african americans in motion pictures

"The author . . . examines 100 years of Black movies--using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture and the civil rights movement in America. Beginning in 1915 with D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation--which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood's first blockbuster--[he] gives us a . . . history, spanning more than a century, of Black artists in the film business, onscreen and behind the scenes. He makes clear the effects of changing social realities and events on the business of making movies and on what was represented on the screen: from Jim Crow and segregation to white flight and interracial relationships, from the assassination of Malcolm X to the O.J. Simpson trial to the Black Lives Matter movement. He considers the films themselves--including The Imitation of Life, Gone With the Wind, Porgy & Bess, the Blaxploitation films of the 70s, Do The Right Thing, 12 Years a Slave, and Black Panther. And he brings to . . . light the careers and significance of a wide range of historic and contemporary figures: Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Berry Gordy, Alex Haley, Spike Lee, Billy Dee Willliams, Richard Pryor, Halle Berry, Ava Duvernay, and Jordan Peele, among . . . others. A . . . timely book, [this book] gives us both an unprecedented history of Black cinema, and a . . . perspective on racism in modern America"--Provided by publisher.

Profiles the films that addressed African-American related themes from 1970 through 1980 and discusses how the films influenced the history of film, how the movies helped increase African-American awareness, how African-American actors were affected by the films, and other related topics.

Presents a discussion of African-Americans in film, covering stereotypes, "race movies," the evolution of available roles, movies such as "Carmen" and "A Raisin in the Sun," and the work of Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones, Spike Lee, and others who helped move beyond exploitative themes and characters.

Reflections by the author on the period of time in her life when she went from being a reclusive writer to a public figure due to the filming of her book, The Color Purple.

Author examines the African American screen image from both a historical and a personal viewpoint.

Offers a cross-section of the forward movement of the African-American actor through three-quarters of a century of Hollywood films the author regards as best exemplifying this.

Tells the stories behind the nominations of African-Americans for Academy Awards in the categories of actor, actress, or director since 1939 when Hattie McDaniel won best supporting actress for her role in "Gone With the Wind.".