Blacks in Hollywood

From it's inception early Hollywood movies (also known as peep shows) presented Blacks in an unfavorable light. No one movie more exemplified this than the film version of Thomas Dixon's pro-South, Ku Klux Klan, novel, The Clansman. than the 1915 release of D.W.Griffith's "The Birth of A Nation." Most seem to be in agreement that in terms of "artistic and technical outlook, it was a masterpiece of conception and structure and gave rise to today's narrative film. But it also gave rise to a prevalent racist attitude and exploitative theme in motion pictures when it came to the image of Blacks.

In the film Blacks who were elected to office were portrayed as arrogant, lustful, and are shown as drunkards on the house floor. The Nation Magazine declared it "improper, immoral, and injurious and a deliberate attempt to humiliate ten million American citizens." But this film was just the beginning, a blueprint for how Hollywood would mold an image of Blacks in films as well as America's image of Blacks as depicted in film. Subordinate, dim-witted, and subservient to there white counterparts. In my estimation a deliberate and concerted effort by movie studio Execs to cause damage and injury to the black psyche.