Almost four decades before Spike Lee was born in Georgia, pioneer independent film producer, writer, and director Oscar Micheaux was the first African American to produce a silent feature film in 1919 and the first to produce a talking picture in 1931. Oscar was born near the Ohio River on January 2, 1884 in Masaac County about four miles east of what were then the city limits of Metropolis, Illinois. He was one of eleven children of former slaves who had come north across the Ohio River from Kentucky after the Civil War. Metropolis is northwest of Paducah, Kentucky on the south shore of the river.
The family name was French but friends of the family say they pronounced the name in English as if it were "Me-Shaw." When Oscar was a child, the Micheaux family managed a small family farm in Masaac County. Just by moving across the river to Illinois that had been a free state, the Micheaux family felt more free than they did in Kentucky where their former masters lived. Oscar's mother was very dedicated volunteer worker at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Metropolis and she was the dominant parent in the life of her children. His low-key father supervised Oscar's older brothers in what we now call a truck farming business only then the produce went in horse-drawn wagons.
Family members grew, transported to market, and sold all kinds of vegetables such as carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, radishes, pumpkins, and other fresh produce. They also raised chickens. Oscar was considered the best salesman of the family and he was frequently sent to central Metropolis where he learned to compliment his customers and promote his products.
Mrs. Micheaux moved the children inside the city limits of Metropolis so that they could attend better schools. Oscar did very well in Metropolis public schools. As a teen-ager, his hero was Booker T. Washington and he read and re-read Washington's book, Up From Slavery, which had been published in 1901. His other hero was Abraham Lincoln. It was a trademark of Micheaux films to see a picture of Lincoln hanging on the wall in most of the interior movie scenes. Oscar lost his older brother Lawrence when Lawrence served with the colored volunteers of Company C of the 8th Illinois infantry. Lawrence was with a detachment under the command of Col. Theodore Roosevelt at the battle of San Juan Hill in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. But Lawrence died of typhoid fever rather than wounds inflicted by the enemy. Deaths from disease in Cuba were more common than deaths from battle. The family moved to Kansas about 1901 when Oscar was 17 due to the inheritance of some acres from his great uncle on his father's side. As a young man, Oscar worked as a Pullman Car porter and later for himself on 500 acres he bought in South Dakota. He was always interested in buying real estate.
During his film career, Oscar wrote, directed, or produced about 44 movies between 1919 and 1948. Many explored the conflicts of black life in a white society but always portrayed positive role models for blacks. Oscar lived in Great Bend, Kansas and the last 25 years of his life spent a lot of time writing books and films in Harlem. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He also wrote several topical books on social issues and race relations. Oscar Micheaux died on March 25, 1951 in Charlotte, North Carolina and he is buried in Kansas. For a list of the major films of Oscar Micheaux, readers may visit his page on the Internet Movie Data Base.
