"The author of The Butler and Showdown examines 100 years of Black movies--using the struggles and triumphs of the artists, and the films themselves, as a prism to explore Black culture and the civil rights movement in America. Beginning in 1915 with D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation--which glorified the Ku Klux Klan and became Hollywood's first blockbuster--Wil Haygood gives us an incisive, fascinating, little-known history, spanning more than...

"A visual feast, these images recount the diverse and historic journey of the black film industry from the earliest days of Hollywood to present day. Accompanied by insightful accompanying text, a foreword by black history authority and renowned academic Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and an afterword by acclaimed film director Spike Lee. Part aesthetic, part nostalgic, the posters have meaning to young and old alike, and possess the power to transcend ethnicity....

"African American westerns have a rich cinematic history and visual culture. Mia Mask examines the African American western hero within the larger context of film history by considering how Black westerns evolved and approached wide-ranging goals. Woody Strode's 1950s transformation from football star to actor was the harbinger of hard-edged western heroes later played by Jim Brown and Fred Williamson. Sidney Poitier's Buck and the Preacher provided...