Media History Shorts: Oscar Micheaux & Early Black Cinema

"Due to the peculiar nature of this picture no theater could be secured that would exhibit it." That's a real 1920 newspaper ad for Within Our Gates (1920) — Oscar Micheaux's direct answer to D.W. Griffith's racist blockbuster Birth of a Nation (1915). Despite being largely locked out of Hollywood, Micheaux went on to create over 40 films as the first great Black pioneer of American cinema.