These DVDs are not presented in any particular order. You can find most of them on www.amazon.com , .ca or www.barnesandnoble.com. It is also possible to find some of them in a Blu-ray format on these Web sites.

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There are movies that inspire, there are movies that excite, there are movies that create an effect on multiple levels of human psychology, sociology and passions. Selma takes the viewer on a journey of emotional mixtures, psychological enlightenment and rationalization to the realities of how important voting rights are.

The realities of societal civil rights and the connection between the criminal justice system and juries are rife with inequality and racism.  Having a jury of your peers in many cases is not possible because peers have lost voting rights and serving on a jury is not possible because many are not registered or have felony convictions that keep them from earning their rights.

Selma touched people in a way that encouraged and demanded discussion on many levels beyond emotional turmoil and conflict that many experienced from viewing movies that address Civil Rights issues, the institution of slavery that Blacks have experienced during their captivity to the Americas hundreds of years before is still evident. There isn’t a conclusion to this story because the descendants in generations carry the emotional and psychological baggage from slavery to freedom, from institutional bondage to the denial of societal rights and privileges that are denied based on skin pigmentation.

The movie Selma offers an opportunity not just for Blacks, but the diversity of culture in America to see and experience a small portion of the Civil Rights movement, the importance of voting rights, serving on juries and having a knowledge of the justice system. Historically Blacks are disproportionally denied fair trials, they are historically given harder and longer prison sentences, and Blacks lack the opportunity of fair and impartial juries of their peers because too many “peers” have criminal backgrounds that deny them from serving on juries.

Seasonal Sequel Finds Reunited BFFs Romancing and Reminiscing

When released back in 1999, The Best Man was dismissed by some as merely an African-American variation on The Big Chill, and by others as the Black male answer to the sassy sisters dishing the dirt in Waiting to Exhale. But the romantic romp revolving around a sophisticated set of college grads was actually entertaining enough to stand on its own, and was even well-enough received to land a trio of NAACP Image Awards, including Best Picture.

Set 15 years later, The Best Man Holiday is an eagerly-anticipated sequel reuniting the principal ensemble for a mix of reminiscing, rivalry and sobering reality unfolding during a very eventful Christmas season. Written and directed by Malcolm Lee (Undercover Brother), the film features Morris Chestnut, Nia Long, Terrence Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Taye Diggs, Harold Perrineau, Regina Hall, Melissa De Sousa and Monica Calhoun reprising the roles they played in the first episode.

At the point of departure, we find the gang gathering at the sprawling mansion of Lance Sullivan (Chestnut), an NFL running back on the brink of retirement after a recording-breaking career with the New York Giants. The God-fearing family man is relishing the prospect of spending more quality time with his wife, Mia (Calhoun), and their children.

Headline: Forest Whitaker Delivers Oscar-Quality Performance in Emotionally-Searing Civil Rights Saga

Eugene Allen (1919-2010) served eight presidents over the course of an enduring career in the White House during which he rose from the position of Pantry Man to Head Butler by the time he retired in 1986. In that capacity, the African-American son of a sharecropper felt privileged to be an eyewitness to history, since his tenure coincided with the implementation of most of the landmark pieces of legislation dismantling the Jim Crow system of racial segregation.

Directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Lee Daniels, The Butler is a father-son biopic relating events in Allen’s life as they unfolded against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement. This fictionalized account features Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker in the title role as Cecil Gaines, and his A-list supporting cast includes fellow Oscar-winners Cuba Gooding, Jr., Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Robin Williams and Melissa Leo, as well as nominees Terrence Howard and Oprah Winfrey.

Keep the faith, baby! is the title of the 2002 film (directed by Doug McHenry) about the life and times of the first Black New York Congressperson, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., starring Harry Lennix and Vanessa Williams.  “Keep the faith, baby!” was the favorite saying of this charismatic, revolutionary leader of Harlem, and much of Black America, in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. Surely Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.’s motto must have kept his son, Adam Clayton Powell IV, going as he doggedly strove for ten long years to get his father’s story told. The film is a masterpiece. However, I remember thinking when I first sat down to watch it, “Here we go again, another Hollywood flick purporting to tell our story, but with the obligatory subtle little twists and digs to distort and demean us.” It was no such thing. It is as straight and pure a history of the man and his times as you could want to see.

From its formation in the late 19th Century until well into the 1940s, Major League Baseball operated in accordance with an unwritten rule that the sport was to remain strictly segregated. The tacit understanding among the owners stipulated that no Blacks were to be signed by any clubs, thereby frustrating the aspirations of many African-Americans who dreamed of playing professionally.

In the wake of World War II, however, this untenable state of affairs came to rankle Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey (Harrison Ford), a man who fervently felt that to remain the national pastime, baseball needed to integrate. After all, thousands upon thousands of African-American soldiers were returning home to widespread discrimination based on skin color despite having been willing to die for their country in the conflict overseas.

So, in 1945, Rickey decided to challenge the status quo by being the first GM to put a Black ballplayer on the field. However, he also suspected that pursuit of that landmark moment might be met with considerable resistance, given the virulent strains of racism still running rampant through much of the nation.