MTA 101 ("Film in America")

Instructor: Walter Metz

Alternatives to Hollywood: The Case of the Race Movies

African-American Film History (1903-1945)

What do we make of the fact that the film that most traditional histories cite as the "birth" of American cinema is one of the most racist films ever made? While The Birth of a Nation (D.W. Griffith, 1914) is certainly not the birth of American racism, it does represent the rebirth of a certain kind of imagistic racism on the grand scale of mass communication.

Examples of intense racism in The Birth of a Nation:

• CLIP: The Birth of a Nation: Gus Chase Sequence
• CLIP: The Birth of a Nation: African-Americans in the State Legislature

African-American responses to The Birth of a Nation:

• NAACP Protests
• Documentary activist filmmaking: The Birth of a Race (1915)
• A separate cinema: "Race Movies"

What is a "Race Movie"?

"Race movies" were films produced specifically for an all-black audience. The films were produced outside of Hollywood’s sphere of influence, from 1915 until shortly after World War II. About 500 films were produced; of these, about 100 still exist.

Why study race movies, when most traditional film histories don’t even mention them?

Because African-American film history is usually assumed to be a story of nothing but victimization. That is, blacks were offered nothing but demeaning stereotypes to play in Hollywood movies (Gone With the Wind, for example). While this is very true, it assumes that Hollywood defines all of American cinema, which simply is not the case. Thomas Cripps identifies the problems of the victimization-only view of African-American film history: "In their eagerness to cast blacks as the victims of Hollywood cupidity, some critics present them as passive lambs in an abattoir" (40). To not discuss the kinds of independent filmmaking that African-Americans engaged in since the birth of cinema is to ignore the role African-Americans played in forging their own history within a climate of intense racism.

Where were race movies exhibited?

American movie theaters in the classical era were segregated. In 1883, the Supreme Court decided that the states could decide whether to segregate or not. In the Southern states, segregation was enforced by law into the 1960s. In the North, segregation occurred more "naturally," as people attended theatres in their own neighborhoods. Most often, blacks lived in one part of town and attended "their own theatres" (which were most often owned by whites). White theatres would reserve special times for black audiences, often at matinee or midnight screenings. In the North, sometimes there was a black-only balcony (from which the racist phrase, "Peanut Gallery," derives). At the height of the popularity of race movies, there were as many as 1100 theatres catering at some time to black audiences in the United States.

Who Made Race Movies?

1.  White-owned Companies:  Many times, the films were produced by all-white or mixed race companies trying to make money off of black audiences. Scar of Shame (Frank Perugini, 1927) is an example of a "race film" produced by a white-owned company (the Colored Players of Philadelphia) but starring black actors. There were often some contributions to the films made by collectives of black actors who starred in the films. In this clip, we see African-American actors (not white actors in blackface as in Uncle Tom’s Cabin or The Birth of a Nation), who often worked without a script, and thus were able to improvise their experiences into the film.

• CLIP: The Scar of Shame: Class conflict at the boarding house (Alvin vs. Eddie)

• The cultural function of such films was to introduce Northward-migrating Southern lower-class blacks to the standards of the African-American bourgeoisie (middle-class). This was done through plots about "uplifting the race" or about the tragedy produced when one did not live the middle-class lifestyle. As Thomas Cripps describes, The Scar of Shame is an example of the latter sort of film.

• CLIP: The Scar of Shame: Ending (Alvin marries Alice; Louise is forgotten)

2.  African-American-owned Companies:  Less frequently, an independent African-American-run company would produce the films. The most famous of these companies was the Micheaux Film Corporation, founded by Oscar Micheaux. The company’s charter read, "It is the purpose of the MFC to fill stories by African-American writers."

Oscar Micheaux’s Film Career

Micheaux began as a melodramatic novelist. One of his early novels, The Homesteader, tells of an African-American man who makes a successful life for his family by purchasing a mid-western farm. In 1918, Micheaux founded the Micheaux Film Corporation. Its first film, in 1919, was an adaptation of The Homesteader. Micheaux was a very successful businessman in the film industry. He in particular excelled at promotion. He convinced white theatre owners to show his films to what he described as vast black audiences. He included scenes of nightclubs in his films because of the white mystique for this aspect of black culture. He promoted his actors as black equivalents to Hollywood stars ("The Black Valentino," "The Sepia Mae West," "The Colored Cagney").

The Politics of Micheaux’s Films

Micheaux’s films typically fit into the "uplift the race" category. They tend to center on professional, middle-class African-Americans. In the case of Within Our Gates, the female protagonist is a school-teacher. Michaeux’s films tend not to center on racial misery, decay, and the ghetto. In his African-American film history, Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks, Donald Bogle argues: "He wanted to give his audience something to further the race, not hinder it. Often he sacrificed plausibility to do so. He created a fantasy world where blacks were just as affluent, just as educated, just as cultured, just as well-mannered--in short, just as white--as white America" (116). Is Bogle’s description of Micheaux’ politics supported by Within Our Gates?

Race Movies vs. Hollywood:  A case study of the politics of "Cross-Over"

• Race movies provided an industrial base from which Hollywood could steal talent. A black star who made it in Hollywood is described as having "crossed-over" from low-budget independent cinema to Hollywood affluence. The best example of the political complexities of crossing-over is the case of Paul Robeson, the greatest American actor you’ve probably never heard of. Robeson began his career as a law student and football player at Rutgers University. He took up theatrical acting, and became the first black man to play Othello opposite a white Desdemona. He received his big break in the early 1920s when Eugene O’Neill saw him in a revival of his play, The Emperor Jones. In 1924, Micheaux gives Robeson his first film role in Body and Soul. Robeson went to Hollywood, and became famous as a singer in musicals, particularly Show Boat (1936). As his career expanded, Robeson became more and more politically active. He began changing song lyrics for progressive ends. For example, his signature song, "Old Man River," evolved from a white-written spiritual to a Civil Rights mantra with lines such as "we must keep fightin’ ‘till we’re dyin’." In the 1950s, Robeson was blacklisted for his political views. Robeson’s career as a cross-over star can be seen in the evolution from the race film, Body and Soul (Oscar Micheaux, 1924) to the Hollywood film, The Emperor Jones (Dudley Murphy, 1933).

CLIP: The Emperor Jones

• However, the case of Paul Robeson is relatively rare. More common is the way in which Hollywood placed talented black actors into demeaning roles. The case of Hattie McDaniel in Gone With the Wind is the most famous example of this, but there are hundreds more. Consider the case of Clarence Muse, who played the lead in the race film, Broken Earth (1939), but was relegated to the role of porter in Alfred Hitchcock’s Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

CLIP: Shadow of a Doubt: Hitchcock "holds all the cards"

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This page was last updated on May 30, 2001

Questions or Comments?  Please phone me at (406) 994-6403 or send e-mail to: metz@montana.edu

Walter Metz, Department of Media and Theatre Arts, Montana State University--Bozeman