Glory (1989)

Winner of three Academy Awards®, Glory tells the story of the Union Army's first black fighting unit in the American Civil War. The 54th Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry was made up of black soldiers-some Northern freemen, some escaped slaves-and led by whites, including Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of Boston abolitionists. The unit faced virulent racism, not only from their Southern adversaries but from Northern whites who resisted arming black soldiers and doubted their ability to fight effectively. But in the bloody attack on Fort Wagner in Charleston, South Carolina, the members of the 54th distinguished themselves in an almost suicidal battle. Their heroic actions helped throw open the gates of the Union Army to 180,000 blacks who risked their lives for emancipation and citizenship, and may have helped turn the tide of the war.