The Other Film Oscar

This is a brief look at a man of many firsts, Oscar Devereaux Micheaux. He was the first successful Black indie filmmaker, long before Spike Lee. He was the first Black man to produce a full-length feature film. He was the first filmmaker to feature a multiracial cast. He was the first Black filmmaker to release a film to an all-White audience. He brought awareness about racism and oppression to mainstream America before Bayard Rustin and Dr. King. He made a successful silent film two years before Charlie Chaplin. He is not a household name, but more people are beginning to know and respect his contributions to film and society.

Oscar Micheaux was born on January 2, 1884 in Metropolis, Illinois. This was 12 years before the first (known-to-date) Blackface depiction in films like the1896, A Watermelon Feast and Dancing Darkies. Oscar was the fifth of 13 children born to Belle and her husband, Calvin Michaux (sic), who was born an enslaved man, as were his parents before him. After Emancipation, Calvin became a farmer in his own right, and Belle became a teacher. The Michauxs instilled in their children a strong work ethic and moral compass.

At about 17, a somewhat rebellious Oscar was sent from the family home to live with an older brother in Chicago. The expectation was that he would find work for himself, settle down and get married. Oscar held a variety of jobs in and around Chicago. He worked in the stockyard. He shined shoes. He was a waiter, as well as a busboy. Oscar eventually found a more lucrative job as a Pullman Porter, a position considered prestigious for Black men.

Being a porter gave Oscar the opportunity to travel the States and meet inspiring and successful people. His gift of charm allowed him to talk business and finance with men outside his normal social circles. In 1910, after saving $1,000, Oscar married Orlean McCracken, the daughter of a popular Chicago minister. The newlyweds settled on farm land that Oscar purchased in South Dakota but it was not a happily ever after story. It was an ill-fated marriage, resulting in lonely farm life for Orlean, surrounded by White farmers’ wives who had little to say to a Black woman. The farm was also where they suffered the loss of their child. Eventually the fragile marriage threads deteriorated and Orlean’s father insisted that she return home to Chicago.

It was in this cloud of sadness and loss that Oscar began writing. At first it was newspaper articles published by The Chicago Defender, one of the earliest and most prestigious Black newspapers, founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbot. The Defender, as it was known, famously encouraged The Great Migration of Blacks from the South to the North, for more job opportunities and better living conditions. The Defender also published the works of esteemed writers like Langston Hughes, Ida B. Wells, Ethel Payne, and Gwendolyn Brooks.

Oscar became a welcomed contributor writing about his struggles to successfully participate in the Homestead Act, a government program that gave free land in exchange for farming. However when it came to Black farmers, that promise of free land was rarely honored and the denial was without recourse. Despite our government’s resistance to helping Black farmers, Oscar went on a lengthy letter-writing campaign to encourage more Black families to move West, not North, and become farmers. He believed there was power in numbers and that it would eventually help more Black families attain home ownership. His efforts were mainly unsuccessful with the exception of a few family members. He had an almost unshakeable faith that hard work would eventually garner respect and rewards. Throughout his life, Oscar walked a tightrope between his personal beliefs and the reality of his position in society.

After attaining some notoriety with his newspaper articles, Oscar began writing books. In 1913, his first novel, The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer, was anonymously self-published. This was the first of seven novels. It may have been around this time that Oscar added the “e” to his last name, creating the more proper French spelling of his enslavement surname. In 1918, his third novel, The Homesteader, dedicated to his mother, Belle, caught the attention of booking manager, George P. Johnson, of The Lincoln Motion Picture Company, considered one of the more successful Black motion picture companies. Johnson wanted to adapt the book into a film. There were approximately 700 Black-owned “theater tents” during this time. Keep in mind, what was considered a Black theater then, would not pass muster today, but Oscar loved the idea. He readily agreed, until negotiations fell apart when he insisted on managing the project himself.

It was then that Oscar created the Micheaux Film and Book Company. He proceeded to write and produce his first silent film, The Homesteader, in 1919, two years before Chaplin’s The Kid. The Homesteader broke barriers by introducing the first multiracial film cast. In true Oscar tenacity, The Homesteader was rumored to be partially funded by local White farmers. The plot was about a Black rancher, played by Charles D. Lucas, who falls in love with a (secretly-biracial) “White” woman, played by Iris Hall. The character of the White father, played by Charles R. Moore, forbids the union and the Rancher instead marries “Orlean,” named for Oscar’s first wife and played by Evelyn Preer — a woman of firsts as well. Evelyn was the first celebrated Black actress in America. She was the first female to star in a Black-produced Broadway play and the first female actor in the first all-Black production show to premier in California.

The Homesteader, like most of his work, was from a Black male perspective. Oscar’s characters shared autobiographical aspects of his life. They were hardworking, earnest men who were neither saints nor sinners; unlike the either-or Black characters featured in the silent “race films” produced by other Black film companies. One of Oscar’s main goals was to never portray Black men as the ignorant buffoons and scary monsters shown in Blackface or otherwise in White films. He wanted audiences to see the complexities, humanity and vulnerabilities of the average Black man. His film themes centered heavily on exposing the violence and devastation of racism. Additionally, Oscar knew the importance of his stories being seen by a larger and more diverse audience than just the Black men and women affected by the times.

Oscar’s second film, the 1920 release, Within Our Gates, was produced in part to counter the 1915, Birth of a Nation. W.D. Griffith’s flamboyantly racist, fantasy film, that graphically depicted Blackface men as violent savages lusting after innocent White women, spurring “heroic” white-hooded Klansmen into action to save the White race. Griffith’s film slid through the censors with no problems. When Oscar first submitted his film for release in December 1919, it was rejected by the Chicago Board of Censors. They took umbrage at its depiction of White men raping Black women and lynching Black men. Oscar had to agree to cut out aspects of the film and it was finally approved for release two months later. For decades it was believed the film was lost. An edited print, with the middle cut out, titled La Negra(The Black Woman) was found in Spain in 1977 by renowned film historian, Thomas Cripps.

Despite Birth of a Nation’s skewed perspective and glorification of White Supremacy, Griffith has been called a cinematic great because of the film. While many now find it distasteful, back then it contributed to both a rise in Klan memberships and a resurgence of lynchings across the nation. During his lifetime, Oscar was never lavished with accolades for his filmmaking. His films were thought to be amateurish and less polished than White films. He was often mocked for his attempts to show the burdens of racism and the challenges of mere existence for Black Americans. Additionally, Oscar’s persistence in showing Black men as a mix of good and bad didn’t always go over well with his Black audiences who wanted more positive portrayals and felt he pandered to White sentiments. Today, there is a greater appreciation for Oscar’s storytelling and political social savvy. His ability to achieve creative and progressive goals given the circumstances and imposed limitations of his race was no easy feat.

Oscar was one of the few independent filmmakers, Black or White, to successfully make the transition from silent film to “talkies.” No matter what happened, he continued moving forward professionally and personally. Oscar remarried twice. First to Sarah Rutledge, and in 1926, to actor, Alice B. Russell, who starred in six of his films. Between 1919 and 1948, Oscar wrote, produced, directed, and distributed more than 45 films. He also continued writing and self-publishing novels. His last film, the 1948 release The Betrayal was the first Black film to be released in a Whites-only theater. It was not deemed a critical success by White audiences, but is a clear indicator of the power Oscar had to break boundaries.

On March 25, 1951, in Charlotte, North Carolina, while on his way to a business meeting, 67-year-old Oscar Devereaux Micheaux died of heart failure. He is buried in the Great Bend Cemetery in Great Bend, Kansas. His gravestone reads: “A Man Ahead of His Time.”

Bibliography

· The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer. Lincoln, Nebraska: Woodruff Press. 1913.

· The Forged Note. Lincoln, Nebraska: Western Book Supply Company. 1915.

· The Homesteader: A Novel. Sioux City, Iowa: Western Book Supply Company. 1917.

· The Wind from Nowhere. New York: Western Book Supply Company. 1941.

· The Case of Mrs. Wingate. New York: Western Book Supply Company. 1944.

· The Story of Dorothy Stanfield. New York: Western Book Supply Company. 1946.

· Masquerade, a Historical Novel. New York: Western Book Supply Company. 1947.

• The Lincoln Motion Picture Company a First for Black Cinema. African American Registry. May 24, 2005. Archived from the original on May 19, 2016.

· Movies News Desk (February 12, 2014). “New Documentary Underway on America’s First Black Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux”. broadwayworld.com.

· Wetzstein, Cheryl (April 30, 2014). “Black side of silver screen: Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux paved his own path to Hollywood”. Washington Times.

· The History of Black Filmmakers Who Changed Hollywood, https://www.lafilm.edu/blog/the-history-of-black-filmmakers-who-changed-hollywood/

· Conservation Center for Art & Historic Artifacts, https://ccaha.org/news/lincoln-motion-picture-company-pioneers-black-cinema

· Restored ‘Race Films’ Find New Audiences, https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2016/03/04/469149240/restored-movies-by-african-american-filmmakers-find-new-audiences

• The Homesteader, 1919.
• Within Our Gates, 1920.
• The Brute, 1920.
• The Symbol of the Unconquered, 1920.
• The Gunsaulus Mystery, 1921.
• The Dungeon, 1922.
• The Hypocrite, 1922.
• Uncle Jasper’s Will, 1922.
• The Virgin of the Seminole, 1922.
• Deceit, 1923.
• Birthright, 1924.
• A Son of Satan, 1924.
• Body and Soul, 1925.
• Marcus Garland, 1925.
• The Conjure Woman, 1926.
• The Devil’s Disciple, 1926.
• The Spider’s Web, 1926.
• The Millionaire, 1927.
• The House Behind the Cedars, 1927.
• The Broken Violin, 1928.
• Thirty Years Later, 1928.
• When Men Betray, 1929.
• The Wages of Sin, 1929.
• Easy Street, 1930.
• A Daughter of the Congo, 1930.
• Darktown Revue, 1931.
• The Exile, 1931.
• Veiled Aristocrats, 1932.
• Ten Minutes to Live, 1932.
• Black Magic, 1932.
• The Girl from Chicago, 1932.
• Phantom of Kenwood, 1933.
• Harlem After Midnight, 1934.
• Murder in Harlem, 1935.
• Temptation, 1936.
• Underworld, 1937.
• God’s Step Children, 1938.
• Swing! 1938.
• Lying Lips, 1939.
• Birthright, 1939.
• The Notorious Elinor Lee, 1940.
• The Betrayal, 1948.