Book cover of Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900-1942

Book description

Set against the backdrop of the black struggle in society, Slow Fade to Black is the definitive history of African-American accomplishment in film-both before and behind the camera-from the earliest movies through World War II. As he records the changing attitudes toward African-Americans both in Hollywood and the nation at…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Slow Fade to Black as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Another pioneering work, this 1977 book was written during the late “Blaxploitation” film movement, but rather than focus on that era, it looks back at the first half of the 20th century, during the foundation of Hollywood as a filmmaking industry, to detail the harrowing trials and tribulations that Black performers had to endure.

With a scholarly yet accessible approach, this book drums home the fact that cinema—and American society as a whole—is not that far removed from slavery, as evidenced by Black portrayals in popular films like Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Birth of a Nation. Like Bogle,…

From Mark's list on Black film history.

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Book cover of The High House

The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

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Book cover of Framing Blackness: The African American Image in Film
Book cover of Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films
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