REEL UNITY PAIR: Feisty Fighter: The Marnesba Tackett Story / Free The Vote

2021 BIBFF Official Reel

The 8th Annual Black Film Festival features over 80 films from 16 countries on October 6-11, 2021. We are proud to bring this amazing group of "Official Selections" to Baltimore City both in our Virtual Theatre and at the SNF Parkway Theatre in Baltimore's Station North Arts District. Enjoy the films and be sure to use the unique pairs and shorts programs to have you own #ReelUnity moment.

Feisty Fighter: The Marnesba Tackett Story

Marnesba Tackett, is an unsung hero in the Civil Rights Movement and NAACP member for over 90 years. Her challenges were not only being light-skinned, who refused to pass as "white," but as a woman trying to burst through barriers in a male-dominated world. Thus, she fought against both racial and gender inequality in all she did. 

Mrs. Tackett was responsible for bringing Martin Luther King to Los Angeles to share his message "we want to be free" with over 30,000 people. This close friend of Rosa Parks fought for equality in the Insurance industry, for equal housing practices, and was instrumental in desegregating and integrating schools for all children. Marnesba was affectionately referred to as a relentless "feisty fighter," for her lifelong activism combined with her strong self-esteem in being a proud Black woman who tirelessly helped pave the way towards equal rights.

Free The Vote

Free the Vote is a documentary that depicts the past and present of just how unjust and racist it is to deny the right to vote to millions of people who are incarcerated.

Dating back to the racist Jim Crow Era, felony disfranchisement laws were created in the states after the Civil War as an intentional effort to weaken the political power of Black people who had been enslaved. That time was also when the abominable effort began to incarcerate Black people who were newly freed.

Black Marylanders account for over 13,000 of the nearly 18,000 Marylanders who are disenfranchised in Maryland. That means Black people make up 72% of those impacted by felony disenfranchisement laws in Maryland. This did not happen by accident.

Listen to people who were formerly incarcerated, who are currently incarcerated, politicians, and advocates who share their experience and dreams of a Maryland and country where the right to vote is restored for every citizen who is currently incarcerated.