TBJ SHOW #618 – BLACK HOLLYWOOD: PART 2 -- FADING IN: Part 2, "Fading In," the second installment of the Black Hollywood four-part series, begins with the decision by the NAACP to answer D.W. Griffith's racist epic, "The Birth of a Nation," by producing a film that would highlight and celebrate Black progress. "The Birth of a Race," made in 1916, was the end product of a Black attempt to answer "Birth of a Nation."
However, in that same year, Black film took its first true step ahead when Noble Johnson established the Lincoln Motion Picture Company. Johnson's success as a film star and producer was surpassed by only one other Black filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux. Micheaux's achievements and tremendous talents are recalled by Lorenzo Tucker, the leading man in many of Micheaux's films who acquired the nickname "The Black Valentino."
