Toms, coons, mulattoes, mammies, and bucks: an interpretive history of Blacks in American films

Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Black beginnings : from Uncle Tom's Cabin to The Birth of a Nation -- The tom -- The coon -- The tragic mulatto -- The mammy -- The brutal black buck and The Birth of a Nation -- 2. Into the 1920s : the jesters -- 3. The 1930s : the servants -- High-steppin' Sir Stepin -- 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 : romanticizing black realities and the end of a tradition -- Paul Robeson : the black colossus -- 4. The interlude : black-market cinema -- Oscar Micheaux -- 5. The 1940s : 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 1950s : 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 1960s : problem people into militants -- Steps forward -- Black art films -- A step backward : Ossie Davis and Gone are the Days -- Along 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 Sammy Davis, Jr.'s bid for movie stardom -- Super Sidney of the 1960s -- Jim Brown : black buck hero for a separatist age -- The new-style black film --

8. The 1970s : bucks and a black movie boom

Preludes

Melvin Van Peebles : the black movie director as folk hero

Shaft : he's a badd mother : shut your mouth

Super Fly : mixed messages

The jock as movie star

Lady Sings the Blues : black stars, black romance

Sounder

Sidney strikes again

Superbadd, Supermama

Sisters in distress

Other films, other voices

Richard Pryor : the crazy nigger as conquering hero

The Wiz

9. The 1980s : black superstars and the era of tan

Holding up the fort

Dramatic possibilities

Buddy buddy

Richard Pryor, superstar : the ups and downs

Trading Places : Eddie Murphy

A Soldier's Story

Say it with music

Different directions

Women : as exotics and non-racials

A controversy about color

Whipping Whoopi

Independents

Hollywood and the race theme

Burning history : the white man's burden

The Bird doesn't fly

Focusing on apartheid

Bringing history to light : Glory

Denzel Washington : on the road to stardom

Driving Miss Daisy : the matter of perspective

Morgan Freeman : the long journey to get there

Other films

Sidney returns

Closing the era on the right note

10. The 1990s : new stars, new filmmakers, and a new African American cinema

The good, the bad, the bonded, the typed

Whoopi's back

An emerging new African American cinema

Charles Burnett : a new career direction

A breakthorugh year

New Jack movies

A Black New Wave

John Singleton's South Central

Rising from the dust

More by Spike

Other new directors and films

Carl Franklin : film noir from another point of view

Actresses in search of roles

Waiting to Exhale : reaching the black female audience

Angela Bassett : still holding her breath

Whtiney Houston : pop goddess turned movie star

Post-Exhale women

Oprah's opus : Beloved

Movies for the smart youg hip crowd : love jones and Love and Basketball

New actors

Eddie Murphy : all grown up, looking for a place to go

Laurence Fishburne : from child actor to leading man

Wesley Snipes : action hero

Character actors turned stars : Morgan Freeman and Samuel L. Jackson

Denzel Washington : leading man, occasional romantic hero, enduring superstar

Throwbacks to the past

11. The new century, the new millennium : old types, new stars, new filmmakers, re-examinations of the past

Seems like old times, old types

Denzel Washington : still at the top despite a rogue cop

Halle Berry comes of age

Royalty's rocky reign : Queen Latifah

Chris Rock trying to rock the boat

Crash & Hustle & Flow

Music stars in pursuit of movie stardom

Outsiders coming in : T.D. Jakes and Tyler Perry

Inter-ethnic casting

Oscar time

Will Smith : oscar nominee, megastar, movie disappointments

2006 : Forest Whitaker, a big year

Big dreams : Dreamgirls

Women on the rise : new roles

A long time in the making

Count Ms Davis in

Precious and Lee Daniels' gothic cinema of excess

Directors, veterans and newcomers

Another decade : re-examining the past

History, slavery, and plantation dramas

Other films : other re-examinations.