Donald Bogle, the author of the book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Film, provides an important framework for comparing and contrasting the portrayal of African Americans. Although Bogle was mainly looking at the character types created for Africa American actors, I believe his five character types also reveal how white filmmakers and Micheaux thought similarly and differently about depicting black people. Therefore, this essay will focus on how each filmmaker viewed the Uncle Tom and the Black Buck for the sake of analyzing the “villains” and “church folks” in each film.
In Within Our Gates, the Uncle Tom of the story is unequivocally Uncle Ned, while the ex-conman Reverend Jenkins
In Within Our Gates, the Uncle Tom of the story is unequivocally Uncle Ned, while the ex-conman Reverend Jenkins