil Rights movement is heating up.  She recounts her experiences of slavery, the Civil War and offers her views on the current situation.

Beloved – Oprah Winfrey.  Some years after the Civil War, Sethe, a former slave, is struggling to make a life for her and her daughter in Ohio.  But painful secrets from the past threaten her attempts.  One day a mysterious girl appears who may help Sethe to confront the past.

Do the Right Thing – Spike Lee.  Traces the events of a single Brooklyn day, in a racially diverse yet tense neighborhood.  On the hottest day of the year, prejudices and hatred will explode into violence.

Eve’s Bayou – Samuel L. Jackson.  Eve Batiste is ten years old when she learns of her father’s infidelities.  Struggling to make sense of it all, she seeks counsel from the local mystic who is rumored to be involved in black magic. 

House of Dies Drear (jF) – A young man and his family move into a home in rural Ohio, and discover that the house was once used as part of the Underground Railroad.  Soon they begin to suspect that the ghosts of the slaves who passed through are still there.

Lean On Me – Morgan Freeman.  The true story of high school principal Joe Clark who armed himself with a bullhorn and a baseball bat to rid the school of gang-members and drug-dealers to make life better for the rest of the students.

Patch of Blue – Sidney Poitier. A sheltered young woman, accidentally blinded by her mother, when she was five, meets a man in the park.  He opens her up to the world around her, but when her mother finds out he is black, she is forbidden to see him.

Putney Swope – For years Putney Swope has been the only black executive at a New York ad agency.  When a twist of fate leaves him as Chairman he replaces the all-white boardroom with an all-black one and turns the ad agency into “Truth and Soul, Inc.” 

Tuskegee Airmen (940.5449) – The story of the African-American pilots of World War II, who not only had to fight on the European and Pacific fronts, but also at home.  These men were forced to work and train harder because of a segregated and prejudiced Army and achieved excellent records in war, only to come home to fight against racism.

Soldier’s Story – Denzel Washington.  In Louisiana, a black Sergeant is found shot to death outside of an Army base.  A military lawyer, who is also black, is sent to conduct an investigation.  Facing an uncooperative chain of command and fearful troops, he must deal with deceit and prejudice in order to discover the truth.