Most of the negative reviews I read were either from the perspective that is was propaganda or not well made. It's certainly less propaganda than anything Michael Moore has done, and it really isn't poorly made.
All that aside, I love watching documentaries from every perspective, even when I disagree, because I like to know how people think and how they came to the conclusion they did, and for that, the documentary gives excellent context for where the people interviewed are. (agree or not, you can clearly see why they think the way they do.)
The biggest criticism is that it glosses over JFK. I don't think it was done to minimize the efforts by the democrat party's leader, but rather the fact is he just didn't do very much in terms of social justice. I think explaining the complexity of the Democrat party at the time and how Kennedy was an outlier who supported civil rights but didn't actually do anything is a narrative people don't want to believe. The truth is, when people talk about the "southern strategy" by Nixon it can easily be debunked by simply looking at the states Kennedy and Nixon carried through their primaries and campaigns and it becomes obvious why the Democratic VP had to be a war mongering Klansman from South. But this is such a misunderstood era, so much so that if you ask people who initiated the Vietnam war and who ended it, they'd say Nixon then Kennedy instead of the other way around. (I tested this theory and I haven't met anyone yet who answered correctly.) So I think, instead of complicating things, they just left it out.
Overall, I don't know if it will sway anyone's political beliefs. Feature length's movies are generally only watched by people who want to invest the time, and if you already disagree politically, you won't invest the time. But as a narrative, storytelling (or more like a collection of stories and examination) it's pretty well put together. There's more emotion than you'd think and if you're on the fence or just curious about black people in America, it's a great movie.
All that aside, I love watching documentaries from every perspective, even when I disagree, because I like to know how people think and how they came to the conclusion they did, and for that, the documentary gives excellent context for where the people interviewed are. (agree or not, you can clearly see why they think the way they do.)
The biggest criticism is that it glosses over JFK. I don't think it was done to minimize the efforts by the democrat party's leader, but rather the fact is he just didn't do very much in terms of social justice. I think explaining the complexity of the Democrat party at the time and how Kennedy was an outlier who supported civil rights but didn't actually do anything is a narrative people don't want to believe. The truth is, when people talk about the "southern strategy" by Nixon it can easily be debunked by simply looking at the states Kennedy and Nixon carried through their primaries and campaigns and it becomes obvious why the Democratic VP had to be a war mongering Klansman from South. But this is such a misunderstood era, so much so that if you ask people who initiated the Vietnam war and who ended it, they'd say Nixon then Kennedy instead of the other way around. (I tested this theory and I haven't met anyone yet who answered correctly.) So I think, instead of complicating things, they just left it out.
Overall, I don't know if it will sway anyone's political beliefs. Feature length's movies are generally only watched by people who want to invest the time, and if you already disagree politically, you won't invest the time. But as a narrative, storytelling (or more like a collection of stories and examination) it's pretty well put together. There's more emotion than you'd think and if you're on the fence or just curious about black people in America, it's a great movie.