Cultural movement · 1919–now
Black Film & Cinema
From Oscar Micheaux's silent "race films" to Best Picture wins, Black filmmakers and actors fought for the right to tell their own stories on screen.
When Hollywood offered only caricature, Oscar Micheaux built an independent Black cinema, directing the earliest surviving feature by a Black director (1920). Hattie McDaniel won the first Oscar awarded to a Black performer in 1940; Sidney Poitier won Best Actor in 1964; and a later generation — Gordon Parks, Spike Lee, and the makers of Moonlight and Black Panther — claimed the industry's highest honors while telling Black stories on their own terms.
On the timeline
- 1920Oscar Micheaux's "Within Our Gates"
Micheaux releases the earliest surviving feature film directed by a Black American — a direct answer to the racism of "The Birth of a Nation."
- February 29, 1940Hattie McDaniel wins an Academy Award
The first African American to win an Oscar, for Gone with the Wind.
- April 13, 1964Sidney Poitier wins Best Actor
Poitier becomes the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
- August 6, 1969Gordon Parks directs "The Learning Tree"
Photographer Gordon Parks becomes the first Black American to write and direct a major Hollywood studio film.
- January 23, 1977"Roots" airs
Alex Haley's saga becomes one of the most-watched programs in US history.
- June 30, 1989Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing"
Lee's film becomes a landmark of American cinema.
- February 26, 2017"Moonlight" wins Best Picture
Barry Jenkins's film becomes the first with an all-Black cast to win Best Picture.
- February 16, 2018Black Panther
Ryan Coogler's film becomes a global cultural phenomenon and box-office landmark.
Resources
The web
Connections to other moments, systems, and investigations — the links rarely drawn together.
- builds on (incoming)·PersonGordon Parks
Parks's breakthrough behind the camera built on the path Oscar Micheaux opened decades earlier.