History of African-Americans in Film

large view The Nicholas Brothers

Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorablia 
"THESE IMAGES FORCE A PERSON TO TAKE A STAND FOR OR AGAINST THE EQUALITY OF ALL HUMAN BEINGS."

Blacks were stereotyped as:

• good "Uncle Toms"
• Mammies
• Comics in a degrading manner (eyes bulging out, braids standing up on end, etc.)
• Lazy " good-for-nothings" with no intelligence (Step 'N' Fetchit played these roles although he was intelligent, flew planes, and was very rich)
• Tap dancing happy folk (Bill "Bojangles" Robinson known for choreographing Shirley Temple, started out in Vaudeville as an elegant tapdancer)
• Slaves
• Servant roles: porters, butlers, maids, elevator operators, cooks, sharecroppers, doormen
• Criminal element: shooting, raping white women, stealing, etc
• Poor, never elegant, never in a tux.
• NEVER PROUD

Oscar Winners: (note the lapses in time)

• 1939; Hattie McDanniel, Mammie in Gone With the Wind, Supporting actress  
• 1963; Sydney Poitier, Lillies of the Field, best actor
• 1980; Whoopie Goldberg, Ghost, supporting actress
• 1982; Louis Gossett, Jr., An Officer and A Gentleman, supporting actor
• 1989; *Denzel Washington, Glory, best actor
• 1996; Cuba Gooding Jr., Jerry McGuire, supporting actor
• 2002; *Denzel Washington, Training Day, best actor
• 2002; Halle Berry, Monsters' Ball, best actress
• 2005; Jamie Foxx, Ray, best actor
• 2007; Forrest Whittaker, The Last King of Scotland, best actor
• 2007; Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls, supporting actress

Other Actors to note:

• Harry Belafonte, romantic lead partner for  
• Dorothy Dandridge, tragic situations led to an early death  
• Al Jolson, white Jewish actor, played in "blackface" in the Jazz Singer   
• Sydney Poitier, first actor to be roles of professionals as teachers, doctors, etc.  Stood for the rights of other fellow Black actors.  
• James Earl Jones....the VOICE of Verizon, Mufasa, and Darth Vader.   Classically trained actor.  In controversial " The Great White Hope"
• Nicholas Brothers; high flying dancers who defied gravity
• Jim Brown- NFL player with tough guys roles (first of many)
• Paul Robeson a multi-lingual American actor, athlete, bass-baritone concert singer, writer, civil rights activist, Spingarn Medal winner, and Lenin Peace Prize laureate. Played many faceted roles but lost popularity when he became involved in Communist activity. Died in obscurity. 

Directors:

Spike Lee  

 JIM CROW LAWS:

 The following Jim Crow etiquette norms show how inclusive and pervasive these norms were:

• ABlack male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a White male because it implied being socially equal. Obviously, a Black male could not offer his hand or any other part of his body to a White woman, because he risked being accused of rape.
  
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• Blacks and Whites were not supposed to eat together. If they did eat together, Whites were to be served first, and some sort of partition was to be placed between them.
  
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• Under no circumstance was a Black male to offer to light the cigarette of a White female -- that gesture implied intimacy.
  
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• Blacks were not allowed to show public affection toward one another in public, especially kissing, because it offended Whites.
  
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• Jim Crow etiquette prescribed that Blacks were introduced to Whites, never Whites to Blacks. For example: "Mr. Peters (the White person), this is Charlie (the Black person), that I spoke to you about."
  
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• Whites did not use courtesy titles of respect when referring to Blacks, for example, Mr., Mrs., Miss., Sir, or Ma'am. Instead, Blacks were called by their first names. Blacks had to use courtesy titles when referring to Whites, and were not allowed to call them by their first names.
  
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• If a Black person rode in a car driven by a White person, the Black person sat in the back seat, or the back of a truck.
  
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• White motorists had the right-of-way at all intersections.
  

Stetson Kennedy, the author of Jim Crow Guide, offered these simple rules that Blacks were supposed to observe in conversing with Whites:

1. Never assert or even intimate that a White person is lying.
2. Never impute dishonorable intentions to a White person.
3. Never suggest that a White person is from an inferior class.
4. Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence.
5. Never curse a White person.
6. Never laugh derisively at a White person.
7. Never comment upon the appearance of a White female.¹

• Barbers. No colored barber shall serve as a barber (to) white girls or women (Georgia).

• Blind Wards. The board of trustees shall...maintain a separate building...on separate ground for the admission, care, instruction, and support of all blind persons of the colored or black race (Louisiana).

• Burial. The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried, any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the burial of white persons (Georgia).

• Buses. All passenger stations in this state operated by any motor transportation company shall have separate waiting rooms or space and separate ticket windows for the white and colored races (Alabama).

• Child Custody. It shall be unlawful for any parent, relative, or other white person in this State, having the control or custody of any white child, by right of guardianship, natural or acquired, or otherwise, to dispose of, give or surrender such white child permanently into the custody, control, maintenance, or support, of a negro (South Carolina).

• Education. The schools for white children and the schools for negro children shall be conducted separately (Florida).

• Libraries. The state librarian is directed to fit up and maintain a separate place for the use of the colored people who may come to the library for the purpose of reading books or periodicals (North Carolina).

• Mental Hospitals. The Board of Control shall see that proper and distinct apartments are arranged for said patients, so that in no case shall Negroes and white persons be together (Georgia).

• Militia. The white and colored militia shall be separately enrolled, and shall never be compelled to serve in the same organization. No organization of colored troops shall be permitted where white troops are available and where whites are permitted to be organized, colored troops shall be under the command of white officers (North Carolina).

• Nurses. No person or corporation shall require any White female nurse to nurse in wards or rooms in hospitals, either public or private, in which negro men are placed (Alabama).

• Prisons. The warden shall see that the white convicts shall have separate apartments for both eating and sleeping from the negro convicts (Mississippi).

• Reform Schools. The children of white and colored races committed to the houses of reform shall be kept entirely separate from each other (Kentucky).

• Teaching. Any instructor who shall teach in any school, college or institution where members of the white and colored race are received and enrolled as pupils for instruction shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be fined... (Oklahoma).

• Wine and Beer. All persons licensed to conduct the business of selling beer or wine...shall serve either white people exclusively or colored people exclusively and shall not sell to the two races within the same room at any time (Georgia).²

African American (docx file)

Jim Crow Laws (docx file)

African American Pictures....A history (docx file)

African American Actors (docx file)

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