Last updated 07/31/2008
AFRICAN AMERICANS AND LAW IN POPULAR CULTURE
A Very Selective List of Movies and Television Series and Writings with African American and Legal Themes
| A SELECTED LIST OF FILMS, TELEVISION SERIES, AND MINISERIES | FOR FURTHER READING | ADDITIONAL RESOURCES |
You are visitor
Since February 14, 2001
A Selected List of Films and Miniseries
The American Experience (1993). Based on Richard Kluger's book Simple Justice, this film follows the attempt to desegregate the public schools in the U. S. south. Also called Simple Justice.
Amistad (1997). Dramatization of the 1839 case against African Americans who mutiny aboard a slave ship (40 U.S. 518 (1841)).
Assault at West Point (1994). Dramatization of the trumped up court martial of a black cadet.
BIrth of a Nation (1915). Extremely controversial film made by D. W. Griffith, purporting to tell the story of the South after the Civil War. Stars Lillian Gish.
Black Like Me (1964). Film version of the 1959 book by John Howard Griffin, a white man, about his travels as a black in the racially segregated America of the 1950s. The book had a tremendous impact on civil rights thinking in the 1960s.
Bojangles (TVM 2001). Gregory Hines as the legendary dancer, William "Bojangles" Robinson.
Boycott (TVM 2001). Docudrama based on the Montgomery bus boycott. Compare with The Long Walk Home.
Chiefs (1983 TV miniseries). Three generations of police search for a serial killer in a Southern town.
The Color of Courage (TVM 1999). Dramatizes the civil rights case of Sipes v. McGhee. Features Roger R. Cross as Thurgood Marshall.
Common Ground (TV 1990). Based on the book by Anthony Lucas about desegregation in Boston
Dangerous Evidence (TV 1999). Lynn Whitfield is a civil rights activist who investigates the wrongful conviction of a Marine for rape.
Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). Based on the Walter Mosley novel.
4 Little Girls (1997). Spike Lee's documentary about the bombing of a Birmingham church that resulted in the deaths of four small girls.
The Ghosts of Mississippi (1996). Features James Woods as Byron de la Beckwith, the murderer of civil rights activist Medger Evers.
Gone wIth the Wind (1939). Stars Vivien Leigh, Clark Gable, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, directed by Victor Fleming in the famous adaptation of the Margaret Mitchell novel. In 2001 Houghton Mifflin fought a successful battle to publish a parody, Alice Randall's The Wind Done Gone.
Good Neighbor Sam (1964). The probate judge is African-American; unfortunately www.imdb.com does not give the name of the actor.
Good Night Sweet Wife: A Murder in Boston (1990). Docudrama based on the murder of a pregnant white lawyer by her husband; the husband blamed a non-existent black man, sparking racial hatred and near riots before he confessed and committed suicide.
Howard Beach: Making a Case for Murder (1989). Docudrama about a racial killing stars Daniel J. Travanti as the prosecutor who tracked down and convicted white teenagers who beat a black man to death in Howard Beach. Also called: In the Line of Duty.
The Hurricane (1999). Denzel Washington plays Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the prize fighter framed for murder.
In the Heat of the Night (1967). This powerful drama features Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger and was one of the first feature films to confront the relationship of racism and police corruption. Followed by They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!
The Inspectors (TVM 1998); The Inspectors: A Shred of Evidence (TVM 2000). Louis Gossett Jr. is a U. S. postal inspector, Claire Riley his love interest as attorney Catherine Hughes.
Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys (TVM 1976). Based on the famous rape case; engendered its own lawsuit. Street v. NBC; 645 F 2d 1227 (1981).
Just Cause (1995). A law professor takes on the case of a young African American accused of murder.
King (TV miniseries 1978). Features Paul Winfield as King and Cecily Tyson as Coretta Scott King.
A Lesson Before Dying (TVM 1999). Based on the Ernest Gaines novel.
The Long Walk Home (1990). Powerful dramatization of the Montgomery bus boycott. Compare with Boycott.
Losing Isaiah (1995). Courtroom drama about the custody battle over an African American boy.
Malcolm X (1992). Dramatization of the life of the civil rights leader.
The Mighty Quinn (1989). Set in the West Indies, but features Denzel Washington as a police officer with professional and personal problems.
Mississippi Burning (1988). Based on the lives and deaths of civil rights workers who came to Mississippi to register black voters in the 1960s. Based on the killings of Viola Liuzzo and her companions.
Mrs. and Mrs. Loving (TVM 1996). Well done dramatization of the case Loving v. Virginia (388 U.S. 1 1967) which finally struck down laws against interracial marriage.
Murder in Harlem (1935). A lawyer helps his girlfriend prove her brother is innocent of murder.
Murder in Mississippi (TVM 1990). Dramatization of the deaths of three civil rights workers in 1963. Compare with Mississippi Burning and The Ghosts of Mississippi.
Native Son (1986). Based on the Richard Wright novel.
The Organization (1971). A third Virgil Tibbs movie, starring Sidney Poitier.
Roots (1977 TV miniseries). Dramatization of Alex Haley's book.
Separate But Equal (TV miniseries, 1991). Sidney Poitier is a determined Thurgood Marshall in this dramatization of the events leading up the Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Selma, Lord, Selma (TVM 1999). Dramatization of the Selma to Montgomery march led by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Simple Justice. See The American Experience.
They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970). Sequel to In the Heat of the Night, also starring Sidney Poitier.
To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Based on the Harper Lee novel. Story of a Southern lawyer defending a black man accused of raping a white woman.
The Tuskegee Airmen (TVM 1995). Dramatization of the attempts to integrate the Air Force during the Second World War.
A Time to Kill (1996). Based on the John Grisham novel about a black man avenging the rape of his daughter.
White Lie (TVM 1991). Gregory Hines as a son investigating the lynching of his father for the alleged rape of a white woman.
Who Killed Martin Luther King? (TVM 1992). Documentary about the assassination.
Television Series
Any Day Now (Lifetime). Features Lorraine Toussaint as a lawyer who gives up her big city practice to continue her father's work in Birmingham, Alabama.
Boston Legal (ABC, 2005--). Kerry Washington plays associate Chelina Hall.
Close To Home (TV series, CBS, 2005--). Starring Jenifer Finnigan as Annabeth Chase, a prosecutor. Kimberly Elise is her direct supervisor, Maureen Scofield).
The Cosby Show (1984-1992). Claire Huxtable is an attorney married to a successful OB-GYN; they raise five lively children, one of whom (Sonia) also becomes an attorney, in this successful series.
First Years (2001). Sydney Tamiia Poitier is one of the first year associates at a big law firm.
Cosby (currently in reruns on TBS). Cosby is Hilton Jacobs, Phylicia Rashad returns as his wife Ruth, and T'Keyah "Crystal" Keymah is their daughter Erica Lucas, who gets a law degree but decides her heart is in being a chef.
For the People (2002--2003) Lifetime TV's television series starring Debbi Morgan as the newly elected District Attorney of Los Angeles.
Kevin Hill (UPN, 2004). Taye Diggs as a New York metrosexual lawyer in a boutique firm headed by Jessie Grey (Michael Michele).
Soul Food (2000-2004). Showtime series based on the television movie of the same name. Features a family of three daughters, one of whom is an attorney.
Sparks (1996-1998). Female attorney joins a brother-brother law firm.
Sweet Justice (1994-1995). Cecily Tyson is partnered with Melissa Gilbert in this series.
Will & Grace (1998-2006). The late Gregory Hines played the role of Ben Doucette, the head of a high-powered law firm, who hires Will Truman, from 1999 through 2000.
Guest stars on television series
Judging Amy (CBS). Episode: Thursday's Child. Kathyrine Dora Brown is Zola Knox, an aggressive African-American attorney filing a class action lawsuit who wants Bruce to join the class. Good scene between her and star Amy Brenneman in a courthouse corridor.
A really comprehensive analysis of the image of African American lawyers in the movies and on tv has yet to be written.
Generally
Brooks, Justin P., Will Boys just be Boyz in the Hood? -- African-American Directors Portray a Crumbling Justice System in Urban America, 22 Oklahoma City University Law Review 1 (1997)
Cauthen, Cramer R. and Alpin, Donald G., III. The Gift Refused: The Southern Lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Client, and Cape Fear, 19 Studies in Popular Culture 257-75. (1996)
Crespino, Joseph, The Strange Career of Atticus Finch, 6 Southern Cultures 9 (2000)
Sheffield, Ric S., Constructing a Social History of African American Lawyers Through Popular Culture: Film, Television and Lawyer Calhoun, 17 Journal of the Legal Profession 45, (1992)
Russell, Margaret M., Law and Racial Realism: Black Women as Celluloid "Legal" Heroines, in Feminism, Media and the Law 136 (1997).
Smith-Khan, Cheryl, African-American Attorneys in Television and Film: Compounding Stereotypes, 22 Legal Studies Forum 119 (1998)
Suggs, Jon Christian, Epistemology and the Law in Four African American Fictions, 14 Legal Studies Forum 141 (1990)
On Amistad
National Archives and Records Administration Amistad page
On The Hurricane
Thibault, Andy, Cool Justice, Conn. L. Trib., Jan. 1, 2001
On Judge Horton and the Scottsboro Boys
Carter, Dan T., Scottsboro: A Tragedy of the American South (1969).
The Case of the Scottsboro Boys: Southern Justice in Black and White (Courtroom Television Network, 1999).
Goodman, James E., Stories of Scottsboro (1994).
Johnson, Claudia, Without Tradition and Within Reason: Judge Horton and Atticus Finch in Court, 45 Alabama Law Review 483 (1994)
On Mrs. and Mrs. Loving
The Loving Case: Virginia's Anti-Miscegenation Statute in Historical Perspective, 52 Va. L. Rev. 1189 (1966).
On To Kill a Mockingbird
Appelo, Tim, Atticus Doesn't Live Here Anymore, 12 California Lawyer 174 (August 1992)
Atkinson, Rob, Liberating lawyers: divergent parallels in Intruder in the Dust and To Kill a Mockingbird, 49 Duke Law Journal 3, 601 (1999)
Fair, Bryan K., Using Parrots to Kill Mockingbirds: Yet Another Racial Prosecution and Wrongful Conviction in Maycomb, 45 Alabama Law Review 403 (1994)
Freedman, Monroe, Argumentum ad Hominen: Atticus Finch as Hero? 130 New Jersey Law Journal 15 (March 16, 1992).
Freedman, Monroe H., Atticus Finch - Right and Wrong, 45 Alabama Law Review 473 (1994)
Freedman, Monroe, Atticus Finch, Esq., R.I.P., 14 Legal Times 20 (February 24, 1992).
Johnson, Claudia, To Kill a Mockingbird : Threatening Boundaries. New York: Twayne Publishers (1994)
Johnson, Claudia, Without Tradition and Within Reason: Judge Horton and Atticus Finch in Court, 45 Alabama Law Review 483 (1994)
Osborne, John Jay, Jr., Atticus Finch - The End of Honor: A Discussion of To Kill a Mockingbird, 30 University of San Francisco Law Review 1139 (1996) Osborne wrote The Paper Chase.
Shaffer, Thomas L., Growing up Good in Macomb, 45 Alabama Law Review 531 (1994)
Shaffer, Thomas L., The Moral Theology of Atticus Finch, 42 University of Pittsburgh Law Review 181 (1981)
Woodard, Calvin, Listening to the Mockingbird, 45 Alabama Law Review 563 (1994)
Corcos, Christine A., An International Guide to Law and Literature Studies (Buffalo: William S. Hein, 2000). Two volumes. Gives numerous citations to publications in related subjects and on specific authors.
MystNoir (African American mysteries and their authors)
Bibliography of novels with African-American lawyer characters in fiction
Last updated 07/31/08