Within Our Gates - Introduced by Dr. Jenkins, Department of Art

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (1884 - 1951) , author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films.  Micheaux made films about contemporary black life that challenged racial injustice and fought inferior stereotypes. Micheaux's African American characters were complex individuals that did not fit neatly into positive or negative portrayals. He used his films to critique the value system of both black and white communities in America.

Only three of Micheaux's silent 'race films' survive, Within Our Gates, 1919; Symbol of the Unconquered, 1920; and Body and Soul, 1925. These films were among his most controversial and banned from many southern theaters. They confronted social issues like rape, lynching, job discrimination, mob violence, and economic exploitation. Micheaux's films were also made during the New Negro Movement, and reflect the self-help, racial uplift strategies blacks used to build thriving communities despite Jim Crow. Oscar Micheaux was the most successful African American feature filmmaker of the first half of the twentieth century.