Justin Simien’s four-part documentary series “Hollywood Black” spotlights the impacts, challenges and triumphs of Black pioneers in Hollywood. And the doc’s first episode tackles the industry’s earliest portrayals of Black people in media, including minstrels and stereotypical characters — but also the Black leaders who set out to change the narrative.
“Cinema is not really possible without Blackness. For starters, Black is literally the thing that all cinema fades in from and fades out to,” Simien narrates in the series. “From its very beginnings, Hollywood has been fascinated with Blackness. Not only are we the first subjects in early motion pictures, but we are also the subject of the first blockbusters, early animation and of course, the first talkie.”
“In fact, every time Hollywood is looking to reinvent itself or expand its reach, it tends to do so with Black bodies,” Simien adds. “Consciously or not, Black faces make money, Black culture makes money. But who controls what those faces do or say? And who benefits?”
Structural racism in America is nothing new; its been welcomed into every layer of the country, including the entertainment industry. From blackface comedy, mammy racist caricatures in film to the release of “The Birth of a Nation,” anti-Black rhetoric was intentionally planted in some of the most groundbreaking films and television shows of all time. And that’s where “Hollywood Black” kicks off.
“Hollywood Black,” inspired by Donald Bogle’s book of the same name, premiered on MGM+ on Sunday, Aug. 11. Here are the six biggest takeaways from Episode 1: “Built On Our Backs.” Episode 2 airs next Sunday, Aug. 18.
1. Black actors, including popular silent film star Bert Williams, were told to darken their skin for minstrel shows
“Hollywood Black” begins its journey with the Black pioneers of the motion picture industry, starting with silent film star Bert Williams, one of the most popular entertainers during the vaudeville era.
At that time, Black actors were frequently cast in roles that perpetuated racist stereotypes of the Black community or were parts in blackface-centered theatrical shows referred to as “minstrels.” Williams, who is often credited as the first Black comedian to appear in cinema, rose to fame during the minstrel show era. Though he was already Black, he was instructed to darken his skin even more to make himself more appealing to white audiences, the docuseries explains.
“He’s taking cork and blackening his skin in order to be more palatable to white audiences,” one of the interviewees in the series shared about Williams, who went on to create the first Black Broadway show, “In Dahomey.”
2. President Woodrow Wilson attended a special White House screening of “The Birth of a Nation,” and he was “excited” by it
As the documentary details the backstory of minstrel shows, blackface in film, the earliest portrayals of Black people in cinema and how that impacted the world’s view of Black people, the series spotlighted D.W. Griffith’s 1915 Civil War film “The Birth of a Nation,” which was originally titled “The Clansman.” The movie, based on Baptist preacher Thomas Dixon’s novel of the same name, centered the Klu Klux Klan as heroes who came to save a white community of families from vengeful formerly enslaved Africans in Carolina during the Reconstruction Era.
“D.W. Griffith used blackface and a litany of horrifying yet familiar minstrel stereotypes, all to convey this fear of what would happen if Black people somehow invaded and ran the actual country,” Justin Simien said in the series.
“It’s programming you to associate images of Black characters who are played by white people, raping and pillaging and robbing and rioting, and the Klan squashing that as America. Those are American values on the screen right now,” comic and TV host W. Kamau Bell on the show.
The three-hour film, long regarded as America’s first feature-length motion picture and major box office hit, was shown at the White House in February 1915. President Woodrow Wilson attended the screening. “Hollywood Black” author Donald Bogle said that Wilson was “excited” by the film.
“The Birth of a Nation” was the second film ever shown at the White House and the first to be screened inside. Wilson reportedly praised the film, saying it was “like writing history with lightning.”
Simien added that the film sparked “racially motivated” violence against Black Americans across “three dozen American cities” in 1919. The domestic terrorist attacks were called Red Summer.
“Blacks were being lynched on a regular basis all over America,” said Kevin Willmott, film and media studies professor at the University of Kansas. “They’re not being investigated. They’re not being acknowledged. They’re not against the law.”
3. Filmmaker Oscar Micheaux funded many of his films by going door-to-door asking for donations
After “The Birth of a Nation,” Black filmmakers began emerging — and with intentions to correct false Black narratives in Hollywood. In what appeared to be an effort to combat the racist propaganda in Griffth’s “The Birth of a Nation,” Oscar Micheaux responded with his own film, “Within Our Gates” (1920), which he financed by going door-to-door and asking for donations.
“He would go from house to house and he would go, ‘Hi, I’m a Black man making a movie, would you put some money in?’ And he did that over and over again and got enough money to make a movie, and the movie would make enough money that he could pay them back and then make another movie,” writer-director Reginald Hudlin said in the series. “Can you imagine doing that today? He did it back when Jesus was a boy. It’s impossible.”
Without any studio backing or financial support from Hollywood, Micheaux went on to make 40 independent films between 1918 and 1948, including “The Homestead,” “God’s Step Children,” “The Symbol of the Unconquered” and more.
4. Actor Paul Robeson refused to film any scenes in “The Emperor Jones” below the Mason-Dixon line
While Black actors were mostly still confined to playing maids, butlers or field-hand side characters, actor and singer Paul Robeson broke through as the first Black actor to star in a leading role with his performance as Brutus in the 1933 drama “The Emperor Jones.”
Not only was he a pioneer in cinema, he was a powerful voice against racism and advocated for the working class and organized labor, the documentary explains.
“In his contract, he stated that he would not do any scenes that were shot below the Mason-Dixon line,” Bogle said, the Mason-Dixon line being the state border that separated the slave-owning states in the North from the South prior to the abolishment of slavery.
“He took seriously the importance of his representation, not just for Black people in the United States,” Academy Museum president/director Jacqueline Stewart said. “He really saw himself as a representative of Black and Brown people around the world. And there are a lot of projects in which he is imagined at the center, which is huge — for him to be the leading man during this period is just extraordinary.”
Robeson’s anti-racist forthrightness ultimately cost him his Hollywood career.
“He was dragged in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, and asked to name names, and he refused to do that. His passport was taken away, he couldn’t travel and really sustain his work as an artist,” Stewart said.
5. Hattie McDaniel was seated away from “Gone With the Wind” cast at the 1940 Academy Awards ceremony
Moving on to how minstrels crafted the future of Black stereotypical characters in film, the docuseries expounds on the massive success and experiences of the first Black person to ever win an Oscar, Hattie McDaniel. The actress’s work paid off when she won the gold for her performance in the 1939 Civil War drama “Gone With the Wind,” in which she played a house slave named Ruth “Mammy.”
Though she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, McDaniel wasn’t seated with her castmates at the awards ceremony in 1940. Instead, she was placed at a side table, series participants explain.
“Well, Hattie McDaniel, obviously is dressed to a tee when she goes to the Academy Awards in 1940,” Stewart said. “It’s held at the Coconut Grove, so it’s like a ballroom. And it’s a whites-only ballroom, she’s only there because an exception is made for her to attend. And the cast and producer, David L. Selsnick, sitting together at the ‘Gone With the Wind’ table.
“But Hattie McDaniel is not seated there. We have an image of her, the night that was taken, where you can barely see her face at the bottom of the picture because she’s so far on the edge of the room. She’s kind of just allowed to be there – she’s a nominee.”
A Black actor wasn’t awarded an Oscar again until 23 years later when Sidney Poitier won Best Actor for his role in “Lillies of the Field” (1963).
6. Lena Horne signed a seven-year contract with MGM Studios with the condition that she would never play maids or domestics
The series closes out its first episode by explaining how colorism, featurism and texturism propped up Black actors with lighter complexions. McDaniel helped break down more barriers for Black talent in Hollywood, but the NAACP — including leader Walter White — took issue with Black people being constantly depicted as the help or servants on-screen, the series details.
“[The NAACP’s Walter White] cites Hattie McDaniel as everything that’s wrong with Black representation,” Racquel J. Gates, assistant medica culture professor at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York, said. “I just love the fact that Hattie McDaniel claps back at this and says like, ‘I’m not interested in what Walter White has to say about Black people, given that he is only one-thirty-second Black himself.’ It’s so, so good, and part of what she’s calling out are the inherent class and color politics of an organization like the NAACP, which wants to talk about Black representation but only wants super lightskinned people sort of visible of representing who they are.”
One of the first Hollywood actors to benefit from colorism and lightskinned privilege was Lena Horne. Rising from stunning performances at the Cotton Club in Harlem, Horne’s budding talent landed her a movie debut in William Nolte’s 1939 musical film “The Duke Is Tops.”
The series goes on to show old clips of Horne explaining how White encouraged her to make a deal with MGM Studios in the NAACP’s effort to push what he believed was a new, less negative image of Black people.
“Meanwhile I had gotten this offer to go to work in Hollywood, and Walter White, who was then-president of the NAACP, made me do it … They said we’ve never had anybody like you in the movies, and we want you to go out there and be representative of another type,” Horne said in a clip.
“He sat with my grandma and said, ‘You have to go and go make this deal with MGM,’” Horne’s granddaughter, Jenny Lumet, said. “She understood her palatability, and she was very aware that her little nose was part of the package. Her meeting with Mr. Mayor, she was terrified. She didn’t know how to handle a man like that, so she called her father, the gangster, and he knew exactly how to handle a man like that. She signed a seven-year contract with MGM, with the stipulation that she would never play maids or domestics.”
Her deal ultimately led to an outcry from other Black actors who pleaded with Horne to remove the requirement from her agreement. However, McDaniel supported Horne’s move, as she felt it would only open up even better opportunities for Black creatives in the industry.
“At that point, a cadre of Black performers that existed within the studio system called her to the carpet quite literally, said ‘who do you think you are,’” Lumet explained. “‘You are making it impossible for us to get work. You have to take this out of your contract,’ and it was the extraordinary Hattie McDaniel, who sort of swept in and said ‘she’s doing the right thing.’”
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