by Wil Haygood
First published 2021
Wil Haygood chronicles a century of Black cinema through the lens of American racial history. Starting with D.W. Griffith's 1915 film The Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood's first major success, Haygood examines how Black artists navigated the film industry both in front of and behind cameras. He connects movie production to broader social changes, from Jim Crow laws and segregation through white flight, interracial relationships, Malcolm X's assassination, the O.J. Simpson trial, and the Black Lives Matter movement. The book analyzes specific films including Gone with the Wind, Imitation of Life, Porgy and Bess, 1970s Blaxploitation movies, Do The Right Thing, 12 Years a Slave, and Black Panther. Haygood profiles key figures like Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Berry Gordy, Alex Haley, Spike Lee, Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, Halle Berry, Ava DuVernay, and Jordan Peele. This history reveals how cinema both reflected and shaped American attitudes about race across generations.
Genres: biography, history, 20th-century, american, african-american, 21st-century, film, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-fiction, social-commentary
Setting: Hollywood, America
Period: Jim Crow, Segregation, White Flight, Civil Rights Movement, Black Lives Matter
464 pages · Hardcover · Knopf