"Watching protesters fill the streets across the globe over the police killings of African Americans, I thought of the opening words of  Freedom’s Journal, the first Black-owned and operated newspaper in the  United States: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others  spoken for us. Too long has the publick been deceived by  misinterpretations, in things which concern us dearly.”

These  words were written in 1827, when most African Americans were enslaved,  and most white Americans were fine with that. The Civil War was almost  40 years away, but the Black creators of Freedom’s Journal already  imagined a different world and insisted on raising their own voices to  bring it into being.

For over 30 years, I’ve been making  documentary films on the African American experience, particularly  misrepresented or forgotten histories, including about Marcus Garvey,  the murder of Emmett Till, the Freedom Riders, Freedom Summer and the  Black Panther Party. Spending time with the folks who lived this history  made me keenly aware that those who have the power to tell the story  create the meaning of that story.

Read more at the Los Angeles Times.