Oscar Micheaux: The Great and Only

<p>Oscar Micheaux was the Jackie Robinson of film the black D. W. Griffith--a bigger-than-life American folk hero whose important life story has been nearly forgotten today. The son of freed slaves he roamed America as a Pullman porter before making his first mark as a homesteader in South Dakota--and going on from there to become the king of the race cinema industry producing and/or directing nearly forty films during a time of Jim Crow segregation when African-American artists were not welcome in Hollywood.</p><p>In this groundbreaking new biography award-winning film historian Patrick McGilligan offers a vivid and fascinating portrait of a true pioneer of American culture who was equal parts visionary hustler huckster innovator and raffish Barnum-like showman--and the first great African-American filmmaker.</p>