Black History Month: Oscar Micheaux

If I told you that a movie came out with a predominantly African-American cast, you wouldn’t bat an eye. If I told you it involves a black man being falsely accused of killing a white man, you probably still wouldn’t think too much of it. It becomes interesting, perhaps very much so, when I tell you that’s really just a backdrop for the bulk of the story which is about a woman trying desperately to save the school she’s founded by dealing with an assortment of bigoted benefactors and other shady characters. One of the film’s biggest themes is disproving stereotypes. And of course, there’s a love story. You’d hardly be surprised if I told that this movie were written and directed by an African-American man. After all, this could easily be a project helmed by Steve McQueen, Ryan Coogler, Lee Daniels, or Spike Lee. But, what if I told you it was made in 1919? Unless you already knew this, you’d rightfully be blown away.

The racial climate in this country certainly was not conducive to a black man helming a film and getting it released. I mean, we’re talking nearly one hundred years ago – ten years before the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. Jim Crow still ruled the American south. While attitudes were more liberal in the north, there was still an implicit racism at play. The director of this particular film managed to overcome this and create a long and successful career for himself. His name was Oscar Micheaux.If I told you that a movie came out with a predominantly African-American cast, you wouldn’t bat an eye. If I told you it involves a black man being falsely accused of killing a white man, you probably still wouldn’t think too much of it. It becomes interesting, perhaps very much so, when I tell you that’s really just a backdrop for the bulk of the story which is about a woman trying desperately to save the school she’s founded by dealing with an assortment of bigoted benefactors and other shady characters. One of the film’s biggest themes is disproving stereotypes. And of course, there’s a love story. You’d hardly be surprised if I told that this movie were written and directed by an African-American man. After all, this could easily be a project helmed by Steve McQueen, Ryan Coogler, Lee Daniels, or Spike Lee. But, what if I told you it was made in 1919? Unless you already knew this, you’d rightfully be blown away.

The racial climate in this country certainly was not conducive to a black man helming a film and getting it released. I mean, we’re talking nearly one hundred years ago – ten years before the birth of Martin Luther King Jr. Jim Crow still ruled the American south. While attitudes were more liberal in the north, there was still an implicit racism at play. The director of this particular film managed to overcome this and create a long and successful career for himself. His name was Oscar Micheaux.

Micheaux was born in 1884, just twenty years after the end of the Civil War. In his twenties, he worked lots of odd-jobs and eventually became a homesteader with mostly white neighbors. These experiences inspired the novels he wrote, and eventually, the movies he created. He would go on to make over forty films and is considered to be the first major African-American film director. His first feature was a film called The Homesteader and was highly autobiographical. It proved a great catalyst for his career. Though he was successful both critically and commercially, his films were not awards winners. However, he has posthumously been honored many times including being given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987.

Oh, by the way, the film I was talking about earlier was one some saw as a response to D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation. He denied this, instead saying it was about the widespread instability following World War I. It’s called Within Our Gates. You can watch it in full, below.

Yes, it’s a silent movie. I said it was made in 1919, duh.