We are pleased to dedicate this webpage to Miss Elma Lewis, an extraordinary woman, teacher and the founder of The National Center of Afro-American Artists, 300 Walnut Avenue, Roxbury, Massachusetts (USA).
On this page you will find images of blacks in paintings, drawings, prints, & sculptures. They are represented in many styles - ethnic, primitive, classical, academic, expressive, abstract - by both black and non-black artists. They begin with pre-history rock art and continue in ancient art, 16th century European art to the arts of today world-wide.
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Olduvai Gorge, in Tanzania, is where Louis and Mary Leakey discovered numerous types of the fossil remains of our human ancestors traced back more than 1.6 million years. Also found were fossis of vanished forms of elephants and other wildlife that shared the ancient Serengeti ecosystem with the precursors of 'Homo sapiens.'
Ngwaginki (Kitaturu)
Singida Region / Iramba District / Kisiriri Division
"The majority of the Tanzanian rock paintings are found in Kondoa and the contiguous Lake Eyasi basin. Those at Kondoa are the most easily accessible and perhaps the most dramatic because they are frequently painted on impressive rock faces, situated on steep rocky slopes overlooking valleys below. These paintings were also the first to be reported, as long ago as 1908. Surprisingly they were given little attention, being described and recorded only in brief publications by various scholars until Mary Leakey published her beautifully illustrated book describing the art of Kondoa-Irangi. The renewed research efforts...extend this record, and illustrate how rich this heritage really is; in five field seasons, Dr. Fidelis Masao and his colleagues recorded 140 new sites in Singida and 35 in the Lake Eyasi basin..." from: Forward by Dr. Meave Leakey to The Prehistoric Rock Art of Singida & Lake Eyasi Basin, North Central Tanzania, 2003
Whether or not Ancient Egyptians were people of Black African ancestry is a debatable subject; they were certainly African and as such are included here...
"The accuracy of the depictions of Black racial types in Classical Greek art shows without any doubt that the artists had real, live, actually models before them." - Negroes in Classical Greece
Africa was a highly developed continent for its time prior to the onslaught of the European invasion and Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Africans worked at making tools, art, music, leatherworks, and iron; some of them specialized in running businesses that sold and exchanged salt, books, jewels, clothing, gold, cattle, medicines, and cotton.
To the Editor: As a black historian, I was interested to read in Grace Glueck's article ''Images of Blacks Refracted in a White Mirror'' [Jan. 7, 1990] that the Corcoran Gallery exhibition ''Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940'' is the first show ''done by a black art historian'' to ''examine the perception of blacks by artists reflecting a majority culture.'' I'm not sure what that means, but if it means that the show examines the perceptions of white artists, then I am surprised that the article did not mention the exhibition ''To Color America: Portraits by Winold Reiss,'' which opened on Oct. 27, 1990 and is currently on view at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington. I curated that show and was the author of the catalogue.
". . . there was a world in which black peoples and their cultures, rather than always being filtered through white supremacist eyes and mindsets, could be seen and represented differently: either through the non-racist (or at least, multi-dimensional) lens of whites, or through the knowing and racially conscious eyes and imaginations themselves." -
Jack Johnson (1972)
by RAYMOND SAUNDERS
(collection of Philadelphia Museum of Art)
this painting was used as the cover of Richard J>
Powell's "Black Art and Culture in the 20th Century."
"Changes" is a limited edition lithograph by Charles Criner, Artist-in-Residence, at The Museum of Printing History, Houston, Texas. The lithograph features the image of Barack Obama, Martin Luther King, and Abraham Lincoln; printing will be limited to 150 signed and numbered prints - with the first print being presented to President Obama. All proceeds from the sale of the remaining prints will benefit the Museum. For information on how to purchase one of the limited edition prints of "Change," please call the museum at 713-522-4652 or visit their website.
"I create my images in hopes that our next generation of black people can understand who they are, and can appreciate where they came from."
"Bob Dilworth's painting Morning is an 8.5-foot-wide canvas depicting two older black men, one naked and asleep in bed, the other wearing pants and sitting on the edge of the mattress. Empty wine glasses stand on a bedside table. . . . the composition is energized by his careful evocation of early morning light haloing the seated man and window blinds throwing stripes across a room filled with a riot of colorful patterns, from shells on the bed sheets to varying floral patterns on a chair, a rug ,and curtains." - Greg Cookland, New England Journal of Aesthetic Research
"In 1982, the Kenyan hotel band Them Mushrooms released the song "Jambo Bwana" ("Hello Mister"). The song, written by band leader Teddy Kalanda Harrison in 1980, has become widely popular in Kenya and Tanzania. In 2001 the Safari Sound Band released the album Mambo Jambo, which featured the song (aka Jambo Jambo) as the title track. The song was also covered by numerous local artists and is heard throughout Kenya and Tanzania. .."
JAMBO BWANA (Swahili):
Jambo, Jambo Bwana, Habari gani, Mzuri sana.
Wageni, mwakaribishwa, Tanzania yetu, Hakuna Matata
Tanzania nchi nzuri, Hakuna Matata.
Nchi yenye amani, Hakuna Matata.
Watu wote, Hakuna Matata, Wakaribishwa, Hakuna Matata.
Hakuna Matata, Hakuna Matata.
Translation:
Hello, hello, how are you, very fine.
Guests, you're welcome, in our Tanzania, it's no problem.
Tanzania is a beautiful country, it's no problem.
A wonderful country, it's no problem.
A peaceful country, it's no problem.
All are welcome, it's no problem.
MAHALIA JACKSON "Summertime" & "Motherless Child"
Ethel Waters - "What Did I Do To Be So Black And Blue" (1930)
Southern Trees Bear a Strange Fruit,
Blood on the Leaves and Blood at the Root,
Black Bodies Swinging in the Southern Breeze,
Strange Fruit Hanging from the Poplar Trees.
Pastoral Scene of the Gallant South,
The Bulging Eyes and the Twisted Mouth,
Scent of Magnolias, Sweet and Fresh,
Then the Sudden Smell of Burning Flesh.
Here is Fruit for the Crows to Pluck,
For the Rain to Gather, for the Wind to Suck,
For the Sun to Rot, for the Trees to Drop,
Here is a Strange and Bitter Crop.
"The "Jim Crow" figure (above) was a fixture of the minstrel shows that toured the South; a white man made up as a black man sang and mimicked stereotypical behavior in the name of comedy."
A well-dressed African-American man (top left), perhaps "parroting" the dress of the white middle class, converses with an actual - and chained - parrot in a 19th-century lithograph. - The Jim Crow Collection
Anna Robinson as Aunt Jemima
"During the turn of the 20th century, Nancy Green's image (right) probably became one of the most exploited ones, in African American visual history. While mainstream imagery of black people at that time was restricted to servitude, exotic, or as ornamental devise, hers was the stereotypical look of what became known as the "mammy" caricature. Dark-skinned, bold featured, with large breasts and wearing a "do-rag", Green happily returns the gaze and appears to be just thrilled to oblige "massa" when ever and where ever. . . This depiction of Green as Aunt Jemima was pure propaganda. She was the epitome of 'black, a term that in its brusque utterance, contained a white supremacist sense of racial difference, personal contempt, and oddly enough, complexity that came to define those new African people'. Her appearance created a myth, which separated her from the elitist 'employers', and by doing so rid them guilt-free. This image also rendered light-skinned women invisible and created a legacy of subservient roles in Hollywood signposted for dark-skinned women. The symbolic information in this image was yet another clever ploy, loaded with codes . . ."
If you take a look at today's Aunt Jemima, you'll notice that her kerchief is gone and her hair is styled. She wears earrings, and appears slimmer and younger. She does, however, have the same warm and inviting smile that she's always had. . .
Zip Dandies performing in ties and tails and top hat
"Zip Dandies: Almost every minstrel show had a black-faced performer dressed in exaggeratedly elegant clothes who carried on with foppish manners. Sometimes called Zip Coon or Jim Dandy, the Zip Dandy performers were usually associated with a stereotypical image of the urban black person. He was dressed in ties and tails with a top hat but had especially deformed physical features such as "beef-steak lips." A favorite scene was "De Colored Fancy Ball" which presented "Dandy Broadway Swells" in skintight "trousaloon," a black or red long-tailed coat with padded shoulders, a fancy ruffled shirt front and collar, white gloves, a jeweled cane, and a long watch chain of gold. The intention was to show how ridiculous blacks could be when they tried to ape the manners of white gentlemen. They were completely self-centered and thought only of courting fancy ladies, wearing fancy clothes, dancing the latest new ballroom jig, and strutting their bodies in ludicrous parodies of what whites believed to be the character of northern, urban blacks in contrast to the Sambo and Coon characters identified with southern, rural blacks." - History of Jim Crow
". . . prior to the 1960's it would hard to point to a black actor (except for Paul Leroy Robeson) who ever had a significant role in any motion picture. Among the actors who possessed genuine talent but never had the chance to show was Willie Best, who was billed under one of the most denigrating of all names in movie history. As unbelievable as it may sound he was cast for many years simply as Sleep 'n Eat. While a talented actor and comedian, as well as musician and song writer, Best is sadly remembered for his myriad portrayals as lazy, simple minded and cowardly porters, servants and janitors. The lazily drawled line "tussah", expressed with drooped mouth and half awake eyes, can be traced back to many of Best's characters. They are not necessarily by any stretch the roles Best would have wanted to portray, but as he stoically confessed in a 1934 interview, 'I often think about these roles I have to play. Most of them are pretty broad. Sometimes I tell the director and he cuts out the real bad parts. . . But what's an actor going to do? Either you do it or get out. . . '
He died alone and in obscurity in a a home for aging actors and now lies in an unmarked grave in Hollywood, far from his home and roots in Mississippi." - The Monster Walks (1932)
"During slavery only the very wealthy could afford to hire black women as "house servants," but during Jim Crow (approximately 1877 to 1966) even middle class white women could hire black domestic workers. These black women were not mammies. Mammies were "black, fat with huge breasts, and head covered with a kerchief to hide her nappy hair, strong, kind, loyal, sexless, religious and superstitious. She spoke bastardized English; she did not care about her appearance. She was politically safe. She was culturally safe. She was, of course, a figment of a white imagination, a nostalgic yearning for a reality that never had been.
The mammy caricature implied that black women were only fit to be domestic workers; thus, the stereotype became a rationalization for economic discrimination. During the Jim Crow period, America's race-based, race-segregated job economy limited most blacks to menial, low paying, low status jobs. Black women found themselves forced into one job category, house servant.
The real-life black domestics of the Jim Crow era were poor women denied other opportunities. They performed many of the duties of the fictional mammies, but, unlike the caricature, they were dedicated to their own families, and often resentful of their lowly societal status." - The Mammy Caricature
Hattie McDaniel is Beulah and Ruby Dandridge is Oriole in this YouTube clip from "The Beulah Show" (1952). Throughout their careers McDaniel and Dandridge were rarely offered roles that transcended the mammy stereotype.
Hattie McDaniel (June 10, 1892 - October 26, 1952) After working as early as the 1910s as a band vocalist, Hattie McDaniel debuted as a maid in The Golden West (1932). Her maid-mammy characters became steadily more assertive, showing up first in Judge Priest (1934) and becoming pronounced in Alice Adams (1935). In this one, directed by George Stevens and aided and abetted by star Katharine Hepburn, she makes it clear she has little use for her employers' pretentious status seeking. By The Mad Miss Manton (1938) she actually tells off her socialite employer Barbara Stanwyck and her snooty friends. This path extends into the greatest role of her career, Mammy in Gone with the Wind (1939). Here she is, in a number of ways, superior to most of the white folk surrounding her. From that point her roles unfortunately descended, with her characters becoming more and more menial. She played on the "Amos and Andy" and Eddie Cantor radio shows in the 1930s and 1940s; the title in her own radio show "Beulah" (1947-51), and the same part on TV ("Beulah" (1950)). Her part in Gone with the Wind (1939) won her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, the first black to win an Academy Award. - IMDb
Best Supporting Actress Hattie McDaniel and
presenter Fay Bainter pose at Oscars 1940
"Ms. McDaniel won her award for best supporting actress in the movie Gone With the Wind in 1939. At the Atlanta premiere, not only was she banned from attending, her name was stricken from the souvenir program along with all of the other Black actors. Segregation meant that no matter her achievements, she was not worthy to be counted alongside the White actors. She was the first African American to be invited to the Oscars as a guest rather than a servant. What an accomplishment for the daughter of a slave.
Fay Bainter (presenter): I present the Academy Award for the best performance of an actress in supporting roles during 1939 to Hattie McDaniel. Hattie McDaniel: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, fellow members of the motion picture industry, and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life. And I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of the awards, for your kindness it has made me feel very, very humble. And I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel. And may I say thank you, and God bless you.
McDaniel was much criticized throughout her lifetime for the roles that she played but every ready with a response, she answered her critiques saying, "I'd rather play a maid and make $700 a week than be one for $7." Without Hattie, there would not have been a Monique, or a Halle Berry or a Whoppie Goldberg." -In The Shadow of Hattie McDaniel
Paul Robeson & The Civil Rights Congress picketing at
White House, August 1948 (photo by Julius Lazarus)
Paul Leroy Robeson (April 9, 1898 - January 23, 1976) was a great American concert singer (bass-baritone), recording artist, athlete and actor who became noted for his political radicalism and activism in the civil rights movement. He spent much of his life actively working for equality and fair treatment for all of America's citizens as well as citizens of the world. James Earl Jones, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte have cited Robeson's lead film roles as being the first to display dignity for black actors and pride in African heritage. At the height of his career, Robeson chose to become primarily a political artist.
In 1950, his passport was revoked and later in the decade his income fell dramatically. He was blacklisted from performing on stage, screen, radio and television. By 1965, he was forced into permanent retirement. He spent his final years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, unapologetic about his political views and career.
On January 23, 1976, in Philadelphia, at the age of 77, Paul Robeson died of a stroke. On January 27, 2,500 people attended Robeson's funeral at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem; thousands more, mostly African Americans, stood outside in the rain throughout the service. He was cremated and his ashes were interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York with a grave marker that states, "The Artist Must Fight For Freedom Or Slavery. I Made My Choice. I Had No Alternative."
Along with Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and Josephine Baker, Robeson was one of the first African American artist/activists. He is also one of the forerunners of the civil rights movement and the first black artist to refuse segregated audiences.- Wikipedia
• FILMS & VIDEOS •
ETHEL WATERS
(1896-1977)
WALTER LONG
(1879-1952)
as BLACK BUCK GUS
White actor who played
an African American
in blackface make-up
in
"Birth of a Nation"
DENZEL WASHINGTON
(born 1954) 2001 Academy Award
for
Best Actor
J'irai cracher sur vos tombes directed by Michel Gast in 1959 and released in the U.S. in 1963 as I Spit On Your Grave,is a French romantic melodrama about interracial love ("The Film That Defies Every Taboo!"; "He Passed For White! ...And They Loved It!") starring Christian Marquand, Antonella Lualdi, Fernand Ledoux, Daniel Cauchy, Renate Ewert, Marina Petrowa, Andre Versini, Paul Guers, and Jean Sorel.
'There were 461 "Colored" movie theaters across 1929 America owned and operated by African Americans and catering exclusively to "Colored" audiences. The largest number of "Colored" movie houses were in the South and Southwest. . .' - A Brief History of All-Black Cast and Race Movies
"The extent of Hollywood inflexibility may be seen in a cursory survey of the roles played by the "Hollywood Negro." As the black world in the 1920s grew more aggressive, demanding, and unified through the NAACP, the Universal Negro Improvement Association, the Urban League, and the "buy-where-you-can-work" campaigns, the Hollywood Negro grew more stylized and fictive. From 1915 to 1920 roughly half the Negro roles reviewed in Variety were maids and butlers, and 74 percent of them were known in the credits by some demeaning first name. In the 1920s servile roles reached 80 percent of all black roles. By the 1930s they had dropped by half, but casting policy still restricted Negro roles by allowing Cab Calloway, Lena Horne, and other performers to appear only "as themselves" with no investment in the plot. Such billing accounted for 15 percent of Negro roles. Added to these were the nameless hordes of painted tribesmen who fell before the stout arm of Tarzan." - Thomas Cripps, Slow Fade to Black
"As Harriet Tubman led to Oprah Winfrey, and Martin Luther King. Jr., to Barack Obama, so the Africa-American stars of early black cinema are the mothers and fathers of the stars who entertain and edify us. To study the work of Robeson, McKinney, McDaniel and their kin is to recognize the hardships they endured, the heroism they displayed, in making their impossible dream today's movie reality." - About the List (Richard Corliss)
01. Body and Soul (1925) directed by Oscar Micheaux
starring Paul Robeson
02. Hallellujah! (1929) directed by King Vidor
starring Nina Mae McKinney
03. Judge Prist (1934) directed by John Ford
starring Will Rogers and Stepin Fetchit
04. Imitation of Life (1934) directed by John M. Stahl
starring Claudette Colbert, Louis Beavers, & Fredi Washington
05. God's Step Children (1938) directed Oscar Micheaux
starring Jacqueline Lewis
06. The Duke Is Tops (1938) directed by William L. Nolte
starring Ralph Cooper, Lena Horne & Laurence Criner
07. Gone With the Wind (1939) directed by Victor Fleming
starring Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh & Hattie McDaniels
08. The Blood of Jesus (1941) Spencer Williams, Jr.
starring Cathryn Caviness & Spencer Williams
09. The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) Alfred E. Green
starring Jackie Robinson & Ruby Dee
10. Native Son (1951) Pierre Chenal
starring Richard Wright & Gloria Madison
11. Carmen Jones (1954) Otto Preminger
starring Harry Belafonte, Dorothy Dandridge & Pearl Bailey
12. The Defiant Ones (1958) Stanley Kramer
starring Tony Curtis & Sidney Poitier
13. In the Heat of the Night (1967) Norman Jewison
starring Sidney Poitier & Rod Steiger
14. Sweet Sweetback's Baad Asssss Song (1971)
directed by Melvin Van Peebles
starring Melvin Van Peebles, Simon Chuckster & Hubert Scales
15. Lady Sings the Blues (1972) Sidney J. Furie
starring Diana Ross, Billy Dee Williams & Richard Pryor
16. Coolley High (1975) Michael Schultz
starring Glynn Turman, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
& Garrett Morris
17. Killeer of Sheep 1977) Charles Burnett
starring Henry G. Sanders, Kaycee Moore & Charles Bracy
18. Richard Pryor Live in Concert (1979) Jeff Margolis
starring Richard Pryor & Patti LaBelle
19. A Soldier's Story (1984) Norman Jewison
starring Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar & Art Evans
20. Do the Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee
starring Danny Aiello, Ossie Davis & Ruby Dee
21. Boyz N the Hood (1991) John Singleton
starring Cuba Gooding Jr., Laurence Fishburne
& Hudhail Al-Amir
22. Eve's Bayou (1997) Kasi Lemmons
starring Samuel L. Jackson, Jurnee Smollett & Meagan Good
23. Bamboozled (2000) Spike Lee
starring Damon Wayans, Savion Glover & Jada Pinkett Smith
24. Madea's Family Reunion (2002) Tyler Perry
starring Tyler Perry, Blair Underwood & Lynn Whitfield
25. I Am Legend (2007) Francis Lawrence
starring Will Smith, Alice Braga & Charlie Tahan
What is an African- American movie?
It has to be a movie about the black experience;
and/or written, produced or directed by black people;
and/or a movie with a black person in the lead role.
01. Do the Right Thing (1989) directed by Spike Lee
02. Body and Soul (1925) directed by Oscar Micheaux
03. In the Heat of the Night (1967) directed by Norman Jewison
04. A Soldiers Story (1984) directed by Norman Jewison
05. Cooley High (1975) directed by Michael Schult
06. What's Love Got To Do With It? (1993)
directed by Brian Gibson
07. Imitation of Life (1934) directed by John M Stahl
08. The Exile (1931) directed by Oscar Micheaux
09. City of God (2002) directed by Fernando Meirelles
10. Claudine (1974) directed by John Berry
11. Wattstax (1973) directed by Mel Stuart
12. Boyz N the Hood (1991) directed by John Singleton
13. Native Son (1951) directed by Pierre Chenal
14. Carmen Jones (1954) directed by Otto Preminger
15. The Color Purple (1985) directed by Steven Speilberg
16. Lady Sings the Blues (1971) directed by Sidney J. Furie
17. The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)
directed by Ivan Dixon
18. Ray (2004) directed by Taylor Hackford
19. Stormy Weather (1943) directed by Andrew Stone
20. Hollywood Shuffle (1987) directed by Robert Townsend
21. Antwone Fisher (2002) directed by Denzel Washington
22. Eve's Bayou (1997) directed by Kasi Lemmons
23. Cabin In The Sky (1943) directed by Vincente Minnelli
24. Purple Rain (1984) directed by Albert Magnoli
25. Friday (1995) directed by F. Gary Gray
OTHERS: (by date)
• Black Orpheus (1959) directed by Marcel Camus
• Sergeant Rutledge (1960) directed by John Ford
• A Raisin in the Sun (1961) directed by Daniel Petrie
• Nothing But a Man (1964) directed by Michael Roemer
• Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, (1971)
directed by Melvin Van Peoples
• Let's Do It Again (1975) directed by Sidney Portier
• She's Gotta Have It, (1986) directed by Spike Lee
• Glory (1989)
• To Sleep With Anger (1990)
directed byCharles Burnett
• Daughters of the Dust (1991) directed by Julie Dash
• Malcolm X (1992) directed by Spike Lee
• George Washingotn (2000) directed by Clu Gulager
& David Gordon Green
• Precious (2009) directed by Lee Daniels
BIRTH OF A NATION (Director, D/W. Griffith, USA, 1915)
The Birth of a Nation remains a landmark movie, whatever one thinks of its politics. D.W. Griffith's silent epic is a film about those rifts and tears in American society that led to the Civil War and known chiefly for the virulence of its racism. It opens with some paternal, Great War-era pleas for everything that follows to be understood as an anti-war tract, then immediately puts its foot in its mouth with a title card that insists if the blacks hadn't come to America, there'd have been no need for the Civil War.
The first half, detailing the relationship between two families, the Stonemans of the North and the Camerons of the South, still holds up today as a gallop through an especially turbulent period in U.S. history. He also stages extraordinarily detailed battle sequences, and a reconstruction of the burning of Atlanta that must have provided the producers of Gone with the Wind something to work with two decades later, before winding up with the assassination of Lincoln.
The second half, set during the Reconstruction, is dramatically much less satisfying, morally problematic (white actors sport varying thicknesses of blackface) and historically ridiculous, making a villain out of the character Silas Lynch - to modern eyes, an early civil rights figurehead looking to use the power vacuum left by Lincoln's death to raise blacks to the same standing as whites - while treating the Ku Klux Klan at all points as masked, heroic dispensers of justice.
We see stirrings of the racially-motivated paranoia that would spring up again in American society with the anti-Semitism of the 1930s and the McCarthy witch-hunts of the 50s. It reaches its nadir in the House of Representatives sequence, with its shoeless, liquor-swilling blackface bozos eating fried chicken while "the helpless white minority" look on, and in a later incident wherein the hero's sister jumps to her death rather than allow herself to be raped by a black soldier. As cinema, it's fascinatingly flawed spectacle; as an illustration of how racism most often stems from fear, and how every history has its bias, it's more or less perfect. - based on information from Cinéasthenia: Birth of a Nation
"Although the black and mulatto characters in The Birth of a Nation fail to create a sense of racial solidarity, many African-American and liberal whites who saw the film came together to denounce it. In one sense, the lack of representation in Griffith's epic prompted the formation of a protesting coalition in real life. Gerald Wood cites some of the social clashes and political victories that occurred because of the film:
There were riots and public demonstrations in Boston and New York and protests in major cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia, as well as many smaller places, especially in the Midwest and East. . . .Though the right to freedom of expression eventually undermined liberal opposition to the film, the attacks on Birth of a Nation are credited with raising black awareness in many cities and helping particularly the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] to consolidate black and liberal support for its causes." - Wood, Gerald. "From The Clansman and Birth of a Nation to Gone With the Wind: The Loss of American Innocence."
The Ku Klux Klan was founded in the post Civil War reconstruction era as a southern anti-black and anti-federal terrorist group. While the Klan was initially suppressed by the federal government, it was resurrected in 1915 in Georgia. This new Klan appealed to hatred of Jews, Catholics, and immigrants, in addition to its original targeting of blacks. Today it might qualify as an equal opportunity hate group. The KKK was politically correct in those days; so much so that when the father of the modern cinema filmed Birth of a Nation, he glorified this group of vigilante cowards as protectors of white womanhood. The film purposefully distorts American history so as to glorify the racist legacy of the Ku Klux Klan, which played a hand in over 3,500 lynchings across the South after the close of the Civil War. Black characters are often white actors covered with soot, and the mixed race characters are white actors covered with what looks like slime. The blacks contribute nothing but mayhem and looting, while the whites impart dignity and order to society. It is a powerful propaganda film.
Paul Robeson in his film debut at 27, starred in Body and Soul (1925) directed by Oscar Micheaux, the Godfather of black film. This powerful silent film has Robeson playing two characters: the angelic Sylvester Jenkins and his evil brother, the "Reverend" Isaiah, an ex-con. Jenkins pretends to fall in love with a young member of his congregation, Isabelle Perkins (Mercedes Gilbert), so that he can get close enough to steal money from Isabelle's mother, Mother Jane (Julia Theresa Russell, Micheaux's sister-in-law), and convinces the young woman to take the blame for his crime. When the film was ready to be released, Micheaux was denied approval of his cut on the grounds it would "tend to incite to crime" and had to chop it down so that it could be shown. Body and Soul is one of three surviving silent films created by Micheaux, and is considered a lost film.
Robeson appeared in several films during the 1930s, including The Emperor Jones (1933) and Sanders of the River (1935).
"Of all Paul Robeson's eleven starring film performances, by far his most iconic was his breakthrough in the big-screen adaptation of Eugene O' Neill's "The Emperor Jones" (1933). He was already a legend for his stage incarnation of Brutus Jones, a Pullman porter who powers his way to the rule of a Caribbean island, but with this, his first sound-era film role, his regal image was married to his booming voice for eternity. With The Emperor Jones, Robeson became the first African-American leading man in mainstream movies and, he said, gained a deeper understanding of cinema's potential to change racial misconceptions. Previously censored, The Emperor Jones is presented here in its most complete form. - The Criterion Collection
Sanaders of the River (1935)
Director: Zoltan Korda
Producer: Alexander Korda
London Film Productions
Starring Paul Robeson & Leslie Banks
Leslie Banks stars as a British officer who manages to keep the peace between the African tribes loyal to His Majesty and those loyal to the African king. One of the tribal leaders, played by Paul Robeson, does all he can to help Banks maintain the peace, but when Banks takes a trip away from the region, all hell breaks loose.
Robeson was upset with the producers of Sanders of the River as he claimed that they had turned it into a pro-imperialist film. He later wrote that "it is the only one of my films that can be shown in Italy and Germany, for it shows the Negro as Fascist States desire him - savage and childish."
On his return from the Soviet Union he went to Hollywood to make a movie of Show Boat (1936). He followed this with the films: Jericho (1937), Song of Freedom (1937), Big Fella (1937) and King Solomon's Mines (1937).
"After WWII Robeson continued to make films, including The Proud Valley (1940), in which he played a heroic miner in Wales and Tales of Manhattan (1942). Robeson was also involved in Native Land (1942), a film directed by Paul Strand. Robeson provided the narration and Marc Blitzstein the music."
By the start of World War II, Paul Robeson had given up his lucrative mainstream work to participate in more socially progressive film and stage productions. Robeson committed his support to Paul Strand and Leo Hurwitz's political semidocumentary Native Land. With Robeson's narration and songs, this beautifully shot and edited film exposes violations of Americans' civil liberties and is a call to action for exploited workers around the country. Scarcely shown since its debut, Native Land represents Robeson's shift from narrative cinema to the leftist documentaries that would define the final chapter of his controversial film career. - The Criterion Collection
IMITATION OF LIFE (1934 and 1959)
IMITATION OF LIFE (Director: John M Stahl, USA, 1934)
Imitation of Life (1934) is a great film based on the 1933 novel by Fannie Hurst. White widow Bea Pullman and her daughter, Jessie, take in black housekeeper Delilah Johnson (Louise Beavers) and her daughter, white-looking Peola (Fredi Washington). Delilah and Peola quickly become like family to Jessie and Bea, who make millions off of Delilah's pancake recipe. As Peola grows up (the tragic mulatto myth), she learns she can pass for white and abandons her mother and her race. This film gives a grand view of race from both sides, but is not without well-deserved criticisms. Referenced in Toni Morrison's novel "The Bluest Eye," the film examines black internalized self-hatred, from a white point-of-view. In the (1959) remake starring Lana Turner as Bea and a white actress (Susan Kohner) as Peola, and was nominated for an Oscar. In 2005, Imitation of Life (1934) was selected for preservation in the United States, and it was named in 2007 as one of "The 25 Most Important Films on Race." - Top 25 African-American Films of All Time
Susan Kohner (l) and Juanita Moore (r) in "Imitation of Life" (1959)
IMITATION OF LIFE (Director: Douglas Sirk, USA, 1959)
Imitation of Life (1959) is an American film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter and released by Universal Pictures, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin and features Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda and Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson. Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson appears as a church choir soloist signing "Trouble in the World". It's the second film adaptation of the novel.
Storyline Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom. - IMDb
SHOWBOAT (1936 & 1951)
Oscar Hammerstein II/Jermone Kern
The movie, Showboat, 1936 with (l to r) Paul Robeson
Irene Dunne, Hattie McDaniel and Helen Morgan
Irene Dunne dancing to "Can't Hellp Loving that Man"
"I even loves him when his kisses got gin"
Paul Robeson and Hattie McDaniel duet "CAN'T HELP LOVIN' THAT MAN" (start at 3'09'')
Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man
(Helen Morgan as "Julie")
Oh listen, sister
I love my mister man and I can't tell you why
Dere ain't no reason why I should love dat man
It must be sampan' dat de angels done plan
De chimbley's smokin'
De roof is leakin' in
But he don't seem to care
He can be happy
With jes' a sip of gin
I even loves him when his kisses got gin
Fish got to swim and birds got to fly
I got to love man till I die
Can't help loving that man of mine
Tell me he's lazy
Tell me he's slow
Tell me I'm crazy, maybe, I know
Can't help loving' that man of mine
When he goes away
Dat's a rainy day
And when he comes back dat day is fine
The sun will shine
He can come home as late as can be
Home without him ain't no home to me
Can't help loving' that man of mine
• this beautiful duet was cut in the 1951 film! •
(Hattie McDaniel as "Queenie")
My man is shifless
and good for nothing too
He's my man just the same
He's never near me when there's working to do
[He's never around you when there's working to do]
the chimbley's smokin'
the roof is leakin' in
But he don't seem to care
He can be happy
With jes' a sip of gin
(Paul Robeson as "Joe")
[Why you all talkin' about gin]
I even loves him when his kisses got gin
Fish got to swim and birds got to fly
I got to love one man till I die
Can't help loving that man of mine
Tell me he's lazy
Tell me he's slow
Tell me I'm crazy, maybe, I know
Can't help loving' that man of mine
When he goes away
Dat's a rainy day
And when he comes back dat day is fine
The sun will shine
He can come home as late as can be
Home without him ain't no home to me
Can't help loving' that man of mine
In the 1936 version of Show Boat, as well as the stage version, Queenie (McDaniel) remarks that it is strange to hear Julie singing "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" because only black people know the song, thereby foreshadowing the revelation of Julie's mixed blood. This remark is completely left out of the 1952 MGM version, as is the term colored folks, which Queenie uses. Some of the more controversial lines of the song "Ol' Man River" (one of them being "Don't look up and don't look down; you don't dast make the white boss frown") are no longer heard, and Queenie and Joe (Robeson) do not sing their section of "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" (see above), as they do in all stage versions and in the 1936 film. - Wikipedia
In the 1951 version of Show Boat, the part of Julie is played by Ava Gardner and although her singing voice was not bad, the studio, MGM, wanted her to sound more Black. They wanted the voice of Lena Horne, who just happened to be friends with Ava Gardner. Lena Horne was a well known actress-singer at the time and would have been an excellent choice to play Julie; she looked "white" enough that a little makeup would have helped her to look less "Black" next to white people. Anyway, it's not Lena Horne's voice in the finished film, it's Annette Warren, a white singer. MGM couldn't cast Lena in the film because the Production Code banned interracial romances on screen!
CABIN IN THE SKY (Director: Vincente Minnelli, USA, 1943)
Starring: Ethel Waters, Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson, Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong with Ellington and crew appearing in a wonderfully photographed "shack dance". The film was adapted from the successful Broadway play, Cabin in the Sky. It is about the gambler Little Joe (Rochester) who is seriously wounded in a barroom fight. His pious wife, Petunia (Waters), prays for him to have a second chance so he can get into heaven. Joe survives, but God's General and Lucifer, Jr. begin the battle for his soul. With an all black cast headed by the magnificent Ethel Waters singing classics from the musical. MGM added three new songs written by Harold Arlen. Lena Horne made a sensational screen debut as in one of her few acting roles as the temptress Georgia Brown. In most of her other films Horne played herself, and she rarely had interaction with the main stars. Instead, she would come onscreen, perform a number, and exit. This was done so her scenes could be easily trimmed if they offended southern audiences.
In his biography, I Remember It Well, Minnelli recalled the making of Cabin in the Sky: "If there were any reservations about the film, they revolved around the story, which reinforced the naive, childlike stereotype of blacks. But I knew there were such people as the deeply pious Petunia and Joe, her weak gambler of a husband, and that such wives constantly prayed for the wavering souls of their men. . . If I was going to make a picture about such people, I would approach it with great affection rather than condescension."
"Cabin in the Sky was the first all-black musical in nearly fourteen years and only the fourth all-black film by a major studio since the coming of sound. It was also director Vincente Minnelli's first feature film."
GONE WITH THE WIND (Director: Victor Fleming, USA, 1939)
Writing credits: Margaret Mitchell (novel); Sidney Howard (screenplay)
Hattie McDaniel & Vivien Leigh in "Gone With the Wind" (1939)
"Mammy is every bit the stereotype. With no life other than to look after Scarlett. . . The only reason so many argue that Mammy breaks with the stereotype is because Hattie McDaniel was a wonderful actress, who transcended the extremely limited and belittling role. . . it is galling that a book first published in 1936, when the civil rights movement in the USA was already underway, and turned into a movie in 1939 - the year that Billie Holiday first performed and recorded "Strange Fruit" about lynching in the South - could be so astonishingly blind to the evil that is slavery. . . The glorious south that Margaret Mitchell is so nostalgic for was built out of exploitation, murder, and rape. But it's even more galling that here in 2009 there are still people trying to pretend that Gone with the Wind isn't profoundly racist so they can enjoy all its other aspects." - Justine Larbalestier
Song of the South (1947) has been banned in its entirety for years and Disney still won't release it. Frederick Douglass would undoubtedly be appalled by Disney's apparent lack of understanding of the plight of the American slave showcased in this film. In fact, it is in this department that the film gets the most flack, and deservedly so. . . the only real reason to watch Song of the South is for the animated tales of Br'er Rabbit and for James Baskett's charismatic performance as Uncle Remus. Baskett may be playing a stereotype just like Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind (1939), but they both crafted lovable endearing characters that outshone the rest of the respective films they were in. They didn't get the complex juicy roles because the prejudices of the times would not give them much more, but they did what they could with the material given to them. Baskett received an honorary Academy Award for his performance in Song of the South and Walt Disney himself fought very hard to get him nominated. Ironically (like McDaneil) James Baskett was unable to attend the premiere of Song of the South in Atlanta because of segregation laws at the time. - Brace Yourself
The racism of Song of the Southis disturbing because it "bowdlerizes American history with such consummate mastery that its tactics go virtually unnoticed. Aided by the richly textured color photography of Gregg Toland and the frenetic emotional traumas of the plot, the film captures and reflects the consciousness of a child so adroitly that all of its submerged biases are made to ring like simple mythic truths. The physical pain of the cartoon sequences (e.g., Br'er Rabbit and Briar Patch) alternates with the emotional pain of the live-action (the departure of the boy’Äôs father from the plantation corresponds to the recently-ended war, when many fathers were away): both lines culminate in the hysterical climax of the boy chasing across a pasture after Uncle Remus, departing on a wagon for Atlanta, before he is charged and gored by a killer bull." - Jonathan Rosenbaum
"The only scene of life away from the master's watchful eye in Song of the South begins with Aunt Tempy (Hattie McDaniel) cooking in the kitchen and singing a bluesy ballad entitled "Sooner or Later." Uncle Remus (James Baskett) appears in the window carrying an armful of firewood and opens his eyes wide when he sees Tempy cooking. He enters as she finishes her song and sits down at the table while she playfully chastises him for just sitting around telling stories and not wanting to work ("Stick his nose in this here kitchen and we'll have Brer Rabbit stew"). After Remus compliments her cooking, she gives him a plate and they both laugh as he eats." Their moment outside the gaze of the master is soon interrupted. . .
This scene demonstrates life away from the white viewer but Tempy and Remus still joke and laugh as if Sally or Johnny were standing in their midst. There is no time when these characters aren't playful or childlike. They are the familiar stereotypes of the "faithful servants" but without the added dimension of telling their white caretaker when they are displeased with a decision those in their care have made. Gone With the Wind's Mammy, while still a mythic figure herself, would never stand there and let two thuggish white children talk to Remus or the other house servant like they do. There was a certain sense of respect or authority instilled in that character. Here, there is nothing more than the myth of childish black folks." - The Myth of Remus & Tempy
"Walt Disney's Song of the South was one of the poorest representations of the mammy figure and one of the last of its era. Whether this was due to the 1942 agreement of producers to curb black stereotypes in their films, the change in social attitudes in which Civil Rights issues gradually supplanted Civil War nostalgia, or the fact that the stereotype was played to the hilt, mammy disappeared from American film for a while. It was a much-deserved retirement." - Conclusion: The Figure of the Mammy
BLACK ORPHEUS (Director: Marcel Camus, France, 1959)
Breno Mello (Orpheus) singing to Marpessa Dawn (Eurydice)
Black Orpheus (1959) - Carnivale in Rio de Janiero, Brazil, is the place where this Orpheus and Eurydice story is retold. Won Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (Director: Michel Gast, France, 1959)
In late 1946 Vian announced that he had found the perfect American novel to kick-start his friend's new publishing house (Editions du Scorpions). He claimed that J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I Shall Spit on Your Graves) was his translation of an underappreciated young black author whose work was banned in his native country. Vernon Sullivan, it was claimed, was now an expatriate, living in France to escape racism and censorship in the US. Vian wrote the book in a two-week burst, and concocted the story of Sullivan as a way to get it published.
"On the morning of June 23, 1959, Boris Vian was at the Cinema Marbeuf for the screening of the film version of his controversial "Vernon Sullivan" novel, J'irai cracher sur vos tombes (I will Spit On Your Graves). He had already fought with the producers over their interpretation of his work and he publicly denounced the film stating that he wished to have his name removed from the credits. A few minutes after the film began, he reportedly blurted out: "These guys are supposed to be American? My ass!" He then collapsed into his seat and died of a heart attack en route to the hospital."
"Samuel Fuller's throat-grabbing exposé on American racism was misunderstood and withheld from release when it was made in the early eighties; today, the notorious film is lauded for its daring metaphor and gripping pulp filmmaking. Kristy McNichol stars as a young actress who adopts a lost German shepherd, only to discover through a series of horrifying incidents that the dog has been trained to attack black people, and Paul Winfield plays the animal trainer who tries to cure him. A snarling, uncompromising vision, White Dog is a tragic portrait of the evil done by that most corruptible of animals: the human being."
Shock Corridor charts the uneasy terrain between sanity and madness. Johnny Barrett (Peter Breck) has himself committed to a mental hospital to investigate a murder. As he closes in on the killer, insanity closes in on him. With its startling commentary on racism and other hot-button issues in sixties America and its daring photography by Stanley Cortez, Shock Corridor remain a film of social value and influence.
Peggy Ashcroft and Paul Robeson in Othello in 1930
In 1925 Robeson went to London to appear in Emperor Jones. In England he became close friends with Emma Goldman, an anarchist who had been deported from the United States after the First World War. In a letter Goldman wrote to Alexander Berkman, she said: "The more I know the man the greater and finer I find him". In another letter to Berkman she wrote about his "fine character, his understanding and his large outlook on life." She added: "I know few of our American friends among whites quite as humane and large as Paul."
In 1930 Robeson appeared in Emperor Jones in Germany before taking the leading role in Othello in London. The play received a great deal of publicity as it included a scene where Robeson kisses a white actress, Peggy Ashcroft, who played the role of Desdemona. Despite the controversy the show was a great success and ran for 295 performances. - Spartacus Educational
Peggy Ashcroft had this to say in an interview in 1930 during the production of Othello: "Racial prejudices are foolish at the best of times but I think it positively absurd that they should even come into consideration where acting is concerned. Ever so many people have asked whether I mind being kissed in some of the scenes. It seems to me silly. Of course I do not mind. I see no difference in being kissed by Mr. Robeson than being kissed by any other man."
2 ENGRAVINGS by WILLIAM BLAKE, 1796
left: A Negro hung alive by the Ribs to a Gallows
right: Flagellation of a Female Negro Slave The Paradox of Art about Slavery
"Phyllis Wheatley was ... the first African-American poet. She was a slave in the home of the Wheatley family in Boston. The Wheatleys recognized her gifts, educated, and encouraged her. The illustration above shows the book of poems she published in her own name..." - Scibal Terror blog
"A GOOD LIKENESS OF SANCHO, A NEGRO MAN thirty years of age, about 5 feet high, very black complexion, good teeth, not corpulent, but well formed, and of erect position of body & a fast walker, WHO absented himself (supposed to have been inveigled away by some artful villains for their own use and benefit) upon the Evening of the 17th inst. from his Master, Winthrop Sargent, late Governor of the Mississippi Territory. He had learned the trade of a Barber, and is in every respect a most accomplished servant for a gentleman or a family; was born and educated in his Master's house; endeared to him, his mistress, and his own wife and children, as well as the numerous blacks of his Master's Plantations, by long, affectionate, and faithful services, and ere this solitary instance of malconduct, there was not a single doubt entertained that the attachments were mutual and inviolable..."
... prior to the American Revolution, slaves were owned in Old Dartmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts, some of them held by wealthy Quakers. Liberation was urged by leaders of the sect, and before 1780, when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, no slaves were known to be held by New England Friends.
In the days of anti-slavery agitation, the people of New Bedford showed a practical sympathy for fugitive slaves. The town was noted as one of the major "stations" of the "Underground Railroad," which was not a railroad at all, but merely an undercover system, to provide refuge for fugitives. The most famous fugitive to settle in New Bedford was Frederick Douglass, noted abolitionist orator and leader, who lived here from 1838 to 1841...
"At the heart of this journey is the murder of James Byrd Jr, and his presence haunts the entire film. This is not an anatomy of his murder, nor the autopsy of a black man lynched by three young white males, but more an evocation of how this event fits in to a landscape and climate as much mental as physical." (Chantal Akerman, 1999)
could see all of the tension
in his body
and in the chain
the tightness and stiffness in his jaw
the wild glare in his eyes
the mosquitoes circling his dusty-musty black body
sun-dried and reeking of cheap tobacco juice
compliments of dirty southern men
in pure white sheets
who delight in taking the side roads
the beaten paths
too often traveled
in the weeping darkness
that can't mediate
between the voiceless victims
and the gutless human creatures that ravage
human beings for sport
in killing fields
where nightmares are nurtured and harvested
perpetuated and pre-meditated
hushed and silenced
as they envelope and engulf black bodies
strong and well-designed
like the eye-catching
body-dragging chains hooked up to fords and chevys
that pull grown men
and dismember dismantle decapitate
husbands fathers brothers sons men
like rag dolls devoured by pit bulls
who contort jerk break necks snap bones
and split open down the seams
as passionate red and white entrails
mop the pay dirt in
the good old u s of a
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crime Prevention Act improves the nation's response to hate crimes by:
• expanding current law to recognize crimes motivated by actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability;
enabling the federal government to address those cases that other jurisdictions are either unable or unwilling to investigate and prosecute, while retaining primary responsibility for hate crime prosecution at the state and local level; and
• expanding the scope of data collection and reporting requirements regarding hate crime.
"This is a case in which this sleaze, this dirt, was searched for by staffers of members of this committee, was then leaked to the media, and this committee and this body validated it and displayed it at prime time over our entire nation. . . This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree." - Clarence Thomas from Hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the Nomination of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court
HELEN WEST HELLER Alabama Bio-Chemist,
woodcut, 1947
collection of Scattergood-Moore
HELEN WEST HELLER Cotton Pickers woodcut, 1935
left panel of American Soil
collection of Scattergood-Moore
... prior to the American Revolution, slaves were owned in Old Dartmouth and New Bedford, Massachusetts, some of them held by wealthy Quakers. Liberation was urged by leaders of the sect, and before 1780, when slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, no slaves were known to be held by New England Friends.
Imitation of Life (1959) is an American film directed by Douglas Sirk, produced by Ross Hunter and released by Universal Pictures, starring Lana Turner and John Gavin and features Sandra Dee, Dan O'Herlihy, Susan Kohner, Robert Alda and Juanita Moore as Annie Johnson. Gospel music star Mahalia Jackson appears as a church choir soloist signing "Trouble in the World". It's the second film adaptation of the novel.
"This is a case in which this sleaze, this dirt, was searched for by staffers of members of this committee, was then leaked to the media, and this committee and this body validated it and displayed it at prime time over our entire nation. . . This is a circus. It's a national disgrace. And from my standpoint as a black American, as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the US Senate rather than hung from a tree." - 
