Oscar Micheaux

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux was the first major Black filmmaker in America — a self-taught writer, director, producer, and distributor who made over 40 films between 1919 and 1948, creating a parallel Black cinema industry when Hollywood offered nothing but degrading stereotypes. His 1919 film The Homesteader was the first feature-length film produced by a Black filmmaker, and his 1920 film Within Our Gates was a direct response to the racist propaganda of D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation.

Born in Metropolis, Illinois, in 1884, one of thirteen children, Micheaux worked as a Pullman porter, farmer, and homesteader in South Dakota before becoming a novelist and then a filmmaker. He financed his films by going door to door in Black communities, selling shares and booking screenings in Black churches, schools, and theaters. He was studio, distributor, and marketing department all in one.

Micheaux's films tackled subjects that Hollywood wouldn't touch for decades: lynching, racial passing, colorism, interracial relationships, and Black economic independence. His work was imperfect — budgets were tiny and production values reflected it — but his ambition was extraordinary. He created a body of work that proved Black stories could sustain a film industry, decades before Hollywood acknowledged the fact. He was posthumously awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1987.