Today In Black History
Oscar Micheux, novelist, writer, and the 1st person to show Black films in white theaters.
Issue #567 Today In Black History, Monday, April 15, 2024
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Today’s Black History WOW!
Oscar Micheux was born on January 2, 1884, in Metropolis, Illinois. Moving to Chicago when he was 17 years old, Micheux shined shoes and worked in the meatpacking and steel industries before landing a job as a porter for the American railway system. This stable job allowed him to travel, save money, and make connections with wealthy people who later helped finance his films.
In 1904, Micheux moved to South Dakota and became a successful homesteader amid a predominantly blue-collar white population. The government's Homestead Act allowed citizens to acquire a free plot of land to farm. Although the act included Black Americans, discrimination kept many Blacks from pursuing a homestead. Micheux began writing about his experiences on the frontier, submitting articles to the press, and penning several novels that drew from his own experiences growing up in the segregated United States.
Published in 1913, his first novel The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Pioneer was loosely based on his own life as a homesteader and the failure of his marriage. In 1918, he made the groundbreaking decision to adapt one of his novels into a film, becoming the first African-American to produce a feature-length movie.
After setting up his own film and book publishing company, Micheux released The Homesteader in 1919, which was a commercial success and marked the beginning of Micheux's career as a filmmaker.
Micheux followed up his successful production with his second film, Within Our Gates (1920), which sought to challenge the heavy-handed racist stereotypes shown in D.W. Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation.
Throughout his career, Micheux went on to produce and direct over 40 films, many of which tackled issues of race, class, and identity. He was known for his bold and uncompromising storytelling, often highlighting the struggles and triumphs of African Americans in a racially divided society.
Micheux used his films, the first by a Black American to be shown in white movie theaters, to portray racial injustice suffered by Black Americans, delving into topics such as lynching, job discrimination, and mob violence.
Oscar Micheux died in 1951 at the age of 67 while on a business trip.
Today In Black History
- In 1850, the California Legislature adopted its Fugitive Slave Law, authorizing any slave owner to obtain a warrant for the arrest of a runaway slave.
- In 1861, President Abraham Lincoln mobilized 75,000 volunteers for the Union Army; Black volunteers were initially not accepted.
- In 1865, President Abraham Lincoln died nine hours after he was shot in the head by actor John Wilkes Booth at the Ford Theatre on April 14, 1865.
- In 1896, Booker T. Washington was awarded an honorary degree from Harvard University.
- In 1912, the RMS Titanic sank at 2:27 am off the coast of Newfoundland after hitting an iceberg. About 1600 passengers, including Black people locked in the lowest berths, lost their lives.
- In 1929, Oscar DePriest of Illinois was sworn in for the first of three terms becoming the first Black Congressman from the North.
- In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first Black man to play for a US major league baseball team, the Brooklyn Dodgers.
- In 1980, Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, gained its independence from Great Britain and white minority rule.
- In 2019, Aretha Franklin was posthumously awarded a Special Citation Pulitzer Prize.
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