Born in Metropolis, Illinois, in 1884, Oscar Micheaux worked as a stockyard hand, steel mill worker, Pullman porter and homesteader in South Dakota, and published novels before founding the Micheaux Film & Book Company in Sioux City, Iowa. He made more than forty silent and sound films and is regarded as the first major African-American feature filmmaker. The Depression ended his film production, and he returned to writing. Body and Soul (1925) was selected for the National Film Registry in 2019. He died in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1951.
Filmography
- The Homesteader (1919)
- Within Our Gates (1920)
- Body and Soul (1925)
- The House Behind the Cedars (1927)