Spike Lee and John Singleton are great—and significant—but neither blazed the trail or overcame the odds that the Father of African-American Cinema did. Indeed, they owe their careers to him, though few of the folk who go to see movies today even know who he is, or that he, a black man born less than 20 years after the Civil War, was an innovator and major influence in American cinema.

According to Wikipedia , “The Producers Guild of America called him “The most prolific black – if not most prolific independent – filmmaker in American cinema.” During his illustrious career, Oscar Micheaux wrote, produced and directed forty-four feature-length films between 1919 and 1948 and wrote seven novels, one of which was a national bestseller.”

Oscar Micheaux, the child of former slaves, and king of independent cinema, was born in 1884, in Metropolis, Illinois. One of 13 children, Oscar left home for the big city of Chicago at the age of 17. He was able to get one of the only good jobs available to black men at that time, a Pullman porter. Constantly thinking of a way in which he could make change, he became a big fan of Booker T. Washington and the “Go West” pioneer philosophy of Horace Greeley. Micheaux saved his money and purchased 320-acres of land in Gregory County, South Dakota, in 1905.

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The responsibility of African Americans to make the choice for freedom is pivotal for the experience and opportunity of succeeding generations.  Our society and the world overall are in the midst of significant and rapid change.  These are the circumstances within which African Americans are seeking emergence for now and the future.  African Americans cannot prepare the next generation for these changes by simply dispensing guidance such as “make good choices and you will be successful in this world.” 

These are false promises.  For one thing, more than those words will be necessary for success in this complex, changing world.  Most importantly, African American adults cannot tell the next generation to make “good choices” when the adults fail to make the “good choice” for freedom based on a relationship with human effectiveness.  Without the adult choice for freedom, succeeding generations may be designated as the new “bearers of the Torch” but they will lack the availability of “good choices” with which to grow, be free and carry that “Torch.”  Tragically, the future for these young people may well be a sentence to an “enslavement” created more by a failure of the African American adult generation of this time to make a choice for freedom than  by factors such as continuing unfair treatment, bigotry, or ignorance in our society.

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PhotoBuzz: The Statue of LIberty is silhouetted by the sunset. Photograph: Dan Callister, Pacificcoastnews.com.

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Using culture as a lens to view the black community, the African American Lectionary project in the USA is providing a one-of-a-kind technological resource designed for and by African American preachers, educators and worship leaders.

The lectionary, which draws together biblical and liturgical resources for local congregations in America, has been given a particular boost in Black History Week. It is the brainchild of the Rev Martha Simmons, who also provides leadership for the country’s only African American preaching journal, The African American Pulpit.

The online lectionary contains more than 3,000 pages of free and unique material, ranging from audio of Langston Hughes actually reading one of his most famous works, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers”, the origins of Kwanzaa as explained by its creator, Maulana Karenga, to more than 50 video recordings that present the African American journey in America.

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PhotoBuzz: (Seeing is Believing) — A woman walks past stained glass windows depicting historical African American women leaders after a Sunday church service in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

Kathleen Wells: Okay, let me start by asking you some specifics about President Obama’s first year. We know he’s completed his first year, and I know you’ve been a critic — or rather, I’d like to say, you’ve critically analyzed his campaign and his presidency. How do you feel that his first year has impacted the black community specifically and America as a whole?

Dr. Cornel West: Well, I think on a symbolic level I would give him an A in terms of uplifting the spirits and providing a sense of hope and possibility going into the inauguration and sustaining it up to a certain point.

On a substantial level I would give him a C- when it comes to policy, when it comes to priority, when it comes to focusing on poor people and working people — which has to do with the vast majority of black people — that he has really not come through in any substantial and significant way. We’ve got an interesting dynamic going on that at a symbolic level you’ve got this tremendous impact that is beginning now to run out of gas and on a substantial level, the C- — jobs, homes, education, health care — he has not been able to come through, and so he’s at a very pivotal moment in terms of black people. He can no longer take the black base for granted.