Oscar Micheaux contributed a very crucial piece to black film making in the 1920’s. He created his studio to help expand African American ideas and expressions. Micheaux created films for an all black audience and gave African American actors the chance to shine. He created 43 films in his career and led the way for cinematic advancements. According to albany.edu, “Micheaux used his filmmaking to challenge openly the racial injustices that African Americans faced at the beginning of the twentieth century: lynching, job discrimination, interracial rape, mob violence, and economic exploitation.” He produced films such as The Homesteader, Within our Gates, and The Conquest. These films not only gave black society entertainment but also gave the nation responses to controversial subjects.
The Homesteader was Micheaux’s first film and included an all black cast and crew. The Homesteader had originally been a novel written by Micheaux and was at first supposed to be created into a movie by the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. Micheaux declined the offers and created his own company known as the Micheaux Film and Book Company (The Journal for Multi Media History).
In his second and most controversial film, Within our Gates, Micheaux’s goal was to combat The Birth of a Nation. This film brought out many of the truths surrounding the south’s history. Within our Gates contained the cruel nature of lynching and had very similar scenes that were in The Birth of a Nation. These scenes differed due to the fact that they replaced the protagonist as a black person and made the antagonist the white man. It was a much more realistic portrayal of America’s history and many did not want it viewed.
The last film that Micheaux made was The Betrayal, which was about a black man who was in love with a woman who he though was white. At the end of the movie she turned out to be from a back ancestry and they were wed.
Micheaux was a huge forerunner in cinema and gave African Americans acting opportunities. His movies not only inspired his race but were also eye openers for the nation.
Bibliography
Butters, Gerald . "From Homestead to Lynch Mob: Portrayals of Black
Masculinity in Oscar Micheaux’s." The Journal for Multi Media
History . 2001. 20 Mar 2009
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