Top 10 Movies to Celebrate Black History Month

HARRIET is the incredible story about how Harriet Tubman became Harriet Tubman, the woman who saved thousands of slaves and brought them to freedom before the Civil War. HARRIET is an exceptionally well-made movie with a strong Christian worldview, but it does have intense scenes and some foul language.

JUST MERCY tells the compellingly true story about an African-American lawyer in Alabama who takes the case a black man falsely accused of murder and placed on death row. JUST MERCY is highly emotional, moving and absorbing, with compelling performances and a strong Christian, moral worldview, but MOVEIGUIDE® advises extreme caution due to too much foul language and some mature content.

SELMA is a powerful movie on Martin Luther King Jr’s march on Selma, Alabama for voting rights for African Americans. SELMA is a well-done movie with overt Christian, moral content, but it does have some intense violence and a significant amount of foul language, so strong caution is advised.

THE HELP is a period drama set in the 1960s era of civil rights struggles, with a focus on black maids in Jackson, Mississippi who begin speaking out against the bad treatment they receive from their white female employers. THE HELP is well done with some positive Christian content, but it also has some Romantic, feminist content attacking tradition and containing foul language.

Set in 1955, TILL is based on the true story of a black mother in Chicago who tries to expose and avenge the racism behind her son, Emmett Till’s, brutal murder in Mississippi while Emmett was down there visiting relatives. Though it’s a little slow at times, TILL depicts a heartbreaking story of violent racial hatred, with excellent performances, especially by the actors playing Emmett and his mother, but the movie whitewashes the relationship between Emmett’s mother and father, who died during World War II after the mother divorced him for adultery and for almost choking her to death.

42 tells what happens when the Brooklyn Dodgers baseball team signed the first black player in the Major Leagues, Jackie Robinson, in 1947. 42 is an inspirational, superb movie showing how the Christian faith of both Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey and Jackie Robinson helped end racism in professional baseball. However, there is a fair amount of foul language and some racial epithets, so caution is advised, especially for children.

LEE DANIELS’ THE BUTLER is an elegant but fictionalized historical drama inspired by the biography of the longest-serving black butler in White House history and the changes he saw. THE BUTLER is well acted, with some Christian, moral content. However, it keeps undercutting its positive dramatic points and contains too much politically correct revisionist history and foul language.

HIDDEN FIGURES is an engaging, encouraging, uplifting salute to three African-American women who contribute greatly to the 1960s NASA program during the Space Race with Communist Russia. Led by three fantastic actresses, HIDDEN FIGURES is an uplifting movie that exemplifies a positive way to stand with Christian strength and grace in the face of opposition, but caution is advised for older children due to many light obscenities and one strong profanity.

DRIVING MISS DAISY is a great character study with strong Christian values about a wealthy Jewish matron who’s befriended by her black chauffeur, a committed Christian full of wisdom. Beautifully acted by Jessica Tandy and Morgan Freeman and containing only two exclamatory curses, DRIVING MISS DAISY will not only fill you with joy and love, but also encourage you to follow Jesus Christ more closely.

Based on a true story, REMEMBER THE TITANS depicts the forced integration of an all black high school with an all white school and its impact on football in 1971 Alexandria, Virginia. Faced with the need to unify their team, two coaches, one of them played by Denzel Washington, must help the team to learn that the real victory lies in changed hearts. Humorous as well as dramatic, TITANS is a moral, uplifting, well-acted tale.