African Americans In The Media

1 Pages 333 Words

“African American Portrayals in the Entertainment Media”
The entertainment media as we know it started in 1891 when The Edison Company successfully demonstrated the Kinetoscope. The first film to tell a complete story was Georges Milieus’ “A Trip to the Moon”. Soon there were many motion pictures. It wasn’t until 1941 that television came to America and along with motion pictures formed the entertainment media as we know it. Early motion pictures and television shows depicted African Americans very negatively. It wasn’t until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that African Americans began to be viewed by the entertainment media in a positive way.
In 1915 D.W. Griffith released the motion picture “The Birth of a Nation”. In this motion picture African Americans were portrayed as sex crazed rapists that raped white women. Negative portrayals of African Americans in the entertainment media continued for decades. The first African American woman to win an Academy Award was Hattie McDaniel for her role in “Gone with the Wind” in which she played a stereotypical domestic. The “Amos n’ Andy” television show which aired in the 1950’s showed many African American stereotypes. The characters lived in a world that was separate but equal from whites. The Civil Rights Act helped reshape the entertainment media.
The show “Good Times” was the first prime time show about an African American family that had a mother and father. At the 36th annual Academy Awards Sidney Portier became the first African American to win the Best Actor award for his role in “Lilies of the Field”. The most watched television show ever was “Roots”. “Roots” was a mini series that depicted life as an African American slave. At the 74th annual Academy Awards both the Best Actor and Best Actress Awards were won by African Americans. The Best Actor award went to Denzel Washington for “Training Day” and the Best Actress award went t...