4 Little Girls
A documentary examination of the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing and the lives of the four girls killed.
View selection7 films · 5 original essays
Black history,
in motion.
4 Little Girls revisits the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church through family testimony, archival record, and Spike Lee’s documentary lens.
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Explore the collection
Stories of resistance, medicine, media, music, and the long struggle for freedom. Each selection links to the film or program source indexed by Roots Preserved.
7 selections
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Partners of the Heart
Vivien Thomas’s path from laboratory assistant to a pioneering figure in cardiac surgery, despite the barriers of segregation.
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The Tuskegee Study: A Human Experiment
Black Journal investigates the government study in Macon County and the medical decisions that denied treatment to Black participants.
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Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation
The story of Robert King, Herman Wallace, and Albert Woodfox, and their struggle for justice inside Louisiana’s Angola prison.
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Violence or Non-Violence
SNCC activist Russell Meeks speaks during a live 1968 public-television broadcast about the divisions shaping the civil-rights movement.
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Soul Train
A gateway into the long-running series that made Black music, dance, fashion, and style central to American television.
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Of Black America: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed
The opening episode of CBS’s seven-part series examines how Black people were represented in American history and film.
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Originals
Five essays from Black Roots Archive, written to place the films in context and carry their questions into the present.
What “4 Little Girls” Refuses to Let Us Forget
Spike Lee’s documentary insists that the four children at the center of the Birmingham church bombing be remembered as lives, not abstractions.
The Hands Behind the Heart
Vivien Thomas and the Black genius medicine relied on while withholding recognition.
The Study That Betrayed Trust
Tuskegee as a medical scandal, a breach of citizenship, and an enduring lesson in vigilance.
