Filmshi.com

2. "Who Said Chicken?" circa 1900
(click above image to play video)

With longer and more elaborate stories, representation of African-Americans began to take upon itself a new type of bondage. As the heavier percentage of film production was made for a presumably white audience, positive, or even complex representation of race was a hard thing to come by, thus allowing for more melodramatic and stereotypical depictions to become the norm.

[1]
3-4. Birth of a Nation, 1915, Griffith

Though President Woodrow Wilson's famous quote about Birth of a Nation being "like writing history with lightning" seems to shine a good light on the film, the negative depictions in Birth of a Nation were met with public scrutiny. The scale of the film made the rehashing of older representations of the South and slavery easy to believe, and in doing so the film diminished the importance of recent African-American achievements.[2] The film inspired more public action than anticipated by its makers, but then with prohibition on the nation's doorstep, such public response seems in the style of the times.

[3]
5. Cleveland Advocate 04, no. 01 (05/12/1917): 01

Seeing an opportunity to work independent of the dominant industry and create an alternative to the negative imagery present in Hollywood films, groups of independent and ambitious Black Filmmakers developed new avenues of financing and distribution. Their first course of action would be to respond to the film that inspired their collective undertaking.

Lincoln Motion Picture Company was founded in the summer of 1915. Their first production, released the same year, was a picture called The Realization of the Negro's Ambition [4]. Lincoln followed this picture promptly in 1916, with The Trooper of Troup K. (For more info on Lincoln Motion Picture Co. see site in footnote)

Lincoln Pictures produced and distributed their films with the intention of reaching a wide audience but the films were most frequently exhibited in "Coloreds Only" Theatres. After a time, this semi-reliable source of exhibition would prove a standard. With the industry beginning to take shape, the most anticipated project of the emerging race film genre was the one most explicitly intended to counter Griffith's 1915 Epic.

[5]
6. Still from Birth of a Race, 1918, John W. Noble

Released in 1919, Birth of a Race was directed by John W. Noble and produced by Emmett J. Scott. Emmett Scott had acted as personal secretary of Booker T. Washington prior to Washington's death in 1915 and the production is documented as having received support from both Washington and his Tuskegee Institute. The film began shooting in Tampa, Florida in 1913. Though this clearly predates the production of Birth of a Nation, Dixon's novel "The Clansmen" had been adapted to the stage and as early as 1910 had been the recipient of protest. Birth of the Race did not receive the attention anticipated by its makers, yet neither was it the only film to directly counter Griffith's in these early days of the Race Film industry.

[6]
7. Production Still from Birth of a Race, taken in Sulphur Springs, FL, 1913.

Released in 1919, Within our Gates is one of the more widely acknowledged titles of early Race Movies. The two images below come from Birth of a Nation and Micheaux's Within our Gates. The inter-racial threat of rape (mysegeny) is the tying theme, however the way race is handled within the two contexts is unique. The still on the left features the character of Lillian Gish endangered by a "Mulatto Leader" who plans to make her his wife. The still on the right features an aggressive white man attacking a young woman who's mixed race has challenged her work as a school teacher. Later we find the aggressor is her long estranged father. Note the similarities in lighting and staging.

8. Birth of a Nation, 1915, D.W. Griffith 9. Within our Gates, 1919, Oscar Micheaux
http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/blog/birth_pic7.jpg http://www.cathuria.com/bcd/bcsepia.htm

Within our Gates was the directorial debut of the man who would come to be known as the "Cecil B. DeMille of Race Pictures". Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was the son of former slaves. He taught himself to write and began his career with the publication of his first novel, The Conquest in 1913. A success selling his novels independently, he entered into writing again and in 1915, he published The Homesteader, which in 1917, he sought to turn into a film. Some sources state that Micheaux approached Lincoln Motion Pictures with the story and demanded to direct the picture. Though Lincoln liked the story, they didn't want to trust the direction to Micheaux's inexperience, so Micheaux took his story elsewhere. By 1918, Micheaux had earned sufficient profits from his book sales to invest in his own venture: The Micheaux Film and Book Company.

[7]
10. The Homesteader, 1919, Oscar Micheaux

Meanwhile in Florida, the migration of studios from New York to Los Angeles was creating a work deficit. Jacksonville, which had been the winter home of the industry, housed a number of studios, most notably Metro (later of MGM) and Kalem Studios. Richard Norman's Norman Studios was among them. In what was then Arlington, Norman began a studio for hire. Norman, who had created a name for himself as a journeyman making films starring community talents, saw an opportunity to use the resources local to his home. The Green Eyed Monster, his most successful film, was originally released in 1916. In order to extend this story into the Race film market, he remade the same script with an all black cast.

In avoidance of representing certain stereotypes (i.e. Mammie, Coon, Tom, Sambo) all black productions generally shunned comic relief, favoring instead, dramas that spoke to issues of race, culture or justice. As the original Green Eyed Monster featured a number of comical segments, the all-black translation, released in 1919, did not play well. After some trial and error, Norman re-edited the picture and his success allowed him to move forward with other productions.

[8]
11. Richard Norman of Norman Studios

The time between 1919 and 1921 was something of a transitional period for Race Films. To follow Within Our Gates, Micheaux released Symbol of the Unconquered in 1920 and Lincoln Studios released By Right of Birth in 1921. By Right of Birth was financed by a white investor out of Los Angeles, and would be Lincoln's greatest production to date. Not the success it was intended to be, By Right of Birth saw the first, all black studio close its doors.

[9]
12. Symbol of the Unconquered, 1920, Micheaux

With the closing of this studio we begin to see issues of injustice replaced by more discreet issues such as those of class, culture and faith. Evangelical stories, which would be more popular in the sound era, were widely popular with the Race Film market. Public personalities began to infiltrate the visual medium as well, and the more adept businessmen made quick to supply this demand.

[10]
13. Bill Picket, The Bulldogger, 1921, Norman Studios

Personalities, such as Bill Picket, the master of Mexican Bull wrangling, were ideal subjects for one and two-reelers. African-Americans had already begun to find some place in sports and trades, and this proved an easy and inexpensive opportunity for the Race Film industry. Simply recording performances of skill would begin a tradition in the industry that would last into the 1950's.

[11]
14. Jack Johnson v. Stanley Ketchel, 1909

Capitalizing on the success of public personalities, Norman Studios sought out characters like Bill Picket (see image 12) and Bessie Coleman (see image 16) and fashioned films for them. Following another route, Micheaux took a note from the Hollywood Star System and created catchphrases for his actors such as "The Sepia Mae West" and the "Black Valentino".

15. Ethyl Moses, the "Sepia Mae West"

Taking what he learned from his experiences selling "The Conquest" and "The Homesteader", Micheaux distributed his own pictures utilizing marketing referred to as "Midnight Rambles". After hours, the theatre would open doors for advance screenings. Profits from these Rambles would persuade the uncertain theatre owner to exhibit the picture. (For more on this see Bowser and Cram's 1994 TV documentary, Midnight Ramble.[12])

In 1925 Micheaux released Body and Soul, in which Paul Robeson has his film debut.

[13]
15. Paul Robeson and Mercedes Gilbert in Body and Soul, 1925, Oscar Micheaux.

The Colored Players Film Corporation established themselves formally and released their first picture, The Scar of Shame.

[14]
16. Scar of Shame, 1926, dir. Frank Perugini

And the next year, Bessie Coleman, famous for being the first black woman pilot, was featured in the Norman Studios Release of The Flying Ace. Tragically, Bessie Coleman, died in a plane crash prior to the film's premier.

[15]
17. Poster for The Flying Ace, 1926, Norman Studios

Though news of Bessie Coleman's death spread through the papers, The Flying Ace went onto make a box office of $20,000. This success allowed Norman Studios to make its most elaborate picture. The picture that would prove to be the studio's swan song.

[16]
18.Poster for Black Gold, 1926, Norman Studios

Black Gold, would be the last picture made by Norman Studios. The changes in technology would prove too expensive and the doors of Norman Studios would close, beginning the Race Film Industry's transition to sound; a transition few silent producers survived.

The transition to sound film was at once too expensive for the silent race film producers and too great of an opportunity to let pass. It was at this point that the black musicians who had become famous in the nightclub scene could be recognized as black jazz masters in black cast pictures. The introduction of such distinguished names as Duke Ellington and Cab Calloway were quickly usurped by mainstream Hollywood but sadly received a less lucrative reception than was hoped.

"Hot Chocolate"
(click above image to play video)

With the Depression only a year away, the major Studios would see fit to produce and market films with new kinds of black characters. Seeing the success the race film industry had enjoyed in the silent era, the closing of studios because of sound created an opportunity for the mainstream studios to appeal to the race film audience. Though these films featured colored cast members, they were not dedicated to complex or even positive black characters. The majority of the roles for black actors were as maids, servants or comics and could not take the place of the independently produced race films.

Micheaux continued to produce films, completing his first sound picture (The Exile) in 1931, and releasing his last picture, (The Betrayal), in 1948, only 3 years before his death in 1951. New studios emerged, such as Sack Amusement Enterprises, who made their name making celebrity marketed musicals for the race film market.

It wouldn't be until the late 1940's that the race film industry would see the integration of serious racial issues into mainstream Hollywood pictures. Though these Hollywood re-dressings would try to fulfill the needs satisfied by the independent race films, they would not be able to tackle things so directly or with such vigor as did their independent predecessors. There was a sense of historical repetition to the work done by the Studios. However, it would not be for another 20 or 30 years that a group of independents would invent an essential and vibrant voice to contrast to the mainstream studios, years later when the need to speak again became too much to disregard.

[17]
19. The Jackie Robinson Story, 1950, Alfred E. Green.