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Within Our Gates
· Black and white, silent · Running time: 79 minutes
Producer and Director: Oscar Micheaux Screenplay: Oscar Micheaux Distributor: Micheaux Book and Film Company
Cast:
Sylvia Landry........................... Evelyn Preer Alma Prichard.......................... Flo Clements Conrad Drebert......................... James D. Ruffin Larry Prichard.......................... Jack Chenault Detective Philip Gentry.................. .William Smith Dr. V. Vivian.......................... Charles D. Lucas Mrs. Geraldine Stratton................... Bernice Ladd Mrs. Elena Warwick..................... .Mrs. Evelyn Jasper Landry.......................... .William Stark Jasper's Wife........................... Mattie Edwards Philip Gridlestone....................... Ralph Johnson Efram, Gridlestone's Servant............... .E. G. Tatum Emil Landry............................ Grant Edwards Armand Gridlestone...................... Grant Gorman
The Story: is actually four stories, two set in the North and two in the South.
The consistent character throughout all four stories is Sylvia Landry. Within Our Gates is her story.
The first northern story involves Sylvia Landry; her cousin, Alma Prichard; Prichard‘s stepbrother Larry, a criminal; Conrad, Landry‘s fiancée when the story opens. (15 min.)
The first southern story follows Sylvia's work as a schoolteacher at a school in Piney Woods founded by Rev. Wilson Jacobs and his sister. (5 min.)
The second northern story's principal characters are Sylvia Landry; Dr. V. Vivian; Mrs. Elena Warwick, a wealthy white philanthropist; Mrs. Geraldine Stratton, a southern white woman who is visiting Boston; Old Ned, a black preacher. (24 min.)
The second southern story is that of Sylvia Landry; her mother, father, and younger brother; a white plantation owner, Philip Gridlestone and his brother, Armand; Efram, a black man who secretly relays information about the black families on the plantation to Gridlestone; and the white townspeople. ( min.)
00:00-01:40 --– explanation of the reconstruction of "Within Our Gates" – The film was unavailable and considered lost for over 70 years. Where was a copy of the film located? How was this film reconstructed?
02:03 How does the film’s opening title card describe race relations in the North?
02:17-12:27 The film opens in the North with Sylvia Landry living in the home of her cousin, Alma Prichard, and awaiting her fiancée’s return from his work in Canada.
In the viewer’s first introduction to Sylvia Landry, what do we learn about her? What is she doing? Pay attention to the setting and the dress: where is she? How is she dressed? How is the room furnished? Think about the photographs Du Bois assembled for the Paris exhibition: what were the visual symbols of respectability, education, and status in those photographs? in the opening of this film? Who is Conrad Drebert: what do we learn about him from this opening? Think about Micheaux's own life and his first film as they help you understand the image of Conrad, Overall, what are the visual elements that are important to our understanding of the characters? Are there any things that seem contradictory when comparing the visual representations to what else you learn about any of the characters? Micheaux presents a number of views on black life in the North; are there any aspects of his depiction to which1920s black film critics or community leaders might object?
12:27-15:12 -- Conrad arrives in the city
How does Micheaux then complicate our understanding of Conrad Drebert?
15:15 – Some time later. [A scene is missing in which Conrad leaves for his position in Brazil, having refused to hear Sylvia’s explanation.] Then the story moves South.
Micheaux sets the stage for the southern parts of this story with this title card. When you have a sense of the whole film, return to this and consider what Micheaux means by “far from all civilization,” to whom does he refer when he speaks of “ignorance”? How might the audiences seeing Micheaux’s film in 1920 have a different idea about this at the end of the film than at this point in the viewing? How might black and white audiences have understood this title card differently?
24:47 Micheaux has already introduced Sylvia Landry as heroic in her devotion to improving the education of black southerners. We see her as heroic in other ways as well.
28:18 The home of Mrs. Elena Warwick
What do we learn about Mrs. Warwick from her home? From her meeting with Sylvia in the hospital and in her home?
30:15 Why does Mrs. Warwick seek Mrs. Stratton’s advice? What attitudes shape the advice
Stratton gives?
Old Ned and Efram
Old Ned and Efram are Micheaux’s response to D. W. Griffith’s “faithful souls.” Think back to how D. W. Griffith characterized what he referred to as the loyal, ―good‖ black people – how did he represent them in his film and how did he talk about them when he answered critics of his film?
In Old Ned and Efram Micheaux presents two black men who seem to fit the stereotypical image of the faithful black, more loyal and concerned about the powerful white men in their lives than about themselves or other African Americans. But Micheaux used these two characters to complicate and critique Griffith‘s representation.
Old Ned is the embodiment of Paul Laurence Dunbar‘s ―We Wear the Mask,‖ a poem that most African Americans would have learned in church or school in the early 20th^ century.
We wear the mask that grins and lies, It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes, This debt we pay to human guile; With torn and bleeding hearts we smile, And mouth with myriad subtleties.
Why should the world be over-wise, In counting all our tears and sighs? Nay, let them only see us, while We wear the mask.
We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries To thee from tortured souls arise. We sing, but oh the clay is vile Beneath our feet, and long the mile; But let the world dream otherwise, We wear the mask!
[Paul Laurence Dunbar, Lyrics of Lowly Life (Dodd, Mead & Co., 1896)]
With Efram , Micheaux points out that even truly ―faithful souls‖ are not safe from the lynch mob.
In the character of Old Ned Micheaux challenges the idea of black people who are happy in their subservience and with Efram he undermines Griffith‘s argument that it is only aggressive blacks who don‘t know their place that need fear the lynch mob.
Think also of what Micheaux suggests about white‘s understanding of what they imagine as their loyal servants; after all, Old Ned tells the white men to their face that white people are going to Hell and black people to Heaven. Not imagining that he could be laughing with them and critiquing them at the same time, they hear this as compliment.
Additionally, think about the performance style of the actors who play Old Ned and Efram. How is it different from the performance style of all the other characters in the film? What performance tradition are Old Ned and Efram drawing from? Why?
40:48-44:00 Sylvia Landry‘s mission in Boston is successful. Her arguments are eventually more persuasive than Geraldine Stratton‘s.
44:15-45:20 But if she loves Dr. Vivian, why has she returned to Piney Woods? Is it solely a dedication to her students?
45:20 And what evil from the North has followed her? Clearly, not all African Americans are ―race men‖ and ―race women,‖ dedicated to uplifting others.
48:00-50:00 What could Larry, ―the Leech,‖ tell the school about Sylvia that would mean she could not continue to teach there? What is she afraid people will know about her past?
53:11-end Sylvia’s Story. The last half of the film is a direct response to Birth of a Nation. What is the significance of Micheaux doing this through the character of Sylvia?
53:29 Who is Jasper Landry? How does Micheaux characterize the Landry family? Pay attention to the title cards but also to the visual representation. Describe the Landry home; this is a rural cabin, are there ways that Micheaux visually signal‘s respectability? How/why is this important?
56:25 Introduction of Efrem (see above discussion of Old Ned and Efrem). How does Micheaux represent Efrem—visually?
What is the financial relationship between the Landry family and Philip Gridlestone?
1:02:00- 1:15:17 Who makes up the lynch mob? -- race, gender, age, occupation?
1:08:38 - How does Micheaux critique the press? How does the press collude in the lynching 1:09:50 of Efrem? Of the Landrys?
1:10:34 On what day of the week are the Landrys lynched?
1:12:00 - Micheaux juxtaposes Sylvia‘s fate with that of her family, intercutting scenes from
James K. Vardaman , Governor of Missisippi, 1904-1908; U.S. Senate, 1913-1919. Vardaman was a southern Progressive who advocated child labor laws and greater government regulation of railroads and corporations. Under his governorship, a state department of agriculture was created to better look after farmers‘ interests.
Vardaman also strongly opposed African American voting rights and public funding of education for African Americans beyond the elementary levels. He maintained that African Americans were ―lazy, lying, lustful animals, which no amount of training can transform into a tolerable citizen.‖ He declared himself "just as opposed to Booker T. Washington as a voter, with all his Anglo-Saxon re-enforcements, as I am to the coconut-headed, chocolate-colored, typical little coon, Andy Dotson, who blacks my shoes every morning. Neither is fit to perform the supreme function of citizenship." Regarding education, Vardaman ran for governor on a platform that called for the abolition of all state aid to schools for African Americans. While unsuccessful at totally eliminating that aid, under his administration funds for the education of black Mississippians were severely decreased. Vardaman argued that only the minimum of an education was necessary or even advisable for African Americans as their mental development naturally stopped at the age of puberty; therefore, it would be ―a positive unkindness‖ to educate them further: ―The negro isn‘t permitted to advance and their education only spoils a good field hand and makes a shyster lawyer or a fourth-rate teacher. It is money thrown away.‖ He not merely opposed state aid for black education but also he opposed northern philanthropists ‗funding of private black colleges: ―What the North is sending South is not money buy dynamite. This education is ruining our Negroes. They are demanding equality.‖ A strong advocate of lynching, Vardaman declared ―we would be justified in slaughtering every Ethiop on the early to preserve unsullied the honor of one Caucasian home.‖ Comparing African Americans to predatory animals, he argued, ―We do not stop when we see a wolf to find if it will kill sheep before disposing of it, but assume that it will.‖
"The Negro as a race, in all the ages of the world, has never shown sustained power of self- development. He is not endowed with the creative faculty.... He has never created for himself any civilization.... He has never had any civilization except that which has been inculcated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civilization lasts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who inculcates it. When left to himself he has universally gone back to the barbarism of the jungle."
-- Sen. James Vardaman (D., Miss.), 1914 Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources, 1913-
Upon his arrival in Washington to begin his term as Senator from Mississippi, Vardaman became a leading proponent of segregation of civil service positions. A poster advertising a meeting to organize around this issue: SHALL THE NEGRO RULE? All other questions are minimized under the shadow of social equality and preference for Negroes in the employ of the government of the United States. SENATOR JAMES K. VARDAMAN And other prominent speakers will address the people at a public meeting to be held under the auspices of the National Democratic Fair Play Association which stands for segregation of the races in government employment and “reorganization of the civil service” as declared in the National Democratic platform of 1912.
At this meeting the policy of appointing Negroes to government positions will be fully and freely discussed. AT OLD MASONIC TEMPLE COR. 9TH^ AND F STS. N.W. WASHINGTON, D.C. WEDNESDAY NIGHT, AUGUST 6, 1913
Speaking at this August 1913 meeting, Vardaman railed against black men sitting next to white women in the streetcars and called for segregation in transportation. He also called upon Congress to pass a law segregating black employees in the federal service and putting them under the supervision of white men. Addressing himself to the question of how Northern and Southern whites understood African Americans, he argued, ―The people of the North have great love for the negro—at a distance. They love him as a race and hate him as an individual.‖ Urging white Americans to unite, he said, ―Let the South and North stop this hating each other for we will need all the love at our command, all the intellect and all the patience and Christian forbearance to save this country from the black race.‖ Following his speech the meeting endorsed a resolution to ―fight for race segregation here and for the protection of white women from negroes.‖
(Recall your reading on President Wilson‘s support for segregation in the federal government offices.)
Vardaman served only one term in the Senate. President Wilson campaigned against his re-election because of his opposition to the draft and to U.S. entry into WWI.
