In the beginning of black film actors of this color were not given the respect that they deserve. In fact, they were given no respect at all. That’s not all, to make maters worse, they were beaten, insulted, judged, and looked down upon. If a white director included a black man in the cast, the director would be ridiculed or even blacklisted. This meant that no major company would hire him. Basically, if someone was blacklisted from Hollywood their career was pretty much over. So even if a white director wanted to put a black man into his film, he was usually dissuaded by the thought of losing his career. Since these times society has changed for the better. Now a day black people have the leads in blockbusters and can even win awards without persecution.
Most people who watch movies these days don’t understand that the black community as far as films are concerned has come a long way since the beginning. At first, the films that even included blacks portrayed them in offensive and ignorant roles. As the decades role by, equality slowly but steadily came into focus. With the sixties came breakthrough roles such as Sidney Poitier’s “Lillies of the field”. As black films moved on, more and more influential actors came into play. Dorothy Dandridge was another black actor who pushed the movement forward to its current position. When the nineties rolled around, you wouldn’t imagine how far we have come as a society. There now were all black casts, black directors, producers and even screen writers. You name it, they did it.
Though we have come a long way since the early days of black film, there is still a long way to go. Black people still are labeled with unfair stereotypes and given degrading roles. They are still associated with gangs and violence and crime. To this day there are activist groups and protesters who try and give blacks equal rights as whites. Though our society claims to be equal, many people believe that people of different minority groups are less civilized and less intelligent even though we all know that is not the case. There is no proof that a black person has the brain capacity less than that of a white man or vice-a-verse. Will this chaos and madness ever end, I hope so. But only time will tell.
Photos of Influential Black Film Stars
Sidney Poitier Pics
Dorothy Dandridge Pics
