Freedom Riders

30 for 30 is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This currently includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series under the ESPN Films Presents title in 2011–2012, and a series of 30 for 30 Shorts shown through the ESPN.com website. The series has also expanded to include Soccer Stories, which aired in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup, and audio podcasts. This entry refers to the main Volumes of the series presented by ESPN

In the summer of 1964, more than 700 students descended on violent, segregated Mississippi. Defying authorities, they registered voters, created freedom schools, and established the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. Fifty years later, eyewitness accounts and never-before-seen archival material tell their story. Not all of them would make it through.

An immersive look at the eventful life and brilliant artistic career of visionary American jazz trumpeter Miles Davis (1926-1991).

Featuring never-before-seen footage, this documentary delivers a startling new look at the Peoples Temple, headed by preacher Jim Jones who, in 1978, led more than 900 members to Guyana, where he orchestrated a mass suicide via tainted punch.

The story of the Black Panthers is often told in a scatter of repackaged parts, often depicting tragic, mythic accounts of violence and criminal activity; but this is an essential story, vibrant, human; a living and breathing chronicle of a pivotal movement that birthed a new revolutionary culture in America.

A cheap, powerful drug emerges during a recession, igniting a moral panic fueled by racism. Explore the complex history of crack in the 1980s.

Born underground, on the heels of the Civil Rights Movement and the Stonewall Riots, disco’s nascent popularity saw the spectacular takeover of the dancefloor, the airwaves and burgeoning fashion trends that reflected the joy and freedom inherent to the genre. Co-opted and exploited through references like John Travolta’s strut and shiny Swedish tracksuits, disco eventually reaches the mainstream, losing its original flair and purpose rooted in radical politics and social change.

Follows the largest prison uprising in US history, conducting dozens of new interviews with inmates, journalists, and other witnesses.

The history of black newspapers in America.

Executive produced by NBA superstar and philanthropist Russell Westbrook, and directed by Peabody and Emmy-Award® winning director Stanley Nelson (“Freedom Riders”) and Peabody and duPont-Award winner Marco Williams (“Two Towns of Jasper”), the documentary commemorates the 100th anniversary of the horrific Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history, and calls attention to the previously ignored but necessary repair of a town once devastated.

Centers on the 1969 student protests against racism at Montreal’s Concordia University and their contribution to the story of Black liberation.

TV's most-watched history series brings to life the compelling stories from our past that inform our understanding of the world today.

Stanley Nelson's syncopated voyage through the history of funk music, from early roots to 1970s urban funk and beyond.

We Shall Remain is a five-part, 7.5 hour documentary series about the history of Native Americans spanning the 17th century to the 20th century. It was a collaborative effort with several different directors, writers and producers working on each episode, including directors Chris Eyre, Ric Burns and Stanley Nelson Jr. Actor Benjamin Bratt narrated the entire series. It is part of the American Experience series and premiered April 13, 2009.

A comprehensive reminisce at each chapter of former NFL quarterback Michael Vick’s saga–the incredible rise, shocking fall and polarizing return.

In 2016, transgender teen Gavin Grimm sued his local school board after its members refused to let him use the bathroom of his choice. He was ready to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court—and then the election happened.