Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks : an interpretive history of Blacks in American films / by Donald Bogle.

a list of Illustrations can be found (pages xvii-xviii) and include several plates of famous Black actors including Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier and Lena Horne among others.

Includes an index (pages 247 - 260).

1. Black beginnings : from 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' to 'Birth of a Nation' / The tom -- The coon -- The tragic mulatto -- The mammy -- The brutal Black buck and the 'Birth of a Nation' --

2. Intro the 1920s : the jesters /

3. The 1930's : the servants / High-steppin' sir steppin -- Waiting on west and serving Shirley -- Mr. Bojangles : the cool-eyed tom -- Clarence muse : the inhibited, humanized Tom standing in a corner by himself -- 'Imitation of Life' : mother knows best -- Iridescent Fredi : black girl in search of a Black role -- Louise Beavers : the Black guardian angel -- 'The Green Pastures' -- Rex Ingram : first of the freed Black men -- Stepin's step chillun -- Rochester : the gentleman's gentleman -- Hi hat Hattie -- 'Gone with the Wind' : Black realities and the end of a tradition -- Paul Robesson : the Black colossus --

4. The Interlude : Black-market cinema / Oscar Micheaux --

5. The 1940's : the entertainers, the new negroes, and the problem people / The Entertainers -- Hazel Scott : miss proper middle-class lady -- Lena Horne : Black beauty in residence -- 'Cabin in the Sky' -- 'Stormy Weather' -- Bits and pieces of Black action -- 'Song of the South' -- The new negroes : an interim -- The problem people -- 'Home of the Brave' and the postwar good sensitive negro -- Lost boundaries' tragic mulattoes -- Pinky's tragic mulatto and its strong Black woman -- 'Intruder in the Dust' and the defiantly proud Black man --

6. The 1950's : Black stars / Ethel Waters : Earth mother for an alienated age -- Dorothy Dandridge : apotheosis of the mulatto -- Sidney Poitier : hero for an integrationist age -- Black odds and ends --

7. The 1960's : Problem people into militants / Steps forward -- Black art films -- A step backward : Ossie Davis and 'Gone are the Days' -- A ong the road, in Harlem, and on the subway -- Way down in de new ole south with Tom-Tom, Miss Bronze Barbie doll, and Ms. Militant mammy -- 'A man Called Adam' and the son of sunshine sammy -- Super Sidney of the 1960's -- Jim Brown : Black buck hero for a seperatist age -- the new style Black film --

Epilogue : the 1970 onward.

"From the 1914 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' to Jim Brown, Diana Sands, and Melvin Van Peebles, black actors and actresses have had movie roles reflecting the current status of their race in this country. Usually whites determined their status; now Blacks themselves often have something to say about it. Donald Beagles, 'compelled to interpret the past from my own point of view, that of a Black looking at other Black's in motion pictures," has for this book screened and researched every film he could find in which Black actors have appeared, from a 1905 short titled 'Wooing and Wedding of a Coon' through 'Birth of a Nation', 'Our Gang', 'Gone With the Wind', 'St. Louis Blues', 'Imitation of Life', 'Carmen Jones' to 'Dutchman', 'In the Heat of the Night', and 'Putney Swope'. He points out the actors of these films often transcended their stereotyped roles, showing that the white man's script couldn't keep them in their place. Mae West's Belulah, Shirley Temple's Stepin Fetchit, Jack Benny's Rochester, Vivien Leigh's Butterfly McQueen and Hattie McDaniel - on screen as in real life the Blacks amused, served, and protected the whites. But the rich individuality of these Black players kept asserting itself, and they distinguished themselves through their interpretations, invigorating the servant era of films with their idiosyncrasies and style. Meanwhile there was a separate history of films made by Blacks for Blacks that paralleled often imitated, Hollywood. Mr. Bogle also traces the little known story of this 'Ghetto Cinema'. Through the movie years, Bogle stakes out the gradually expanding areas that Black players were to inhabit - with, of course, the approval of the white filmmakers: Hazel Scott, 'Miss Proper middle class-lady,' as Bogle calls her; Lena Horne, 'Black beauty on residence'; all-black spectacles made with white money, such as 'Cabin in the Sky' and 'Stormy Weather'; the 'problem movies', 'Home of the Brave' and 'Pinky', which were about 'problems that seldom come close to the real thing; Dorothy Dandridge, 'Apotheosis of the mulatoo', Sidney Poitier, 'Hero for an integrationist age'. Then he proceeds to recent movies about Black militants or Blacks who simply assert themselves against a white-dominated world. Throughout this lively, well-documented history-which includes many photographs - Bogle reminds us that, whatever the material, it is up to Black actors and filmmakers to make the most of it, to come to terms with its reality and to 'liberate us from illusions, black and white.'" --from book jacket

This resource contains language regarding the history of race relations in America. Some patrons may find the stereotypical language reflects white supremacist power dynamics or may otherwise find the content triggering/upsetting.