Oscar Micheaux: First African American Film Director

In the early 1900s, Micheaux wrote to earn a living. After publishing some articles, he wrote novels, most of which were about himself. He self-published seven novels during his life, but one novel directly led to his career as a filmmaker.

Micheaux's novel succeeded.The Homesteade.The novel attracted George and Noble Johnson, who ran the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, one of the first film companies run by African Americans. Negotiations for the Johnsons to make a film of the novel started in the summer of 1918. The talks failed when the Johnsons rejected Micheaux's request toMicheaux directed and produced the project.This was the project.

Micheaux started the Micheaux Book and Film Company. He sold shares to fund theHomesteader.Micheaux raised much of the money fast. In a letter dated August 11, 1918, he claimed to have raised $5,000 of the $10,000 he needed and started filming.August 11, 1918, Micheaux claimed he had raised $5,000 of the $10,000 he sought and began filming. The film came out in March 1919. People think it is the first feature film made and directed by an African American (MicheauxMicheaux co-directed.the film with Jeremy Mills.The Homesteader.The film also had an all-black cast and crew. It marketed mainly to black audiences (though Micheaux tried to market it to white audiences too).

Micheaux used a technique similar to selling his novels. He traveled to theaters in black neighborhoods across the Midwest. He persuaded theater owners to show the film and sold them rights to his next one. He ended upThe film grossed $5,000..

Some film historians think thatWithin Our Gates.Within Our Gates was an answer to D.W Griffith'sThe Birth of a Nation.which came out in 1915. Griffith's film showed Southern black men as stupid thugs who wanted white women. It also showed the Ku Klux Klan as heroes. African Americans protested widely. The NAACP even led an unsuccessful effort to ban it.Widespread protests occurred against the film by African Americans. The NAACP also led an unsuccessful effort to ban it.African Americans protested the film. The NAACP headed an unsuccessful campaign to ban it.

Film historian J. Ronald Green claimed Micheaux was aware.Micheaux was aware.of the "calls in the black press for a champion to counter the slander of Griffith and Hollywood." However, Micheaux reportedly said he created the film idea as a response to the social unrest in the United States after WWI. He also made the film soon after seeing the Chicago Race Riots in 1919, where white mobs killed many African Americans and burned neighborhoods, leaving thousands of black people without homes.

Whether...Within Our Gates.was meant to answer Griffith's film. Racial prejudice plays a key part in its plot.Many characters in Micheaux's films are well-educated African Americans with good careers, unlike those in Griffith's film. Sylvia, the female lead, is a teacher, and the male lead is a doctor; their goals face threats from some white characters. Flashbacks show the audience that Sylvia's adoptive parents were lynched after her father was wrongly accused of killing a rich white landowner. The film shows this horrific event. It also includes a scene (in a flashback) where a white man tries to assault Sylvia but stops when he realizes she is his illegitimate daughter.

The lynching scene caused big controversy. Chicago's board of censors originally planned to premiere the film there.The board rejected the film because it feared it could start another race riot. Also, many white theater owners in the South who served black audiences refused to book it, claiming it would be "very dangerous" to show in that region.Fear of a race riot stopped many white theater owners in the South from booking the film. These venues served Black audiences, and owners claimed the film would be "very dangerous" to show there.

The film was selected for the National Film Registry.The film received the National Film Registry selection.The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 1992.In 1992, the Library of Congress held an event..After failing to settle on land, Micheaux tried writing. He then wrote his first novel.

The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer was a story based on his life as a homesteader in South Dakota and his short, failed marriage. Micheaux could not find a publisher, so he formed the Western Book Supply Company to self-publish the novel in 1913.Micheaux went door to door to try and get his (mostly white) neighbors to help fund the project. In return, Micheaux gave each person an excerpt from the finished book. This method helped him raise enough money to print 1,000 copies. Just before he died in 1951, Micheaux told the New York Amsterdam News why he self-published his novels: "I want to see the Negro pictured in books just like he lives. But, if you write that way, the white book publishers won't publish your scripts, so I formed my own book publishing firm and write my own books, and Negroes like them, too, because three of them are best sellers."The novel was largely autobiographical. It covered his life as a homesteader in South Dakota and his short, failed marriage. Micheaux could not find a publisher. So, he started the Western Book Supply Company to self-publish the novel in 1913.

Although Micheaux's films were meant to entertain, he saw them as "propaganda" meant to "uplift the [black] race." He believed this elevation showed the social problems keeping Black people unable to have the same lifestyles as wealthy white people. He wanted to show that African Americans could become as educated and financially successful as white people.But in the 1930s, Black critics and audiences started rejecting his message as racially ambivalent.Micheaux asked his (mostly white) neighbors for help funding the project. He gave each person an excerpt from the finished book in return for paying for a copy ahead of time. This method helped him raise enough money to print 1,000 copies.

Micheaux told the New York Amsterdam News just before he died in 1951.New York Amsterdam News Micheaux explained why he self-published his novels.He stated, "I want to see the Negro pictured in books just like he lives. But, if you write that way, the white book publishers won't publish your scripts, so I formed my own book publishing firm and write my own books, and Negroes like them, too, because three of them are best sellers."

Oscar Micheaux once said, "One of the greatest tasks of my life has been to teach the colored man"he can be anything."

Micheaux saw his films as "propaganda" meant to "uplift the [black] race." He believed this elevation matched the idea of showing social problems that kept Black people unable to have the same lifestyles as wealthy white people. He aimed to show African Americans had the potential to be as well-educated and financially successful as white people.

However, black critics and audiences rejected his message in the 1930s asracially ambivalentSome accused Micheaux of making a fantasy world in his films where Black people were "just as white" as white America.Black critics and audiences in the 1930s rejected Micheaux's efforts to 'uplift' the race, calling his films racially ambivalent, just as white.Others criticized Micheaux's realistic, sometimes unflattering, portrayals of the black underclass. They said he supported negative stereotypes perpetuated by white people.

Much of the criticism focused on a skin color caste. The critic said...Theophilus Lewis wrote this.in theNew York Amsterdam NewsMicheaux made "artificial associations of nobility with lightness and villainy with blackness."

However, not all actors with lighter skin played positive roles; darker-skinned actors took heroic parts. Lorenzo Tucker, a light-skinned actor in several of Micheaux's movies, claimed the filmmaker cast against stereotypes and used "all shades of the black race." Micheaux himself had criticizedhad criticizedthe color caste system in the black community as destructive social behavior.

Micheaux, the son of former slaves (also called Michaux), grew up on a Kansas farm. He got a job as a Pullman train porter. This earned him enough money to buyMicheaux became the lone Black homesteader in Gregory, South Dakota at age 20, owning 160 acres.At age 20, he bought 160 acres near Gregory, South Dakota. He lost the initial lottery (over 100,000 people signed up for fewer than 2,500 claims), but later learned about relinquishments—claims that could be sold.

Micheaux was theonly Blackhomesteader in the area. Though he grew up on a farm, he did little actual work there. When he first came to South Dakota, he struggled finding good horses or mules for plowing. He kept trying, earning the respect and friendship of many white neighbors, and eventually, the farm became profitable.

Micheaux's situation worsened after he married schoolteacherOrlean McCracken.She disliked the isolated South Dakota community. After a miscarriage, she moved back to Chicago. When Micheaux visited, her preacher father stopped him from seeing her. Now, Micheaux owed a lot of money. South Dakota faced a drought in the summer of 1911, then one of the harshest winters in years. A positive outcome followed this bad luck: After his wife left, Micheaux started writing a novel based on his homesteader life and his failed marriage. That novel came out in 1913, starting a new career for him.

The film version of a Micheaux movie often looked different from what he shot. Censors either banned his films or forced Micheaux to make big edits before they would let them out. Many of the changes Micheaux had to make changed his films a lot.

InBody and Soul (1925),censors objectedMicheaux tacked an ending where the preacher's actions became a dream for the heroine, lacking the funds to re-film him as a sinister character played by Paul Robeson.

God's Step Children(1938) waswithdrawn from circulationTwo days after its New York City premiere, circulation stopped. This happened because the audience reacted poorly, and the Young Communist Committee organized a protest outside the theater. The group head stated Micheaux's film "slandered Negroes, holding them up to ridicule, playing light-skinned Negroes against their darker brothers." Micheaux re-released the film after re-cutting it; they cut the opening scene where dialogue focused on one character's skin color.

InThe Betrayal(1948), Maryland censors forced the removal of a scene. The scene showed a character discussing a mixed-race Army draftee taking his own life.

Many black filmmakers who gained prominence after Micheaux's death know his work, even if the general public does not recognize his name.

Robert Townsend attended Micheaux's grave when a headstone went up in 1988. He told theGreat Bend TribuneOscar Micheaux has been my idol. Heinspired meto do my first film.

Spike Lee recognizes Micheaux's importance, calling him "thegrandfatherof black filmmaking.

John SingletonSpike Lee, Robert Townsend, and John Singleton are among the black filmmakers who mention Micheaux as an influence, along with Melvin Van Peebles.

Micheaux learned to promote himself and his work by going door to door, trying to raise money for his novels. He used these skills to market his films.

Lorenzo Tucker, who starred in several of Micheaux's films, said the filmmaker wouldMicheaux traveled from theater to theaterusing photos of his stars to ask theater owners to invest in Micheaux's next project. He sometimes brought actors to act out scenes he planned to film. To boost ticket sales, he scheduled promotional trips and told actors to makepersonal appearancesin the cities where their film opened.

Micheaux had a big, theatrical presence in person. Tall and over 300 pounds, he often wore fur coats and wide-brimmed hats regardless of the season. Tucker said he was so charming that "he could talk the shirt off your back." While living in New York, he drove toChicagoin a 16-cylinder car driven by a white chauffeur.

Micheaux traveled the country, changing his pitch for each audience. At black churches or community events, he focused on how his films "uplifted the Negro." When meeting white theater owners in the South, he discussed the untapped black market and the big profits from showing his films.

Micheaux faced financial trouble. He declared bankruptcy twice: in 1928 and 1940. Henry T. Sampson pointed this out.Blacks in Black and White: A Sourcebook on Black FilmsMicheaux was the only black filmmaker who released at least one film each year from 1919 to 1940.

Paul Robeson became a stage star after playing Brutus in a Broadway revival of Eugene O'Neill'sThe Emperor JonesHis wife Essie, acting as his agent, negotiated a contract with Micheaux for Robeson to appear inBody and Soul(1925). This film, adapted from one of Micheaux's novels, is probably the best-known of Micheaux's silent films. It marked Robeson'sfilm debut.

For playing Reverend Isaiah T. Jenkins and his brother Sylvester, Robeson earned a salary of$100 per weekplus 3% of the gross after the first $40,000 in receipts.

You can see the filmhere.

D.W. Griffith'sThe Birth of a Nation(1915) had a budget of $100,000 and 1927'sUncle Tom's Cabinhad a $2,000,000 budget. Micheaux made most of his films for$20,000 or less.

Micheaux filmed his movies in empty studios or friends' or cast members' homes. For instance, many scenes inGod's Step Children(1938) filmed at the bottom of a staircase in a friend's home. Early in his career, he rented equipment daily. Since he could not afford to reshoot, scenes used one take. If a mistake happened, Micheaux claimed he left it in the film so the audience would laugh.

Micheaux cast professionals, some from black acting companies like New York's Lafayette Players, but he also used amateurs—family and friends—to cut costs. Sometimes, he even promised backers he would cast their family members to get funding. This made the acting quality very uneven.

Because of his tight finances, Micheaux filmed scenes wherever he could. Shingzie Howard recounted that Micheaux took her to a white neighborhood early one morning when no one was around and filmed her in front of a fancy house. Another time, when a woman came for an appointment, he borrowed her fur coat to quickly film a scene with Howard wearing it.

Over a 30-year career (1919-1948), Micheaux produced about 40 silent and sound films.

Many of these films are lost.are considered "lost."Among his silent films, onlyWithin Our Gates, Body and SoulandThe Symbol of the Unconqueredsurvived.

In 1931, Micheaux releasedThe Exile, his first sound feature film. It adapted his first novel,The Conquest. Micheaux promoted the film—one of many he shot in Fort Lee, New Jersey—as theFirst all-black feature-length "talkie"."

After a seven-year break, Micheaux released.The Betrayal.He released it in 1948. He hoped it would bring him back, but it became Micheaux's last film. It also marked a "first"; it was the first feature film produced by an African American.African American.It opened in a white movie theater.

Micheaux died in 1951. People ignored his work for years after he died. Yet, over the last thirty years, he has earned many awards after his death.1987.In 1987, he got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The Directors Guild of America gave him a special award in 1989. He joined the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. The Producers Guild of America named an award after him annually.2010.In 2010, the US Postal Service put out a stamp with his picture.

In 2017, people announced a film about Micheaux's life and career is being made.in development.HBO Pictures is developing it, with Tyler Perry attached to star.