Chani Thorum

Film 1070
Final Paper

African Americans on Film

In my final paper I will be looking at African Americans on film from
1910 to the 1970s, I will attempt to show a timeline of events and showcase
some movies that pushed the boundaries. I will also take a look into some of
the production companies that were all colored and produced race films of
their era. I hope that I can find as many women in my research as men and
also try to compare their roles to that of Caucasian women in film of the
same time. It might be interesting to see if they are in the same type of role
or if they are marginalized for being female and African American.
I think it is safe to say that in the earlier times of Hollywood and films,
African Americans were portrayed in a negative light. I came across a movie
called Birth of a Nation that came out in 1915, during this time WWI was just
gearing up and this movie had it all. Included within the film was blackface,
the KKK, southern ideals, but also this movie is considered a classic in
Hollywood cinema. The contents today are regarded as disgusting but back
in 1915 this is what was normal. African Americans did not have much
freedom and in 1901 and were segregated from whites, to give a bit of
perspective in 1910 the US population was at 93,402,151 and 10% of those
people were Black. We know that President Abraham Lincoln issued the
Emancipation Proclamation that was supposed to fee all blacks from slavery
but they werent treated equally until about the 70s and you can argue, still
arent considered equals today.

Chani Thorum
Film 1070
Final Paper

Birth of a Nation is a silent film that is over three hours long; in the
opening scene it talks about abolishing slavery but as the movie progresses
they represent Blacks as slave hands, cotton pickers, and butlers. Nine
minutes in and I saw my first noticeable women in blackface as she was
talking to the littler sister of the Cameron family. Some of the features they
have given her are a black wig, she is dressed in maids clothes, which
means shes probably a nanny of the family and the lips are grossly over
exaggerated to fit within the stereotype that African Americans have huge
lips. I do have to say that this movie conveyed all of the messages it wanted
to get across all without sound which is pretty amazing. For an early movie
made in 1915 it is actually quite amazing. I also noticed while watching this
movie, the director always had actual African Americans in the background,
they were either sweeping, hoeing, being taken away on a cart, or picking
cotton but them seemed to always be working in the background maybe to
try to portray the way life was back then or it could be seen as this is where
Mr. Griffith thinks that is where Africans Americans belong and need to stay.
Some blacks are made to dance for the Stonemans when they come to visit
the Camerons as a sort of entertainment for the households. The southern
ideals are threatened by the Civil War and the movie starts to take a turn in
the representation of African Americans. When the guerillas, as the blacks
were referred to in the movie, came into town they break in the houses and
pillage everything. One observation of the movie was whenever a white
person had to come into contact with a person of color, the actor was
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Film 1070
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actually a white person with blackface painted on their faces. This movie
obviously isnt a good representation of African Americans but I dont
necessarily think it was on purpose. Yes, they wanted to make African
Americans look barbaric to justify their response forming the KKK but I feel
that was just to make the North looks as ridiculous as possible and people
fear what they dont know and what threatens their way of life.
Next I will look at a movie called The Littlest Rebel staring Shirley
Temple that came out in 1935. Keep in mind that this movie was released
twenty years after Birth of a Nation and in the opening scene Shirley is
ordering her African American butlers around, she seems to be friendly to
them and likes them but right after she gives a strong suggestion that her
uncle should entertain all her little guests by dancing for their enjoyment.
Some of the butlers are portrayed as ill-educated as well as some of the
children that live on the grounds. One child gives her a doll for her birthday
and is so nervous of saying the wrong thing she almost bursts into tears. This
film is also about the Civil War, told from the Southerners prospective but has
a different story line, the Cary family seem to be very respective towards
their slaves and work together to try to save the families father. When the
mother of the family dies the scene after opens up with Shirley and the
father hand in hand with all of their help following close behind, depressing
music playing which tells me that they all attended the mothers funeral. One
thing I liked about this movie was how they tried to make both sides, the
north and the south, seem amicable. At first when the north is looting the
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Film 1070
Final Paper

Carys home they are portrayed as thieves and barbarians but then the
captain walks in and makes them put all the stolen property back. I didnt
really see anyone in blackface and the way the African Americans interact
with the whites is completely different from Birth Of a Nation for example:
the family interacts with the help on a personal level, Shirley calls the main
help Uncle Billy which shows that hes part of the family and they call on him
often to help protect Shirley and take care of her while the father is captured
and the mother is now dead. At first I talked about how they made James
Henry act a little dense next to Uncle Billy but then as I watched I released
that he brought much needed comedic relief in a movie that could be seen
as dire and a little bit depressing and we still see that in movies still to this
day. It must be part of the magical Hollywood formula that brings people to
see these movies and ultimately leads to their success.
Up next is a movie that is considered one of the best of all time, Gone
with the Wind and this movie was released in 1939, only four years later than
The littlest Rebel. I seem to be picking movies with the same theme, also in
Gone with the Wind it first takes place in the South and its also about the
Civil War and how the southern ideals will be challenged. Obviously this was
a popular and touchy subject in early Hollywood. The first African American
we meet in the movie is Hattie McDaniel who plays a house servant to the
OHara family. The first scene they place her hanging half way out the
second story window of the house, spitting all kinds of wonderful attitude
towards Scarlett, almost scolding her to put her shawl on. Hattie gives off the
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Film 1070
Final Paper

stereotype of the sassy black women, she is loud and speaks her mind
often. After that it cuts to a scene in the field where the work hands are
signaling their day is over and the Forman feels he has an important job so
he gets upset when someone beneath him on the work ladder tries to bark
orders at the workers. I guess the point Im trying to make about that
observation is he probably doesnt get control over too many things in life
being a worker in the South so he savors that one bit of seniority and
authority that he gets. I like the tension in the film between Scarlett and
Hattie, I think Scarlett finds herself being ordered around by everyone
around her and she just wants to do her own thing sometimes. She has
parents who probably arent there nearly as often as Hattie so the African
American house worker is probably seen as another mother figure and does
a lot of the raising of the family like making compromises with Scarlett to
make sure she eats in the morning. I think Hattie help with the comedic relief
in this film as well, its also grim and depressing like the other films and I feel
like you always need someone that makes you laugh a bit instead of just
having a heavy film. I also liked that she was a female supporting role, had
numerous lines and amount of screen time.
The next era I want to talk about is the Sidney Poitier era, he became
one of the most used and recognized African Americans in film in the 60s.
He was able to break the Hollywood mold and acted in many different films
as many different characters and roles. Not only him but we see the first
major film written and directed by an African American, this era seems to be
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a huge turning point in the history of African Americans and film. The first of
Mr. Poitier films I would like to discuss is A Raisin in the Sun which is about an
African American family, the Youngers, that dont have much money and live
in a one bedroom apartment in Chicago and the whole building has to share
a bathroom. Towards the beginning of the film Sidney starts to tell his sister
that she should just get married or settle being a nurse instead of trying to
make something of herself as a doctor which shes been going to school for.
In his situation it seems that he thinks that is just a farfetched dream and
she should get her head out of the clouds. They almost think that they would
be better just staying where they are in life, African Americans keep getting
oppressed by other races for so long that they almost think they belong at
the bottom of the ladder. In this movie Sidney is a car driver for a wealthy
man, that in itself is another stereotype that Blacks get set with in
Hollywood films. The apartment is almost like a clown car, at first you think
its just the mother, father, son, but as that first scene goes on more people
start popping out of rooms and I think that is in part the camera angle they
used. Aimed at one part of the apartment and then people started popping
out. They also reference and sort of poke fun at Caucasian people during the
whole movie which is a big step in Hollywood for African Americans, this
movie was made and cast for other African Americans which is something
you didnt really see in earlier Hollywood. A movie like that would have been
too risky and probably wouldnt have made any profit back. In the 20s I read
that they did make small films that were all African American movies but
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Film 1070
Final Paper

were only shown during church hours in the mostly black communities. Much
of Raisin in the Sun is shot in their tiny apartment and not a second is boring
or bland, the director and actors did a wonderful job using the space and
showing how a normal African American family might have been in the 50s
and 60s. I like that this film takes time to look into each individual in the
family and what they are going through together as a family. As soon as they
start believing that they can change their circumstances, they lose some of
the money and they face segregation when wanting to move to a white
neighborhood but they do it anyway, something that seems so small to the
everyday Caucasian person is a mountain to climb for a person of color in the
60s. A feat that they can be proud of.
The last film I will talk about is The Defiant Ones and Sidney also stars
in this movie. It seems to be a classic tale of two people from different races
hating one another just because of the color of their skin although there is an
interesting twist with both men being shackled together and needing to work
together to make a better outcome for both. I like that in this movie that they
depict a white man as a convict alongside a black man when usually convicts
in early Hollywood would almost always be African Americans. In these later
films the appearance of color is still prevalent but not nearly as offensive as
interaction in Birth of a Nation, you see Caucasians and African Americans
actually talking and interacting together and learning that color is just that, a
color and doesnt necessarily say something about a man/womens
character. Sidney helped push forward the use of African Americans on film
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Film 1070
Final Paper

for future generations, he got many roles that would have been denied to his
male or female counterparts.
In conclusion I have found that in my research there were many films
with the same themes and backgrounds, during the times they were released
the Civil War was still very prevalent in Americas mind and many movies
resulted because of this. African Americans have come a long way since the
beginning of the 1900s and we continue to see people who push the
boundaries in film like Spike Lee. I did notice however during my research
that women of color were marginalized next to men. I thought that maybe in
some of these films women of color would be cast mostly alongside colored
men but in the films I viewed that wasnt the case. Being African American
and a woman seems to be an even bigger obstacle to overcome, many being
portrayed in early films as house maids that get knocked up by white
masters and end up having their kids but it was refreshing to see Hattie in
Gone with the Wind as a main character and she also provided the comedic
relief when you usually see men in those types of role in either white or black
films. Also while doing my research I ran into some film production
companies that made all race films and most of the people involved in
making those films were also of color. The three that I came across were
Lincoln Motion Picture Co, Norman Film Manufacturing Co, and a man named
Oscar Micheaux. Most of the films have been lost and werent preserved
because of the substance and lack of care. Oscar Micheaux is considered a
pioneer in the film industry and ended up making over 30 films during his
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Film 1070
Final Paper

time from 1910-1951, he was independent and would make films with
messages he though were important to get across like lynching, abuse,
profiling and many others. One of the most important things about Oscar is
that he was able to shift over to films with sound and talking after the silent
era ended. The Norman Film Manufacturing Co. was founded by a man
named Richard Norman who would travel around and make films but his
greatest accomplishment was producing The Green-Eyed Monster which is a
movie that is still around today and reached success when it was released in
1916. Lincoln Motion Picture Co. had the same ideas as the other in that they
were deeply dissatisfied by how African Americans were being portrayed on
the silver screen and took matters into their own hands. Unfortunately these
companies failed ultimately but are praised for their efforts. The niche was
just too small at the time to keep the companies from going under. This
paper has helped me see film and culture in a whole new light, many things
have to coincide and work to complete a project such as a Hollywood film
and I liked doing research on a subject that I normally wouldnt have chosen.

Chani Thorum
Film 1070
Final Paper

Bibliography
Thompson, Jennifer. "From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Representations of
African Americans on Film." Duke University Libraries. Duke University
VanEpps-Taylor, Oscar Micheaux A Biography: Dakota Homesteader, Author,
Pioneer Film Maker, Dakota West, 1999
Wetzstein, Cheryl (April 30, 2014). "Black side of silver screen: Filmmaker
Oscar Micheaux paved his own path to Hollywood". Washington Times.
Retrieved 25 February 2015
American Film Institute Black American Cinema Edited by Manthia Diawara,
Published in 1993
Lerone Bennett's Before the Mayflower Chicago: Johnson Publishing Co.,
1982
W. Augustus Low and Virgil A. Clift's Encyclopedia of Black America New
York: Da Capo Press, 1984
Harry A. Ploski and Warren Marr's The Negro Almanac New York: Bellwether
Co., 1976

Filmography
Birth of a Nation (1915) Directed by D.W. Griffith and adapted from The Clansman:
An Historical Romance of the KKK
The littlest Rebel (1935) Directed by David Butler
Gone with the Wind (1939) Directed by David O. Selznick

A Rasin in the Sun (1961) Directed by Daniel Petrie

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Chani Thorum
Film 1070
Final Paper

The Defiant Ones (1958) Directed by Stanley Kramer

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