Movies Like And the Children Shall Lead

If you liked And the Children Shall Lead (1985), a drama and family movie directed by Michael Pressman, here are 20 movies with a similar feel, based on TMDB's recommendations. Each one links to its cast, trailer and where it's streaming.

1
The Help (2011)
★ 8.2/10Also drama
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers…
2
By Any Means (2026)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
In 1960s Mississippi, a young Black FBI agent is forced to partner with a notorious mafia hitman to investigate a wave of brutal civil rights murders.
3
The Defiant Ones (1958)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
Two convicts—one white, one black—escape while chained to each other.
4
Mississippi Burning (1988)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
Two FBI agents investigating the murder of civil rights workers during the 60s seek to breach the conspiracy of silence in a small Southern town where segregation divides black and white. The younger agent trained in…
5
Where the Red Fern Grows (2003)
★ 6.6/10Also drama and family
Set in the Ozark Mountains during the Great Depression, Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for 2 years to achieve his dream of buying two coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in God as he faces…
6
Detroit (2017)
★ 7.2/10Also drama
A police raid in Detroit in 1967 results in one of the largest citizens' uprisings in the history of the United States.
7
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
★ 7.7/10Also drama
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie, the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi. After Tibbs proves not only his own innocence but…
8
Belfast (2021)
★ 7/10Also drama
Buddy is a young boy on the cusp of adolescence, whose life is filled with familial love, childhood hijinks, and a blossoming romance. Yet, with his beloved hometown caught up in increasing turmoil, his family faces a…
9
The Lords of Discipline (1983)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Will arrives for his last year at Military Academy, in the Deep South USA, in the 1960's. A black student, Pearce, has been accepted, for the first time and Will is asked to keep an eye out for the inevitable racism…
10
Ghosts of Mississippi (1996)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
A Mississippi district attorney and the widow of Medgar Evers struggle to bring a white supremacist to justice for the 1963 murder of the civil rights leader.
11
Till (2022)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
The true story of Mamie Till Mobley's relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, who, in 1955, was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi.
12
Intruder in the Dust (1949)
★ 7.3/10Also drama
Rural Mississippi in the 1940s: Lucas Beauchamp, a local black man with a reputation of not kowtowing to whites, is found standing over the body of a dead white man, holding a pistol that has recently been fired…
13
A Time to Kill (1996)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
A young lawyer defends a black man accused of murdering two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter, sparking a rebirth of the KKK.
14
Mud (2013)
★ 7.1/10Also drama
Two teenage boys find a fugitive hiding out on an island in the Mississippi River and help him reunite with his lover and escape an avenging family and their armed posse.
15
Rosewood (1997)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
Spurred by a white woman's lie, vigilantes destroy a black Florida town and slay inhabitants in 1923.
16
Seberg (2019)
★ 5.9/10Also drama
An ambitious young FBI agent is assigned to investigate iconic actress Jean Seberg when she becomes embroiled in the tumultuous civil rights movement in late 1960s Los Angeles.
17
Mudbound (2017)
★ 7.4/10Also drama
In the post–World War II South, two families are pitted against a barbaric social hierarchy and an unrelenting landscape as they simultaneously fight the battle at home and the battle abroad.
18
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1938)
★ 6.6/10Also family
Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral and witnessing a murder.
19
Desperation Road (2023)
★ 6.6/10Also drama
Ex-con Russell Gaines is attempting to rebuild his life with the help of his father, Mitchell. However, the arrival of Maben sends his new life into chaos, leading the pair to go on the run - as their violent pasts…
20
The Dead Don't Hurt (2024)
★ 6.5/10Also drama
In the 1860s, fiercely independent French-Canadian Vivienne Le Coudy embarks on a journey with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen, attempting to forge a life together in the dusty town of Elk Flats, Nevada. When Holger…