Portland Public Library presents the Civil Rights Film Series

Portland, Maine - Join Portland Public Library for a Civil Rights Film Series presented on Thursday evenings in January at 6:30pm in the Rines Auditorium.  We will present films from the California Newsreel collection.  California Newsreel has produced and distributed cutting-edge social issue films for activists and educators since 1968. Today it is the oldest, independent non-profit documentary center in the country and the first systematically to integrate media production and distribution with the media needs of contemporary social change movements.

Film schedule

Thursday, January 5th - Hoxie: The First Stand
How many people know that the first battle to implement the Brown vs Board of Education school desegregation decision was fought in the small, rural town of Hoxie, Arkansas? Or that it became a flashpoint because it offered a peaceful alternative to the bloody Massive Resistance campaigns of the next decade? Hoxie sparked the first deployment of federal agents in support of integration and the first court order overturning state segregation laws. But it also showed that unscrupulous politicians would fan unfounded fears into violent anti-government fury, all too reminiscent of similar movements today.


Thursday, January 12th - The Road to Brown
The Road to Brown tells the story of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling as the culmination of a brilliant legal assault on segregation that launched the Civil Rights movement. It is also a moving and long overdue tribute to a visionary but little known black lawyer, Charles Hamilton Houston, "the man who killed Jim Crow."

Thursday, January 19th - Negroes With Guns
Robert F. Williams was the forefather of the Black Power movement and broke dramatic new ground by internationalizing the African American struggle. Negroes with Guns is not only an electrifying look at an historically erased leader, but also provides a thought-provoking examination of Black radicalism and resistance and serves as a launching pad for the study of Black liberation philosophies. Insightful interviews with historian Clayborne Carson, biographer Timothy Tyson, Julian Bond, and a first person account by Mabel Williams, Robert's wife, bring the story to life.

Thursday, January 26th - Freedom On My Mind
Nominated for an Academy Award, winner of both the American Historical Association and the Organization of American Historians awards for best documentary, this landmark film tells the story of the Mississippi freedom movement in the early 1960s when a handful of young activists changed history.


For more information, please go to: https://www.portlandlibrary.com/series/civil-rights-film-series/


Each film is 60 minutes with the exception of Freedom on My Mind which is 110 minutes.  All films at Portland Public Library are free and open to the Public.  Refreshments are provided.