Birthright (1939)

 Oscar Micheaux's "Birthright"


By 1939, Oscar Micheaux was a near-forgotten director of the silent era. His silent films "Within Our Gates" and "Body and Soul" were considered masterworks of silent film. Another film that was considered this, 1924's "Birthright" is now considered lost. He remade the picture in 1939. Because of the new mainstream model of sound pictures, Micheaux could incorporate dialogue to further drive home the themes and ideas found in the film.

"Birthright" centers on an educated black man who travels south to build a new school for black youth. While there, he begins to realize the powers of law in the South actively work against the black community. The land he purchases for the school has a hidden clause that prohibits black people from stepping on the premises. The scholar he begins to work for forbids him from dating a "Nigresse," as he believes them to be thieves. The police provide a gun to a black man who is angry at him for dating his girlfriend. These are just a few examples of the corruption he faces in the South. Throughout the film, it appears there is no winning, as he constantly faces uphill battles in order to make a simple step forward in black education.

Micheaux was an independent filmmaker, untethered to the economic dependency of studios like some of his contemporaries. Because of this, he was able to make films that openly criticized Hollywood's depiction of the black community. On the flip side, Micheaux was mostly unsuccessful in getting his films distributed nationwide. His lack of budget-trained professional actors and new costly technology all kept him from making films that fit the contemporary industry. Because of this, his films in the 1930s felt more like 1920 films to audiences. Despite this, modern film historians look to his 1930s films with respect. Despite his limitations, Micheaux's low-budget pictures still hold independent ideas about race in America.



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