“Only the colored people themselves can determine their political, social and economic future.”

William Monroe Trotter

Prof. EA Kiss

This course surveys a hidden canon of African American film while also uncovers the roots of representational injustice in Hollywood and the secret, but cardinal role Woodrow Wilson played in the production and distribution of Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” that led to the rebirth of the KKK. Wilson’s policy of segregation was adapted by Hollywood as a self-censoring industry regulation of representation. Black people could only appear on screen as subservient and marginal characters, never as equals, partners or leaders. This industry code, Wilson’s legacy, has become second nature to Hollywood.

02/16

Love’s Labor, Slave Labor and the Southern Lost Cause

Film essay or film montage on occupational segregation; Norman C. Amakert museum vitrine; Joseph C. Wilson museum vitrine, cinematic blocking

The Birth of a Nation

D. W. Griffith

(1915)

“Quittin’ Time?: The Antidiscrimination Principle of Title VII vs. The Free Market”

Norman C. Amaker

Mutual Relation of Masters and Slaves as Taught by the Bible

Joseph R. Wilson