- The oldest surviving film made by an African-American director and a shocking rebuttal to The Birth of a Nation, Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates depicts the life story of a woman named Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer), who has devoted her life to educating her fellow African-Americans. After some unexpected shenanigans involving her cousin Alma (Floy Clements), Sylvia's suitor (James D. Ruffin), and Alma's no-good stepbrother (Jack Chenault), Sylvia sets off to raise funds for a struggling school. While in Boston, she saves the life of a young child and meets the impressive Dr. Vivian (Charles D. Lucas) and a wealthy white donor (Mrs. Evelyn) who is intelligent enough to ignore the advice of her unrepentantly racist southern companion (Bernice Ladd).
- But that's really only half of Sylvia's story. The other half, told in a completely surprising and effective flashback, deals with the traumatic murder of her parents (William Starks, Mattie Edwards) at the hands of a raging white mob. After her father's boss Gridlestone (Ralph Johnson) was killed by one of his white workers, a gossiping servant (E. G. Tatum) spread the word that Sylvia's father was the culprit. Although her family fled into the woods, the mob eventually chased them down and lynched her parents. Sylvia would have been killed and raped as well, if not for the discovery by Gridlestone's brother (Grant Gorman) that Sylvia was actually his daughter! The film ends with Dr. Vivian marrying Sylvia, who the audience now appreciates is lucky to have survived the events of her earlier life.
- I will admit to being absolutely astonished at some of the details and themes that were included in Within Our Gates. The biggest surprise for me was certainly that the film implicated a submissive reverend (Leigh Whipper) in the subjugation of his people, a sin that even the two-faced preacher recognizes once he's done prostrating himself before the local white politicians. Also amazing is the film's frank acknowledgement that white men were known to father children with their black servants, most likely without consent. Equally striking, although perhaps not surprising, is the film's unflinching look at racist mob violence, which ends up taking the life of one of their own and Gridlestone's servant before it even gets to Sylvia's innocent parents. And then there's the fact that the average southern woman is opposed to women's rights in addition to the voting enfranchisement and education of African-Americans. I'd love to tell you that these situations have all improved dramatically over the past 100 years, but I just can't.
