
Jesse Jackson
Actor · 1941 – 2026 · Greenville, South Carolina, USA
Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. (October 8, 1941 — February 17, 2026) was an American civil rights activist and Baptist minister. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as shadow senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997. He founded of both entities that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Representative Jesse Jackson, Jr. is his eldest son. In an AP-AOL "Black Voices" poll in February 2006, Jackson was voted 'the most important black leader'.
Movies23
Movie7.6MusicDocumentaryDuring the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.
Movie6.9ComedyTV MovieA TV special celebrating the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Before a celebrity audience, many of the former cast members and guest hosts return to perform their signature monologues and present a look back at some of the best comedy skits and musical numbers of the past two and a half decades.
Saturday Night Live: 25th Anniversary Special
1999 · 19 votes
Movie7.4DocumentaryTake a stroll down Sesame Street and witness the birth of the most influential children's show in television history. From the iconic furry characters to the classic songs you know by heart, learn how a gang of visionary creators changed the world.
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
2021 · 26 votes
Movie6.9DocumentaryDocumentary about British fashion designer Ozwald Boateng.
A Man's Story
2011 · 8 votes
Movie7.1DocumentaryMike Epps, Richard Pryor Jr. and others recount the culture-defining influence of Richard Pryor - one of America's most brilliant, iconic comic minds.
Richard Pryor: Omit the Logic
2013 · 65 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryA report on the National Black Political Convention held in Gary, Indiana, in 1972, a historic event that gathered Black voices from across the political spectrum, among them Jesse Jackson, Dick Gregory, Coretta Scott King, Richard Hatcher, Amiri Baraka, Charles Diggs, and H. Carl McCall.
Nationtime: Gary
1972 · 2 votes
Movie6.8DocumentaryA cheap, powerful drug emerges during a recession, igniting a moral panic fueled by racism. Explore the complex history of crack in the 1980s.
Crack: Cocaine, Corruption & Conspiracy
2021 · 93 votes
Movie7.3DocumentaryA presentation of key events in the life of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. Beginning with the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama, MLK is followed through major steps in his struggle to promote racial equality. Including footage of King's stirring speeches, it is a fitting tribute to his legacy, and features clips narrated by a wide range of celebrities, including Harry Belafonte, Paul Newman Charlton Heston, Ruby Dee, Burt Lancaster, Anthony Quinn, Walter Matthau, Ben Gazzara, Clarence Williams III, Joanne Woodward, and James Earl Jones.
King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis
1970 · 12 votes
Movie8.2DocumentaryHistoryThrough never-been-seen-before footage and fascinating interviews with key members of the 1985 Chicago Bears -- Mike Ditka, Jim McMahon, Mike Singletary, and others -- you will hear the inside story of their historic season.
'85: The Greatest Team in Football History
2016 · 8 votes
Movie7.2DocumentaryHistoryOne night in Durham, North Carolina, a rape accusation set fire to the reputations of three college athletes and their elite university. As the Duke lacrosse players grappled with their transition from model student to the criminally accused, several wars were launched on different fronts.
Fantastic Lies
2016 · 21 votes
Movie6.5DocumentaryMusicThe story of the iconic singer's fascinating six-decade career in both music and Black and LGBTQ activism.
Dionne Warwick: Don't Make Me Over
2021 · 4 votes
Movie8.8DocumentaryThis feature documentary deeply explores Dr. King, his experience, his legacy and the Movement at large through key events – The Montgomery Bus Boycott, The Birmingham Campaign, March on Washington, the Selma Movement and Assassination and Legacy.
I Am MLK Jr.
2018 · 4 votes
Movie6.8DramaThrillerSet against the backdrop of a community mourning the recent MLK assassination, Black militants building up an arsenal of weapons in preparation for a race war are betrayed by one of their own.
Uptight
1968 · 19 votes
Movie6.0ActionDocumentaryWith archive film clips and interviews, this brief look at a frequently overlooked historical period of filmmaking acts as an introduction rather than a complete record. It features interviews with some of the genre's biggest stars, like Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, and Richard Roundtree. Director Melvin Van Peebles discusses the historical importance of his landmark film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. For a contemporary perspective, the excitable Quentin Tarantino offers his spirited commentary and author/critic bell hooks provides some scholarly social analysis.
BaadAsssss Cinema
2002 · 26 votes
MovieTV MovieDocumentaryActor Robert Culp narrates this special examining the use of boycotts by African-Americans as a way of obtaining jobs.
Movie7.1DocumentaryTV MovieOn September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls who were there for Sunday school. It was a crime that shocked the nation--and a defining moment in the history of the civil-rights movement. Spike Lee re-examines the full story of the bombing, including a revealing interview with former Alabama Governor George Wallace.
4 Little Girls
1997 · 59 votes
MovieAn inspiring portrait of the life and legacy of Jewish theologian and philosopher, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. Heschel was one of the most remarkable and inspiring figures of the American 20th Century. He was a mentor to Martin Luther King, Jr and the entire Civil Rights Movement, a leading critic of the Vietnam War, a champion for Soviet Jews, and a pioneer in the work of interfaith dialogue.
Movie6.8DocumentaryFilmed over the last six months of the 2000 Presidential election, Phillip Seymour Hoffman starts documenting the campaign at the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, but spends more time outside, in the street protests and police actions than in the orchestrated conventions. Hoffman shows an obvious distaste for money politics and the conservative right. He looks seedier and more disillusioned the campaign progresses. Eventually Hoffman seems most energized by the Ralph Nader campaign as an alternative to the nearly indistinguishable major parties. The high point of the film are the comments by Barney Frank who says that marches and demonstrations are largely a waste of time, and that the really effective political players such as the NRA and the AARP never bother with walk ins, sit-ins, shoot-ins or shuffles. In the interview with Jesse Jackson, Hoffman is too flustered to ask all of his questions.
Last Party 2000
2001 · 12 votes
Movie8.0DocumentaryThe closing of a student film program serves as a paradigm for interrogating the corporate ideology that guides the largest public university in the USA: the University of Texas at Austin.
University, Inc.
1999 · 1 votes
Movie6.7MusicDocumentaryFollowing folk musician Joan Baez on her extensive 2008-2009 tour, this film commemorates her career, which has spanned five decades. It includes concert and archival footage as well as interviews with such disparate colleagues, friends and admirers as Bob Dylan, Jesse Jackson and David Crosby. In addition to the music, it also touchs upon Baez's long history of global social activism.
Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound
2009 · 11 votes
Movie6.5DocumentaryThe struggle to eradicate apartheid in South Africa has been chronicled over time, but no one has addressed the vital role music plays in this challenge. This documentary by Lee Hirsch recounts a fascinating and little-known part of South Africa's political history through archival footage, interviews and, of course, several mesmerizing musical performances.
Amandla! A Revolution in Four-Part Harmony
2002 · 8 votes
Movie7.7HistoryDocumentaryTwenty-five years after the verdict in the Rodney King trial sparked several days of protests, violence and looting in Los Angeles, LA 92 immerses viewers in that tumultuous period through stunning and rarely seen archival footage.
LA 92
2017 · 148 votes
Movie10.0DocumentaryHistoryDocumentary feature exploring the rise of African-Americans to positions of greatness in American sports. Stories are told of boxers, tennis players, runners, and basketball players, athletes who either suffered the indignities of racism, helped break down its walls, or enjoyed the opportunities afforded by past struggles.
The Journey of the African-American Athlete
1996 · 1 votes
Series22
TV6.4NewsComedyThe World's Fakest News Team tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and pop culture.
The Daily Show
1996 · 660 votes
TV6.9ComedyNewsA late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest.
Saturday Night Live
1975 · 527 votes
TV3.8War & PoliticsThe command center for breaking news, politics and extraordinary reports from around the world. Patterned after the concept of the White House Situation Room, CNN's lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer hosts newsmakers and experts to discuss and analyze the stories that are driving today's news.
The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer
2005 · 8 votes
TV5.3Talk ShowComedyJimmy Kimmel Live! is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel and broadcast on ABC.
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
2003 · 217 votes
TV6.0ComedyTalk ShowEach week Bill Maher surrounds himself with a panel of guests which include politicians, actors, comedians, musicians and the like to discuss what's going on in the world.
Real Time with Bill Maher
2003 · 248 votes
TV7.2ComedyFamilyA Different World is a spin-off series from The Cosby Show and originally centered on Denise Huxtable and the life of students at Hillman College, a fictional mixed but historically black college in the state of Virginia. After Bonet's departure in the first season, the remainder of the series primarily focused more on Southern belle Whitley Gilbert and mathematics whiz Dwayne Wayne. The series frequently depicted members of the major historically black fraternities and sororities.
A Different World
1987 · 77 votes
TV7.0Dinah's show premiered 9 September 1974 and continued through to 4 September 1981. She started out the 70's with Dinah's Place which usually featured one guest and was more of a home oriented show about cooking, crafts and occasionally music. This format lasted until May of 1974. When the show came back in October of 1974 the format had changed drastically to a variety talk show which was called Dinah. and went on until 1981. This show was also known as "Dinah and Friends" during the summer of 1976.
Dinah!
1974 · 4 votes
TV6.3AnimationHappily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American anthology animated television series.
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
1995 · 11 votes
TV7.0NewsDocumentaryWorld in Action was Granada Television’s flagship ITV current affairs series, running from 7 Jan 1963 to 7 Dec 1998, and built a reputation for film-led investigative reporting and a forceful editorial stance. Its journalism produced major public and political repercussions—including investigations associated with miscarriages of justice such as the Birmingham Six—and it also served as a platform for landmark documentary projects, including the first broadcast of “Seven Up!” as part of the strand in 1964.
World in Action
1963 · 2 votes
TV7.4DocumentaryThis enlightening series from Vox digs into a wide range of topics such as the rise of cryptocurrency, why diets fail, and the wild world of K-pop.
Explained
2018 · 137 votes
TV4.6ComedyThe Chris Rock Show is a late night comedy talk show featured on HBO. It was created by Chris Rock and featured various guests. The show won an Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety or Music Program in 1999. It ran for five seasons from 1997 to 2000.
The Chris Rock Show
1997 · 12 votes
TV7.8ComedyTalk ShowRobins is a Swedish late-night talk show which premiered on SVT2 on August 23, 2006. The host is the young stand-up comedian Robin Paulsson from Malmö. The show's format is similar to that of other late-night shows, Robin makes jokes about recent news, shows sketches, and talks to a guest in the studio. One of the most popular sketches in the show features Robin appearing as Swedish football player Zlatan Ibrahimović.
Robins
2006 · 4 votes
TV7.5DocumentaryThe history of the sport of baseball in America, told through archival photos, film footage, and the words of those who contributed to the game in each era. Writers, historians, players, baseball personnel, and fans review key events and the significance of the game in America's history.
Baseball
1994 · 46 votes
TV6.9NewsComedyNot Necessarily the News is a satirical sketch comedy series that first aired on HBO in September 1982 as a comedy special, and then ran as a series from 1983 to 1990. It featured sketches, parody news items, commercial parodies, and humorous bits made from overdubbing or editing actual news footage. It was based on the British series, Not the Nine O'Clock News. Not Necessarily the News was also the birthplace of Rich Hall's sniglets.
Not Necessarily the News
1983 · 7 votes
TVCurrent events and sharp analysis of top trending topics.
Velshi
2017
TVJoy Behar: Say Anything! was a news program and talk show hosted by Emmy-award winning talk show host Joy Behar. The program had its "Preview" while Behar filled in as a week long host on Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer on June 18, 2012, and officially premiered on Current TV on September 4, 2012. The final episode of the Current TV program aired on Thursday August 1, 2013, as the network prepared to transition to Al Jazeera America.
TV3.0DocumentaryThe epic story of the actors, writers, directors, and producers who fought for their place on the page, behind the camera and on the screen. From blackface to Black Panther, this series is a definitive chronicle of more than a century of the black experience in Hollywood and a powerful reexamination of a quintessentially American story – in brilliant color.
Hollywood Black
2024 · 4 votes
TV6.9ComedyWar & PoliticsIn 1988, renegade filmmaker Robert Altman and Pulitzer Prize–winning Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau created a presidential candidate, ran him alongside the other hopefuls during the primary season, and presented their media campaign as a cross between a soap opera and TV news. The result was the groundbreaking Tanner ’88, a piercing satire of media-age American politics.
Tanner '88
1988 · 8 votes
TV1.0DocumentaryAn inside look at the changing role of athletes in our fraught cultural and political environment, through the lens of the NBA.
Shut Up and Dribble
2018 · 1 votes
TV10.0ComedySixteen years ago, Jack Tanner's bid for the White House ended at the 1988 Democratic convention. Now the former congressman is the subject of a documentary film directed by his daughter Alex, focusing on the toll paid by failed contenders.
Tanner on Tanner
2004 · 1 votes
TV5.3DocumentaryPresident Obama's personal story and his vision for America, set against the backdrop of the country's racial history.
Obama: In Pursuit of a More Perfect Union
2021 · 10 votes
TVDocumentaryCampaign promises of hope and change were met by a cratering economy, two never-ending wars, an epidemic of gun violence, and a surging partisan divide. In this 4-part series the president's inner circle, Congressional leaders, and journalists reflect on Barack Obama's historic two terms and the tightrope he walked as the country’s first African-American President.
Obama
2020