Racism in America has manifested itself in a grim variety of ways, and throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, it was hardly uncommon for communities to make African-Americans feel unwelcome outside of ghettos in the poorest side of town. However, some cities took a more aggressive stance against citizens of color, and a number went so far as to stage vigilante pogroms in which the entire black population would be forcibly expelled under threat of violence. Documentary filmmaker Marco Williams examines this hidden side of America's racial history in Banished, which focuses on four examples of primarily white communities rising up to force their African-American neighbors to flee, in incidents which took place in Texas, Missouri, Georgia, and Indiana between 1886 and 1923. Banished was screened in competition at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.