It’s graduation season! With thousands of Black graduates turning their tassels across the country this month, here are six Black films about college that you should revisit to celebrate!
School Daze
Spike Lee’s multi-genre film, which is inspired by his experiences at the quad of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in the Atlanta metro area, is pretty much universally hailed as the quintessential Black college film.
Higher Learning
The late John Singleton’s third film had an ensemble cast led by Omar Epps, Ice Cube, Regina King and Jennifer Connelly. It chronicled several students starting their journeys as first-years in college on a campus split by race, gender and class lines.
Dear White People
Before it became a hit Netflix series, Justin Simien’s Dear White People was a crowd-pleasing Sundance flick which brought to light the realities of attending a predominantly-white institution (PWI) while Black.
Drumline
College students try to have everything together, and this struggle was depicted in the Nick Cannon and Zoe Saldana-starring Drumline. It also put the spotlight on HBCUs and HBCU marching bands.
Stomp the Yard
“We rep the thetas… thetas!” Stomp the Yard is undoubtedly an entertaining film that talks about Black college life and a lot of people still aren’t over the fact that (spoiler alert) Chris Brown doesn’t make it that far in the movie.
Love & Basketball
It’s clear that Love & Basketball is one of the greatest Black love films, but sometimes we overlook that that it is also a pivotal picture of Black students in college.
Omar Epps appears twice on this list so he might just be the unofficial king of Black college flicks.
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Photo: Columbia Pictures
