What Spike Lee’s ‘Get on the Bus’ Got Right — and Wrong — About the Million Man March

A revisiting of the film highlights hurdles Black Americans have yet to overcome

Ossie Davis, Isaiah Washington, Andre Braugher, Charles S. Dutton, and a group of men standing next to a bus in a scene from the film ‘Get on the Bus,’ 1996. Photo: Universal/Getty Images

Update 6/7/22: Level has a new home. You can read this article and other new articles by visiting LEVELMAN.com.

Black liberation has long been hindered by Black masculinity. Too often, ideas about how Black people can improve their circumstances don’t benefit anyone who isn’t male and heterosexual. And while many Black men agree that they need to do better for the sake of Black people, there’s rarely agreement about the particulars. This reality is one of the driving themes of Spike Lee’s 1996 film, Get on the Bus, which dropped exactly one year after its source of inspiration: the Million Man March.

The movie follows a group of Black men who trek from South Central Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., for the events of October 16, 1995. Among them are Evan (Thomas Jefferson Byrd), who as part of a court order is literally shackled to the son he neglected (De’Aundre Bonds); Xavier (Hill Harper), an idealistic film student who’s documenting the trip; Flip (Andre Braugher), an obnoxious working actor; Gary (Roger Guenveur Smith), a self-righteous LAPD officer; Kyle (Isaiah Washington) and Randall (Harry Lennix), a couple…