Oscar D. Micheaux

During the early 1900s, blacks were portrayed in most films as either servants, buffoons or non-speaking extras.

But not so in the movies made by Oscar Devereaux Micheaux. In the more than 44 movies that Micheaux made, African-Americans were strong, upwardly mobile, heroic, unfailingly romantic, ambitious, good-natured and, above all, believable.

“In these films, black Americans saw themselves incorporated into the national pop mythology, and a new set of archetypes emerged: heroic black men of action,” said Donald Bogle, a film historian and author of six books regarding blacks in film and on television.

“Whether cowboys, detectives, or weary army vets, many of the early characters were walking embodiments of black assertion and aggression, and, of course, they gave the lie to America’s notions of a Negro’s place.”

Micheaux was a pioneering creator of “race films,” motion pictures for black audiences whose entertainment options were limited by segregation and whose tastes were insulted by racist Hollywood fare. He produced, wrote and directed both silent and talking movies.

Although he may not have been the first black filmmaker, Micheaux is considered the first African- American whose movies were widely distributed and critically acclaimed.

Movies starring black actors

His first movie, The Homesteader, was based on his book about his life and work as a homesteader while living in South Dakota in the early 1900s. The Lincoln Motion Picture Company, an African-American company that produced movies starring black actors and movies viewed mainly by black audiences, offered to buy and produce Micheaux’s first project.

Micheaux refused to sell the rights to the story unless the Lincoln Company agreed that he could direct the film. When the company objected, Micheaux took the idea on the road, selling stock at $75 per share to his book customers until he had amassed enough capital to shoot the film on his own.

"He's an example of someone who had the philosophy of, 'nothing is impossible,'" said actor Louis Gossett Jr., who presented the Directors Guild of America's lifetime achievement award to Micheaux's family in 1986. "In terms of black filmmaking, he planted the original seed."

In addition to making movies, Micheaux wrote seven novels. In 1913, 1,000 copies of his first book, The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer, were printed. The story was largely based on his experiences as a homesteader. Although character names were changed, the protagonist is named Oscar Devereaux. The book’s theme was about African-Americans realizing their potential and succeeding in areas where they had not felt they could.

“To appreciate Micheaux’s [works] one must understand that he was moving as far as possible from Hollywood’s jesters and servants,” Bogle said. “He wanted to give his audience something to further the race, not hinder it.”

Much of Micheaux’s work was patterned on the beliefs and philosophies of Booker T. Washington, who stressed the upward mobility of blacks through education and entrepreneurship.

“It is only by presenting those portions of the race portrayed in my pictures, in the light and background of their true state, that we can raise our people to greater heights,” Micheaux said.

Among the numerous awards he was given posthumously, Micheaux was recognized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987 and in 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante included Micheaux on his list of 100 Greatest African-Americans.

Born on a farm in Metropolis, Ill., in 1884, Micheaux died of heart failure in 1951 in Charlotte, North Carolina and buried in Great Bend, Kansas. He was 67.

His tombstone reads: "A man ahead of his time."