"The protagonist of this novel is an educated mulatto male who tries to survive in a small Southern town in the early twentieth century. In a biography of Stribling, William E. Smith states: "Many years after its publication, Stribling identified his work as 'the first realistic novel of Negroes written in this country since Opie Read produced My Young Master.'" In 1924, the famous black director Oscar Micheaux adapted Birthright into a silent film."--...

Concerns a young Methodist minister in Alabama.

Among the most fascinating chapters of film history is that of the so-called "race films" that flourished in the 1920s -'40s. Unlike the "black cast" films produced within the Hollywood studio system, these films not only starred African Americans but were funded, written, produced, edited, distributed, and often exhibited by people of color. Entrepreneurial filmmakers built an industry apart from the Hollywood establishment, cultivating visual and...