The all black casts, the black directors, the star studded cast is all a way to end your black history month. As a black female, seeing an all black cast in a movie is motivational. It tells people to follow their dreams and they can be just as good as anyone else. Being able to see this as a little girl or boy really helps more than anyone can know. Seeing someone that looks just like you accomplish so much is so inspirational. Black movies with all black casts or black directors are hard to come by. Here are just a few of my favorites.

Roots- I remember watching Roots as a kid and not seeing the depth of the series. Roots follows the story of a slave named Kunta Kinte. This series gives you a great description of how life truly was as a slave. It doesn’t sugarcoat anything at all which I love. Now that I’m older, I truly see the depth of the series and how truly hard things were back then. Out of any of the movies I recommend, I recommend Roots the most.

Dreamgirls- In the movie Dreamgirls, it shows three black women making it to the top of the music world. It also shows the racism and hardships they had to go through just to make it there. Not being able to play shows because white people didn’t want to hear it, having to change their sound to fit in, and having their songs get stolen because white radio stations wouldn’t play it. This movie shows how hard it truly was for black people to make it to the top in the 50s-80s. 

Poetic Justice- Poetic Justice is a story of two heart-broken people who find love again. Lucky and Justice both deal with their fair share of problems but find comfort in each other throughout the movie. This movie features an all black cast as well as a black director, John Singleton. Poetic Justice shows a glimpse of how life was in the 90’s in California. 

Princess and The Frog- I know it’s a kid’s movie but I have such fond memories watching Princess and the Frog when I was a kid. Being a little black girl and finally seeing a princess that looks like you felt like you were on top of the world. It truly felt great to see it and I feel as if the movie influenced my life a lot as a kid.

Black Panther- Everyone has seen Black Panther, but I feel for black culture it honestly did so much more than people think. It helped so many people embrace who they truly are. Being the first black marvel character with its own movie is truly revolutionary. Yes, it truly is a great movie but to see an all black cast on screen and all of them be dark skin or brown skin felt like a necessary change in black movies.

Malcolm X- The 1992 film directed by Spike Lee simple entitled Malcom X tells the story of his life. I knew who Malcom X was but not who he was as a person and everything about him. In the film adaptation of his life you learned truly what got him to where he was. I feel this movie is important to watch because I feel people just know about MLK and not really Malcom X. Malcolm X was a huge part of the black community and still is to this day.