Movies with Alabama Connections: Birthright (1939)

I recorded this film when it appeared on TCM a few months ago, and recently got around to watching it. Here's what I found.

Our story begins with Alabama author T.S. Stribling and his 1922 novel Birthright. Although born in Tennessee, Stribling spent some of his early life in Lauderdale County on the farm of his maternal grandparents. He graduated from college at what is now the University of North Alabama and from the University of Alabama School of Law in 1907. 

Stribling moved to Nashville and set up practicing law. Before long he was writing magazine articles and doing newspaper reporting in Chattanooga. In 1917 his first novel, Cruise of the Dry Dock was published, and Birthright followed five years later after first appearing in seven parts in Century Magazine. Before his death in Florence in 1965 he had published 16 novels, many articles and dozens of detective, science fiction and adventure stories in various pulp magazines.

His best known work is probably The Store, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. The novel was the middle work of a trilogy; the other two are The Forge (1930) and Unfinished Cathedral (1934). Set in the Florence-Lauderdale County area in the antebellum period, the works deal with subjects and injustices that displeased local residents. Despite the trilogy's international success, Stribling did not return to Florence for many years.

Birthright is the story of mulatto Peter Siner who leaves his small hometown in Tennessee to get an education at Harvard. He returns with high hopes of building a school for black children and initiating changes between blacks and whites, but is unable to overcome prejudices supporting the status quo. He eventually relocates north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

Two years after Birthright appeared in book form, African-American novelist and filmmaker Oscar Micheaux made his first film version. This silent film is currently presumed lost. Between 1919 and 1948 Micheaux made numerous films; he was perhaps the most important African-American filmmaker in the U.S. in the first half of the 20th century. Largely forgotten by the time he died in 1951, Michaeux's life and work have attracted wide interest in recent years. 

The subject of Stribling's novel obviously interested Michaeux, who returned to it in 1939. Although crude by modern standards, the film is an earnest and fascinating portrait of a young man far ahead of his time--much like Michaeux himself. Upon his return to his hometown, Peter Siner is immediately taken advantage of by a local banker, much to the amusement of local whites and the chagrin of Siner's friends. The incident just confirms the prejudices of many whites about black abilities.

Throughout the film, Siner retains his dignity despite the frustrations of his hopes and goals. The film explores relations in the black community, including romantic ones, as well as the ways in which whites and blacks dealt with each other in the South during the Jim Crow era. 

I can understand why the black actors appeared in this film. Beyond the obvious reason of employment, these performers knew of Micheaux who was well established by 1939. The real puzzle is the white actors who played racist Southerners; why did they do it? I can imagine friends and relatives might not have been pleased if they found out. But then such a film would not be marketed to whites or seen by many. 

Like all silent and early sound films, the 1939 Birthright will seem crude by today's standards or even when compared to the slick Hollywood productions of the day. But Micheaux's film raises important issues and offers fascinating glimpses of the society in which it was filmed. 

 

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama

Title page and two of the several illustrations from Stribling's novel.

Source: Internet Archive

Two scenes from the film

Oscar Micheaux [1884-1951]

Source: Wikipedia

U.S. postage stamp issued in 2010

Movies with Alabama Connections: Symbol of the Unconquered

Oscar Micheaux was born on a farm in Illinois in 1884, the fifth of thirteen children in the family. By the time of his death in 1951 he had written seven novels, and between 1919 and 1948 he also wrote, directed and produced 44 silent and sound films. He created the first black-owned film company and is considered the most important black filmmaker in America in the first half of the 20th century.

Only three of his 24 silent films are known to survive, the one discussed here released in 1920, Within Our Gates [1920] and Body and Soul [1925]. Symbol was restored a few years ago from the only known surviving print, but some of it is still missing. The film is available on a five-disc set, Pioneers of African-American Cinema. I saw it recently on Turner Classic Movies. I've also written a blog post on one of Micheaux's sound films, Birthright [1939], which was based on Alabama author T.S. Stribling's novel The Store. 

Symbol opens as Eve Mason leaves her home in Selma, Alabama, and heads to the Pacific Northwest. She has inherited property from her grandfather and thus has become a part of the Great Migration of blacks out of the south into other areas of the country that lasted from about 1916 until 1970. Most moved to urban areas, but Eve moves to property outside a small place, Oristown.

Eve soon meets her neighbor, a young prospector named Hugh Van Allen. He helps her get settled and comes to her rescue when she needs him. The film is a mix of themes: a "white-skinned" black [Eve] trying to fit somewhere, land thieves, a black man who hates all members of his race, and the good man [Hugh] who becomes wealthy, and the couple in love [Eve and Hugh] finally together in the end. There's even a nighttime raid by a Northwest version of the KKK, the Knights of the Black Cross. A more detailed summary of the story can be found here. 

This film is worth watching for several reasons, not the least of which is the all-percussion musical score composed for the restored version by legendary jazz drummer Max Roach. In Symbol as in his other films Micheaux tries to tell an interesting story with a variety of black characters who are not stereotypes. In the two I have seen, he succeeded. This film, released November 29, 1920, was filmed in Fort Lee, New Jersey, the center of the American commercial film industry until everything moved west. 

Some more comments are below. 

Newspaper advertisement for the film

Source: Wikipedia

That subtitle may have been included to gather attention, since the surrogate Klan group is not really a major presence in this film. The Klan did appear in Oregon in the early 1920's as the group began it's "second wave" resurgence. 

Neighbor Hugh Van Allen helps Eve get settled in the tiny cabin on her grandfather's land. 

Just above the bed in the cabin is a portrait of Booker T. Washington

Eve Mason and Hugh Van Allen declare their love for each other by the end of the film. 

Alabama Book Covers (8): T.S. Stribling

As a writer of fiction, Thomas Sigismund Stribling led two lives. The Tennessee native wrote 16 novels, including a trio set in the Florence, Alabama, area, and spanning the antebellum era into the twentieth century. The second novel of those three, The Store, won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1933. Oddly, his second novel, Birthright, was turned into a silent movie in 1924 by pioneer black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux. Michieaux made a sound version in 1939. 

Before his first novel was published in 1917, Stribling wrote numerous "Sunday-school stories" for religious publications. He also began writing boys' adventure stories and later some science fiction and westerns and many detective short stories. He continued writing stories even as the novels appeared. A number of the detective stories featured Professor Henry Poggioli. 

Stribling was the first Alabama author to win a Pulitzer for literature; the only other one is Harper Lee. Stribling is said to have sold more books between the too World Wars than such giants as Hemingway and Faulkner. He died in Florence in 1965. The University of North Alabama Archives site has much information about his life and the manuscript materials they house.

Various covers of Stribling novels and collections and magazine issues with his stories can be seen below. 

T.S. Stribling [1881-1965]

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama 

 Lobby card for the 1939 film by Oscar Micheaux

Source: Getty 

This March 1927 issue contains a reprint of Stribling's story "The Green Splotches" first published in a 1920 issue of Adventure. A recent blog post has a lengthy discussion of the story.

Source: Wikipedia