Ida B. Wells and From These Roots by William Greaves

In these two short films, William Greaves brings light to the archives of Black history. Supported by Wells’s living descendants and featuring Toni Morrison reading from Wells’s autobiography, Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice explores the life of the journalist, sociologist, and antilynching activist of the post-Reconstruction era. It aired on public television as the first documentary celebrating Wells’s legacy. In From These Roots: A Review of the Harlem Renaissance, Greaves reconstructs the origins of the Harlem Renaissance from the migratory beginnings of New York City’s Black community to the rise of the movement’s many luminaries. Greaves would revisit the Harlem Renaissance years later, recording material that would become his recent posthumous release Once Upon a Time in Harlem. Together, these films demonstrate Greaves’s reverence for the political and aesthetic inventions of Black history and his commitment to documentary as a tool for their preservation. 

Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice, 1989, US, DCP, 54 min.
From These Roots: A Review of the Harlem Renaissance, 1974, US, DCP, 28 min. 

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