Within Our Gates

Within Our Gates is a 1919 silent film about an African-American who goes North and helps a minister in the Deep South raise money to keep a school for poor Black children open. Directed by novelist Oscar Micheaux, it is the oldest known surviving film made by an African-American director. The film, which was written and directed by Micheaux, stars Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin, Jack Chenault, William Smith and Charles D. Lucas.

Not seen for seventy-five years, a single print of the film, entitled La Negra was found in Spain. A brief sequence in the middle of the film was lost, and only four of the original titles survived, the rest having been removed for translation. In 1993, the Library of Congress Motion Picture Conservation Center restored this film as close to the original as possible. The Spanish titles were retranslated into English by Gene DeAnna, removing any explanatory material that was added and reproducing the style that Micheaux used in his books. The missing sequence was summarized with an intertitle frame.

The plot

The film opens with Sylvia Landry, a young African American woman, visiting her cousin Alma in the North, while she waits for Conrad to return and marry her. Alma, however, is also in love with Corbin, and prefers to see Sandra married off to her brother-in-law Larry, a gambler and criminal. She hides a letter sent by Conrad, announcing his arrival, and arranges for Sylvia to be caught in a compromising position by Conrad when he finally returns. Conrad storms off and leaves for Brazil, while Larry kills a man during a game of poker. With nothing to keep her up North, Sylvia returns to the South.

There she meets a minister, who runs a school for Black children. People from all over turn to the minister to educate their children and give them a chance for the future, but the school is already overcrowded, and he cannot continue on $1.49 he receives from the local government to educate each child. With the school faced with closure, Sylvia volunteers to return to the North to raise $5,000.

At first, the trip is a failure. She cannot raise the money, and her purse is stolen, though a local man, Dr. Vivian, manages to get it back for her. Then Sylvia is involved in an autombile accident when she tries to save a young child playing in the street from being hit by a large car. The car belongs to a wealthy philanthropist, Mrs. Elena Warwick, who hears of Sylvia's mission and decides to give her the money. Mrs. Warwick's friend, Mrs. Stratton, a southerner, attempts to discourage her, but this only enfuriates Mrs. Warwick, who increases her donation to $50,000. The school is saved, and Sylvia can return home.

Meanwhile, Dr. Vivian has fallen in love with Sylvia. He goes to Alma, who tells him about Sylvia's past. She was raised by a poor Black family, the Landry's, which managed to provide her with an education. However, Mr. Landry is wrongfully accused of the murder of an unpopular but wealthy landlord, Mr. Gridlestone, and the family is hunted down and lynched. Sylvia escapes, but she is chased by Mr. Gridlestone's son, who tries to rape her, only to notice a scar on her breast. He realizes that Sylvia is actually his daughter through his marriage to a local Black woman, and that he has paid for her education.

Attitudes toward African Americans

The film attempts to portray the many different faces of contemporary African American society as perceived by the director. There are heroes and heroines, like Sylvia and the minister, but there are also criminals like Larry and lackeys like a minister that Mrs. Stafford supports, who tries to encourage the African American population to reject voting privileges. Mr. Gridlestone's servant Efram attempts ingratiate himself with the local white population by denouncing Mr. Landry as the murderer, even though he did not actually see the crime committed. Though he celebrates his relationship with the white community, he is eventually lynched, when the mob fails to find the Landrys.

As a novelist, Micheaux recognizes the complexity of African American life, particularly in the Deep South, but he is reluctant to place the onus of blame for the impoverished condition of Blacks solely on the white population, and points to other Blacks who help to perpetuate their condition for reasons of personal gain.

The making of Within Our Gates

Within Our Gates was the second of some forty films directed by Micheaux and the most controversial. Made with a limited budget of just $15,000, he was forced to bborrow costumes and props, and there was no opportunity to reshoot scenes. Furthermore, the story is convoluted, with many unresolved threads. Nevertheless, it is an important document of African American life in the years immediately following World War I, when racism was rampant throughout the United States.

Two events spurred the film's creation: the release of D. W. Griffith's classic The Birth of a Nation four years earlier, with its heroic portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan saving the South; and the Chicago Race Riot of 1919. It was banned in Chicago when it was released, the authorities claiming that the vivid lynch and rape scenes would spark further rioting in the racially tense city. Nevertheless, when it was finally released, large audiences lined up to see it.

Some critics also challenged what they considered to be the inherent racism that Micheaux displays in the film. In addition to his scathing critique of Black society, Micheaux seemed to prefer lighter-skinned Blacks as his heroes and heroines, and may have modelled Sylvia after characters played by Lillian Gish. In fact, Evelyn Preer, who played Sylvia, was instructed to wear chalk on her face to make herself appear lighter-skinned, and she and the other positive characters appear to be attempting to "pass" as white.

Critics also question Micheaux's skill as a film-maker, calling his plots "strange" and comparing him unfavorably with Ed Wood. Yet, despite its many shortcomings, Within Our Gates has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry.