Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

African American Cinema
Spike Lee’s Bamboozled (2000) deliberately invokes racist stereotypes. EVERETT COLLECTION. REPRODUCED BY
PERMISSION.
equality and social justice through an emphasis on education
and morality. In films this was realized in narratives
that valued temperance, adherence to the tenets of
Christianity, and social mobility through education.
Characters who engaged in criminal acts, gambling, infidelity,
and substance abuse received punishment by the
end of the film. The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition, for
example, is centered on James Burton (played by Noble
Johnson), a civil engineer who leaves his rural surroundings
to seek out his fortune in the oil industry of
California. Using the knowledge he gained while attending
Tuskeegee Institute (a black college founded in
1880), he surmounts a series of obstacles, including
employment discrimination, and eventually discovers oil
and returns home with newfound wealth.
Several films are also linked to racial uplift through
the references made to actual community leaders and
places of importance. For example, the schoolteacher Sylvia
Landry (played by actress Evelyn Preer), the protagonist
of Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates (1920), travels
north to Boston in order to raise funds for the Piney
Woods School, historically the largest black boarding
school in the United States, located in rural Rankin
County, Mississippi. By referring to the school in the
film, Micheaux used his film as a publicity tool, aiding
the institution’s goal of providing for young black students
a ‘‘head, heart, and hands education.’’
With the popularity of race movies also emerged an
entire industry, virtually a separate cinema with its own
stars, distribution system, and exhibition venues, such
as the Howard Theater (1910) in Washington, D.C.,
and the Madame C. J. Walker Theater (1927) in
Indianapolis. The development of this industry, in addition
to its formation as a ‘‘counter cinema,’’ should also
be considered a logical outgrowth of already established
forms of African American expressive culture. Bill Foster,
for example, had a background in theater and vaudeville,
and Paul Robeson (1898–1976), the noted stage actor,
made his film debut in Oscar Micheaux’s Body and Soul
(1924). The films often highlighted African American
forms of dance, fashion, and literature.
60 SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM