Black Americans Making Film History

As a movie and theater enthusiast, I receive a lot of questions from readers about the history of filmmaking. Recently, a most thought provoking inquiry arrived in my inbox. A reader posed this significant question that I feel compelled to respond to. “What is the historical experience of Black Americans union actors? Specifically, how were they treated and how were they able to persevere as Black members of the entertainment industry?” As a devoted lover of movies, these questions sparked curiosity in me, resulting in some digging into the historical archives. What I found was astonishing.
The first documented movie with a black cast was the 1898 short film called, Something Good-Negro Kiss. The first full length film with a black cast member was Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1903. In 1933, during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, the Negro Actors Guild was established in New York. In these early years, the roles that were available to Black actors were typically referred to as “backdrop roles.” An example of a “backdrop” role was playing a maid or a servant, having very minimal onset time. Starring roles were reserved for white actors. The entertainment industry clearly mimicked the racial inequities that were occurring throughout America.
A significant turning point for Black American actors occurred with the award winning motion picture, Gone With the Wind.” Hattie McDaniel’s win for best performance by a Supporting Actress awarded to her by the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences changed the future for all Black actors. Her historic win opened the doors for more Black Americans who suddenly felt they too could achieve similar accolades in their respective nominating categories. Ironically, Hattie was not even present at the premier of the film.“McDaniel was not allowed to attend the film premiere of Gone With the Wind because of her African American ethnicity.”
In 1964, history was made once again with the first ever Black American actor to win an Academy Award for a leading role. Sidney Poitier is still to this day one of Hollywood’s greatest legends. What was interesting to learn about him was that he grew up in a “very poor family in the South.” He eventually “moved to New York in the early 1940’s, completely broke and homeless when he arrived there.” Almost twenty years later, he would then become an iconic Black American movie actor. His star-turned role in Lilies of the Field earned him his first Oscar win for his dynamic performance in 1964.
Researching how Black Americans were extremely unfortunate during their childhood is something that really moves me personally. Particularly, when anyone who has gone through a brutal moment in their early lives to then having their career life changing moment be recognized by the general public is something I think everyone loves to hear and read about because that moment can prove that anything is certainly possible. These kinds of career stories from the ground up are something that all everyday Americans should look at and think about the accomplishments that they have done no matter what the circumstances are.
Generations after Poitier’s iconic win, it spanned almost forty years until the next historical moment occurred for Black Americans in the film industry. In 2002, Halle Berry won her first Academy Award for Best Actress in a leading role, for her performance in the motion picture hit Monster’s Ball. Berry’s win was iconic because for the first time ever, a Black woman won an Oscar for a leading performance category.
A few years prior to her well-received win in Monster’s Ball, Berry portrayed Dorothy Dandridge in a television series for which she won an Emmy Award. Ironically, Dandridge was the first Black woman ever to be nominated for a leading actress category at the Oscars for her role in the motion picture film Carmen Jones. It had been almost fifty years between when Dorothy Dandridge made history with her Academy Award nomination in 1954 until Halle Berry successfully won her historic first Oscar in 2002.
Although Poitier did not say anything too memorable rather then too much during his speech for his momentous Oscar win, while recently re-watching Berry’s acceptance speech, she sent out a heartfelt thank you to several quintessential African American women for letting her pave the way to open the door for Black women to bring these prestigious awards home. Black female actors like “Dorothy Dandrige, Lena Horne and Jada Pinkett Smith and countless others” were ones that Berry dedicated her Academy Award to, stating, “For every nameless, faceless woman of color now have a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”
Presently, when I have watched films related to African American History in movies, the storylines, whether historical or fiction, have had some of the most powerful audience reactions. This demonstrates that the prejudices placed upon Black actors as being less than or not as talented as their White colleagues are unfounded and simply, not true. An example of this would be the hit blockbuster film of King Richard starring Will Smith. The fact that what I saw was that he was not showing himself and being seen as Richard Williams proves that any Black American actor playing a real historical person can bring the same amount of emotion and depth into a performance that can be seen as transformative. Smith’s performance in King Richard exemplifies that any Black American can work up to his caliber and give a performance that is astonishing and widely critically acclaimed from movie goers. While it may be too soon to say this for sure, Smith’s role in this movie is certainly going to receive all kinds of accolades. Additionally, Will Smith may even finally win his first ever Academy Award for Best Actor in a leading role in March of 2022, after several prior nominations for his previous acting credits.
In the America of 2021, we can look back on the past century and see that there has been significant positive progress for Black American actors in the film industry. However, we have not reached the end of the road and there is still work to be done. There needs to be more recognition and equal opportunities for Black American actors. Simply bookmarking a few awards won by Black actors is not good enough. As a society, I personally feel we should be seeing even more kinds of these historic recognitions in other categories too in addition to acting. Overall, the difficulty of the Black American actor has been directly reflective of Black history in our country. As with education and basic civil rights, Black Americans have endured racism and inequality in the motion picture industry. I have much hope for the future and what it holds for Black Americans and their continued progress in filmmaking.

Bibliography:

Grant, Essence. "15 Black Actresses Who Made History." 1 Feb. 2020, www.blackenterprise.com/black-actresses-who-made-black-history/. Accessed 8 Dec. 2021.

Manasan, Althea, and Mary O'Connell. "From servants to outlaws: 100 years of Black representation in Hollywood films." 17 Mar. 2021 [Canada] www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/from-servants-to-outlaws-100-years-of-black-representation-in-hollywood-films-1.5953758. Accessed 11 Dec. 2021.

Nour, Sarah. "The First 10 Films to Have African American Casts." Feb. 2021, doi:https://reelrundown.com/film-industry/The-First-10-Films-to-Have-African-American-Casts. Accessed 14 Dec. 2021.

Regester, Charlene. "African American Extras in Hollywood during the 1920s and 1930s." vol. 9, no. 1, 1997, pp. 95-121. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.

"Sidney Poitier: African American Actor." www.myblackhistory.net/Sidney_Poitier.htm. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021

"Slavery Hollywood and Public Discourse." [Washington DC] nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/slavery-hollywood-and-public-discourse. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.

Williams-Norberto, Aleichia. "A History of Black Representation in film." 23 Jan. 2021, stacker.com/stories/4328/history-black-representation-film. Accessed 10 Dec. 2021.