The History of Early African American Cinema

FAIN: FB-57506-14

Cara C. Caddoo
Trustees of Indiana University (Old Westbury, NY 11568-1717)

Envisioned Communities examines the history of black cinema by tracking its development from the first traveling picture shows to the emergence of the race film industry. Based on thousands of previously overlooked records from the black press, my research uncovers a crucial, but forgotten chapter in the history of modern cinema---the popular practice of exhibiting moving pictures in black churches, lodges, and schools. This discovery not only repositions black men and women as pioneers of modern cinema, it also provides new insights into the intertwined relationship between black institutional life, migration, and leisure.

Associated Products

Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life (Book)
Title: Envisioning Freedom: Cinema and the Building of Modern Black Life
Author: Cara C. Caddoo
Abstract: Viewing turn-of-the-century African American history through the lens of cinema, Envisioning Freedom examines the forgotten history of early black film during the era of mass migration and Jim Crow. By embracing the new medium of moving pictures at the turn of the twentieth century, black Americans forged a collective--if fraught--culture of freedom. In Cara Caddoo's perspective-changing study, African Americans emerge as pioneers of cinema from the 1890s to the 1920s. Across the South and Midwest, moving pictures presented in churches, lodges, and schools raised money and created shared social experiences for black urban communities. As migrants moved northward, bound for Chicago and New York, cinema moved with them. Along these routes, ministers and reformers, preaching messages of racial uplift, used moving pictures as an enticement to attract followers. But as it gained popularity, black cinema also became controversial. Facing a losing competition with movie houses, once-supportive ministers denounced the evils of the "colored theater." Onscreen images sparked arguments over black identity and the meaning of freedom. In 1910, when boxing champion Jack Johnson became the world's first black movie star, representation in film vaulted to the center of black concerns about racial progress. Black leaders demanded self-representation and an end to cinematic mischaracterizations which, they charged, violated the civil rights of African Americans. In 1915, these ideas both led to the creation of an industry that produced "race films" by and for black audiences and sparked the first mass black protest movement of the twentieth century.
Year: 2014
Publisher: Cambridge: Harvard University Press
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: Yes

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