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Significant Classic Films With African-American Stars or Racial Themes

Here are some significant classic films with African-American actors or racial themes, with links to help you find the films on DVD or VHS, if available. Several have been newly released on DVD. See the end of this list for a brand new complilation of what were once known as "race" films.

* Uncle Tom's Cabin (1914-silent) featured the first Black actor in a starring role. Remade in 1927.

* Body & Soul (1925-silent) was Paul Robeson's first movie role.

* The Emperor Jones (1933) starred Paul Robeson and was based on the play by Eugene O'Neill.

* The Green Pastures (1936) featured an all-black cast in a fable of life in heaven, directed by Marc Connelly.

* Tales of Manhattan (1942), made with an all-star cast, was later denounced by star Paul Robeson and others as racially demeaning for its final segment.

* Cabin in the SkyStormy Weather (1943) was an all-Black musical starring Lena Horne, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and a cast of great jazz musicians.

* Cabin in the Sky (1943), a filmed Broadway musical with an all-star Black cast, was directed by Vincent Minelli (Liza's dad).

* Pinky (1949) is the story of a young Black woman passing as white, played by Jeanne Crain. A tear-jerker with good performances.

* No Way Out (1950) was Sidney Poitier's second movie, a brilliant but controversial film in which he played a doctor and Richard Widmark portrayed a racist psychopath.

* Carmen Jones (1954), a Black musical adaptation of Bizet's Carmen by Oscar Hammerstein, earned Dorothy Dandridge an Oscar nomination, the first ever for a bi-racial actress.

* Island in the Sun (1957) had a kissing scene between Joan Fontaine and Harry Belafonte cut because of exhibitor pressure.

* Tamango (1959) starred Dorothy Dandridge and was initially banned in the U.S. because of its interracial romance.

* Imitation of Life (1959) earned Juanita Moore a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination for her role as the mother of a girl trying to pass for white in this second version of the Fannie Hurst tear-jerker that was Lana Turner's comeback film. The 1934 version, starring Claudette Colbert, featured Louise Beavers in the role of the mother.

* Otto Preminger's Porgy and Bess (1959) won a Golden Globe award for Best Musical and an Oscar for Best Music. The all-star cast included Dorothy Dandridge as Bess and a reluctant Sidney Poitier as Porgy. Sammy Davis, Jr. and Pearl Bailey were also stand-outs. Unfortunately out of print.

* A Raisin in the Sun (1961), based on the Lorraine Hansbury novel, was one of the high points of this history. The great cast included Sidney Poitier, Ruby Dee, Louis Gossett, Jr., and Ivan Dixon.

* Lillies of the Field (1963) resulted in Sidney Poitier's celebrated first Oscar for a Black actor. Not a "message" film, but nevertheless one that had an impact owing to Poitier's excellent performance and his casting as the only Black man in an otherwise all-white cast.

* Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? (1967) may seem a little dated today, but at the time it had a pretty strong message, particularly in terms of the attitudes of the two fathers, played wonderfully by Roy E. Glenn, Sr. and Spencer Tracy, in his final film role. Of course, Hepburn (who won a Best Actress Oscar) and Poitier are great, as always. One of the three Poitier films that were the three top boxoffice hits of 1967, along with To Sir, With Love and In the Heat of the Night.

* The Great White Hope (1970) was a breakthrough film in many ways, starring James Earl Jones as a powerful Black fighter who stood up to the white establishment at every turn.

* Shaft (1971) was the first film to which the term "blaxploitation" was applied, but if a strong Black lead character and a Black director were exploitative, it was a good kind of exploitation. The soundtrack by Isaac Hayes was perhaps even more significant for its impact on popular music.

* Treasures Of Black CinemaTreasures Of Black Cinema, Vol. 1 - Shaft star Richard Roundtree hosts this presentation of four "race films" produced specifically for black movie houses and black audiences. First, cowpokes Herbert Jeffrey, Lucius Brooks and Artie Young star in the musical sagebrush saga The Bronze Buckaroo (1939). Next, Nina Mae McKinney essays the title role of a phony voodoo high priestess in The Devil's Daughter (1939). With Ida James. Then, mobsters wage a Gang War (1940) over the profits from jukeboxes in New York. Ralph Cooper, Gladys Snyder star. Finally, a radio station page boy and his pal, a black porter, get the chance of a lifetime when the station's stars are killed during their broadcasts, in Up in the Air (1940). Frankie Darro, Marjorie Reynolds and Mantan Moreland star. 4 hrs. total. Standard; Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital mono.