
The earliest surviving feature film by a Black director, and one of the most important rediscoveries in American cinema. Oscar Micheaux made this as a direct response to Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, and he pulls no punches. Sylvia Landry, an educated Black woman carrying deep trauma, fights to keep a school for Black children from closing. But Micheaux's ambitions are far larger than one storyline — the film confronts lynching, racial violence, political corruption, and the complexities of Black life in America with an unflinching honesty that Hollywood wouldn't touch for decades. Nearly lost to history, the film was recovered in Spain in the 1990s. To watch it is to hear a voice that the industry tried to silence, speaking with extraordinary clarity.
The earliest surviving feature film by a Black director, and one of the most important rediscoveries in American cinema. Oscar Micheaux made this as a direct response to Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, and he pulls no punches. Sylvia Landry, an educated Black woman carrying deep trauma, fights to keep a school for Black children from closing. But Micheaux's ambitions are far larger than one storyline — the film confronts lynching, racial violence, political corruption, and the complexities of Black life in America with an unflinching honesty that Hollywood wouldn't touch for decades. Nearly lost to history, the film was recovered in Spain in the 1990s. To watch it is to hear a voice that the industry tried to silence, speaking with extraordinary clarity.

Evelyn Preer
Sylvia Landry

Flo Clements
Alma Prichard

James D. Ruffin
Conrad Drebert - Sylvia's Fiancé

Jack Chenault
Larry Prichard - Alma's Stepbrother

Charles D. Lucas
Dr. V. Vivian

Bernice Ladd
Mrs. Geraldine Stratton

Mrs. Evelyn
Mrs. Elena Warwick

William Starks
Jasper Landry

Mattie Edwards
Jasper's Wife

E.G. Tatum
Efram - Gridlestone's Servant

Grant Edwards
Emil Landry

Grant Gorman
Armand Gridlestone

William Smith
Philip Gentry - A Detective

Ralph Johnson
Philip Gridlestone

Leigh Whipper
writer