Of the many creative people who collaborate on a motion picture, the director is regarded as the pivotal individual who serves as both the guiding force behind the project’s effective content and box-office success.
Historically, Hollywood has opened its doors to only a small number of African-American film directors. The first to break through the cinematic ceiling was author, film director and independent producer Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (1884–1951.) His first film, “The Homesteader” (1919), a black-and-white silent, prompted a series of nationwide tours of Black neighborhoods.
An ad for the film placed in the Chicago Defender read: “Destined to mark a new epoch in achievements of the Darker Races!” According to writer Will Sloan, the film’s, “frank treatment of religion and miscegenation led to battles with censor boards and curiosity from audiences, who had never encountered a film that dealt with such topics from a Black point of view.”
Produced by Micheaux Film & Book Company of Sioux City in Chicago, “The Homesteader,” a film about a Black homesteader in the Dakotas who falls in love with the daughter of a Scottish widower, quickly became a box-office success, so much so that all available prints were played into deterioration.
The boom in race-film (as films made for Black audiences were called then) production was born.
As a filmmaker, Micheaux, born near Metropolis, Ill., was considered, “50 years ahead of his time.” He left home at age 17 for Chicago, where he worked first as a waiter. Restless and dissatisfied, he would later work several jobs, including in the stockyards and the steel mill. But he craved independence. So after an employment agency, “swindled him out of two dollars,” he decided to become his own boss. His first business; a shoeshine stand inside of a well-to-do, Black-owned barbershop. And that’s where his exposure to the ins-and-outs of entrepreneurship and connections with wealthy whites began.
An avid reader, Micheaux drew inspiration from the works of Booker T. Washington and Horace Greeley, which moved him to acquire tracts of land in South Dakota, despite having no experience in farming. He also modeled his life after that of Booker T. Washington, who preached a philosophy of self-reliance for his race. This everyday life soon became the subject of Micheaux’s work.
As a homesteader, he penned his first novel, “The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer” (1913), then later rewrote it as “The Homesteader” (1917), initially publishing it anonymously. He then wrote about the social oppression he experienced as a young boy. It was the advent of the motion picture industry that intrigued Micheaux as another vehicle to tell his stories. Through this medium, he would produce more than 44 films.
Micheaux’s work proved vital to the overall American consciousness by providing a diverse portfolio of non-stereotyped Black characters, as well as positive images and stories of African-American life. His films were often used to oppose and discuss the racial injustice that African Americans received.
Micheaux died in March 1951.
Tamara Shiloh
Tamara Shiloh has published the first two books in her historical fiction chapter book series,
Just Imagine…What If There Were No Black People in the World is about African American inventors, scientists and other notable Black people in history. The two books are
Jaxon’s Magical Adventure with Black Inventors and Scientists and
Jaxon and Kevin’s Black History Trip Downtown. Tamara Shiloh has also written a book a picture book for Scholastic,
Cameron Teaches Black History, that will be available in June, 2022.
Tamara Shiloh’s other writing experiences include: writing the Black History column for the Post Newspaper in the Bay area, Creator and Instruction of the black History Class for Educators a professional development class for teachers and her non-profit offers a free Black History literacy/STEM/Podcast class for kids 3d – 8th grade which also includes the Let’s Go Learn Reading and Essence and tutorial program. She is also the owner of the Multicultural Bookstore and Gifts, in Richmond, California,
Previously in her early life she was the /Editor-in-Chief of
Desert Diamonds Magazine, highlighting the accomplishments of minority women in Nevada; assisting with the creation, design and writing of a Los Angeles-based, herbal magazine entitled
Herbal Essence; editorial contribution to
Homes of Color; Editor-in-Chief of
Black Insight Magazine, the first digital, interactive magazine for African Americans; profile creations for sports figures on the now defunct PublicFigure.com; newsletters for various businesses and organizations; and her own Las Vegas community newsletter,
Tween Time News, a monthly publication highlighting music entertainment in the various venues of Las Vegas.
She is a member of:
- Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI)
- Richmond Chamber of Commerce
- Point Richmond Business Association
- National Association of Professional Women (NAPW)
- Independent Book Publishers Association (IPBA)
- California Writers Club-Berkeley & Marin
- Richmond CA Kiwanis
- Richmond CA Rotary
- Bay Area Girls Club
Tamara Shiloh, a native of Northern California, has two adult children, one grandson and four great-grand sons. She resides in Point Richmond, CA with her husband, Ernest.
www.multiculturalbookstore.com
