Case Studies

When the Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC) launched in 1975, the nation was racked by an energy crisis that produced soaring gas and electric utility rates, giving birth to the quasi-government agency. The Office of the People’s Counsel was mandated to monitor gas, electric and telephone services as the public’s utility…

Team McKinney, supported by our associate Mariah McClain, joined with Kathy Engel to salute the historic struggle of Black people against the assault on their bodies; from the football field, to the Olympic stage to the death blows of police confrontations.

LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright never doubted Senate hopeful Doug Jones would prevail over Roy Moore in Alabama’s special election (December 2017). That’s because the co-founders of the Black Voters Matter Fund (BVMF), understood the power of Black voters and had painstakingly organized voters in rural communities along…

The late Washington, D.C. Mayor, Marion Barry, created a storied program teaching generations of young people lessons in leadership and civic engagement. The Marion Barry Youth Leadership Institute (MBYLI) has operated as a funded District Government program for nearly four decades. In collaboration with Delia…

The McKinney team quickly moved to showcase and package the narratives of formerly incarcerated women recruited by Burton and A New Way of Life's far-reaching network. Within a six-month span, McKinney conducted presentation training for storytellers, produced a rich repository of stories, video vignettes, images and…

With rare and spellbinding footage, filmmaker Joanne Burke and cinematographer David Burke journey to the ‘Paradise for Negroes,’ an escape from the crushing daily life in early 20th Century America for a warm embrace. It gave Black artists and intellectuals permission to achieve and soar to extraordinary heights.

A bad joke? No, a congressional imposition on the U.S. Postal Service. The Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act of 2006 mandates that the USPS pay out nearly $104 billion by 2016 to cover future health benefits of retired postal workers for the next 75 years.

Zooming in with the sharp racial-justice lens that defines our work, we promote films that capture the saga of rights and equality. More than mere exposure, we create conversations—engaging diverse audiences and expanding the national discourse about social justice.