10 Movies That Celebrate Black Achievement in Honor of Juneteenth

From inspiring biopics to groundbreaking documentaries, these 10 films celebrate Black achievements in science, sports, music and culture, in honor of Juneteenth.

President Joe Biden signed a bill making Juneteenth a national holiday in 2021. The day commemorates June 19, 1865, when enslaved people in Texas learned about the Emancipation Proclamation, two and a half years after it was signed, marking the end of slavery in the U.S.

Related: ‘American Fiction’ Director Wanted to Tell a Black Story That Didn’t Dwell on ‘Misery’

Read below for details on 10 powerful dramas, satires, and documentaries that highlight African American determination and resilience.

All 10 films made the list of Best Black Movies Ever as selected by influential Black film critics and entertainment journalists, including Urban Hollywood 411 founder Anita Bennett, for the Black Movie Hall of Fame.

Dramas and Biopics:

Daughters of the Dust (1991)
Written and directed by Julie Dash, the award-winning drama is set in 1902, and centers on three generations of Gullah (or Geechee) women on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, as they prepare to migrate from the rural South to the North.
Available on Prime Video, YouTube TV, Apple TV, Google Play Movies

Malcolm X (1992)
Denzel Washington leads the cast of this Spike Lee biographical epic about Black activist and National of Islam figure, Malcolm X, from his early life to his eventual assassination. Available on Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Prime Video

Ray (2004)
Jamie Foxx won an Oscar for his performance as legendary musician Ray Charles. The film chronicles the music icon’s life and career — from his humble beginnings in the South, where he went blind as a child, to his rise to stardom. Available on Tubi, Apple TV, Fandango at Home, Prime Video

Hidden Figures (2016)
An inspiring true story about the contributions of Black female mathematicians Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson, who worked at NASA and were instrumental in the launch of astronaut John Glenn into space. Available on Hulu, Apple TV, YouTube TV, Fandango at Home, Prime Video

American Fiction (2023)
This Oscar-winning film from writer-director Cord Jefferson follows a frustrated African-American novelist and professor, who writes an outrageous stereotypical “Black” book, only for it to become a bestseller. The film is based on the 2001 novel Erasure by Percival Everett. Available to stream on Fandango at Home, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV

Documentaries:

Paris Is Burning (1990)
This documentary chronicles ballroom culture in 1980s New York City, and the Black, Latino, gay, and transgender dancers who brought fierce moves to voguing and ball competitions. Available on Tubi, Plex, Hulu, Prime Video, Fandango at Home

Hoop Dreams (1994)
This Oscar-nominated sports documentary from director Steve James follows the lives of inner-city Chicago high school students William Gates and Arthur Agee, and their dreams of becoming professional basketball players. Available on Pluto TV, YouTube TV, The Roku Channel, Apple TV, Fandango at Home

When We Were Kings (1996)
An Oscar-winning boxing documentary on the 1974 world heavyweight championship fight in Zaire, between defending champ George Foreman, and underdog challenger Muhammad Ali. Available on Prime Video, Sling TV, Fandango at Home, Google Play Movies

When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Parts (2006)
Spike Lee explores the devastation in New Orleans, following the failure of the levees during Hurricane Katrina, and the resilience of the city’s residents in this Emmy Award-winning documentary series. Available on HBO Max, Prime Video, Fandango at Home, YouTube TV

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
This Oscar-nominated documentary from director Raoul Peck is based on James Baldwin’s unfinished manuscript Remember This House. Narrated by Samuel L. Jackson, the film explores the history of racism in the U.S. through Baldwin’s recollections of the Civil Rights Movement. Available on Tubi, Pluto TV, Plex, Prime Video, YouTube TV, Prime Video, Apple TV

The image above shows L-R Hidden Figures and When We Were Kings, and is courtesy of 20th Century Fox and Gramercy Pictures.