Stage One: The Hollywood Shuffle
From the vantagepoint of most moviegoers, it would seem that African-American actors have made giant leaps in the way that they are represented on film. And they would be right. The contrast of African-American actors in films today, compared to their counterparts in films of the past, is as different as night and day, or black and white. The roles that they are given, the way that they are viewed by the public, and the respect that they receive from their white peers, demonstrates that the African-American actor has become more than just comic relief, or a scene decoration, or even a token. African- Lazy, shiftless, slow-witted. These are just a few of the words used to describe how African-Americans were portrayed in film in the early days of Hollywood, and the one actor who epitomizes that view the most would have to be Stepin Fetchit. Even though he is considered to be a pioneering African-American actor, his negative and stereotypical portrayal of blacks on screen is looked upon with disgust and disdain, even today.
From his very first film, 1927’s, ‘In Old Kentucky,’ through the majority of his career, Stepin Fetchit consistently played the uncle Tom role to a tee. A good example of that would be his role in the 1952 film, ‘Bend of the River.’ What seems to stand out the most about the character that Fetchit plays, is the child like quality he exhibits, innocent and non-threatening, something that was very common in the majority of films that featured African-American characters, especially between the 1920’s and 1940’s. And even though this film was made in the 1950’s, where some changes were just over the horizon, Stepin Fetchit had been playing his signature role for so long, that to see him as anything other than the lazy, shiftless character moviegoers grew to know, would be shocking to say the least.
The fact of the matter is, Stepin Fetchit was cast in this film, as well as all the previous films that he had been in, for one reason, and one reason only, comic relief, and that example is displayed in several scenes, including one scene where he has comical interchange with an African-American actress dressed up like ‘Aunt Jamima.’ The unfortunate truth about all of this is that Stepin Fetchit was a very intelligent and talented actor, as were many of his African-American contemporaries. But none of them were ever able to portray that on film.
Stage Two: The Great Black Hope
As America moved into the 1950’s, changes were slowly being made, as African-Americans started to show that they could be more than just butlers and maids, but were human beings with brains, just like white people. And on the movie screen, the same types of changes were taking place as well, America was introduced to a new image of the African-American, and his name was Sidney Poitier. Proud, articulate, confident,attractive. Sidney Poitier became the first African-American matinee idol. He was a complete 180-degree opposite of the African-American image that had been perpetuated by Stepin Fetchit. Throughout the remainder of the 1950’s, and even into the 1960’s, Poitier showed a type of quiet defiance in all of his roles, including a landmark performance in the 1967 classic, ‘In the Heat of the Night.’ In the film, Poitier plays a Philadelphia homicide detective in Mississippi, helping to solve a murder. From the moment that Poitier’s character steps off the train, he is a stranger in a strange land, a black man with dignity and self-esteem in the racially heated south. His character respects himself and demands just as much respect from others, as he demonstrates when he speaks the classic line, “they call me Mr. Tibbs.”
In another scene, and probably one of the most powerful in film history, Poitier’s character is questioning one of the town’s very important men. Upset with the line of questioning, the man slaps Poitier across the face, and without missing a single beat, Poitier slaps him back. Sidney Poitier showed a side of the black man that had never been seen before. Audiences were not used to a black person being the smartest, coolest, most civilized person in the group, especially when that group included whites. The strides that Sidney Poitier made on screen were very defining and influential, and would pay huge dividends for African-American actors in the decades to come.
Stage Three: From Zero to Hero
For years, there’s always been the joke, that in horror movies, the first person to get killed was always the black dude. But in 1968, a low-budget horror film by director George Romero changed that view by having “the black dude” not only the last to die, but also the hero the film. Borrowing from an image of African-Americans started by Sidney Poitier, the black lead in Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead,’ seems to be the one who is able to keep his cool and stay calm and level-headed, when it seems like the whole world is coming to an end around him.
