Jacqueline Najuma Stewart is Associate Professor of English, Cinema & Media Studies, and African & African American Studies at the University of Chicago.

"With this book, Stewart establishes herself as the authority on early Black cinema. The historiography is meticulous, original and compelling. Stewart puts theory and history into productive conversation. An extremely important work." - Linda Williams, author of Playing the Race Card"

• Contents List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments Introduction A Nigger in the Woodpile: Black (In)Visibility in Film History Part One: Onto the Screen Chapter 1. "To Misrepresent a Helpless Race": The Black Image Problem Chapter 2. Mixed Colors: Riddles of Blackness in Preclassical Cinema Part Two: Into the Audience Chapter 3. "Negroes Laughing at Themselves"? Black Spectatorship and the Performance of Urban Modernity Chapter 4. "Some Thing to See Up Here All the Time": Moviegoing and Black Urban Leisure in Chicago Chapter 5. Along the "Stroll": Chicago's Black Belt Movie Theaters Part Three: Behind the Camera Chapter 6. Reckless Rovers versus Ambitious Negroes: Migration, Patriotism, and the Politics of Genre in Early African American Filmmaking Chapter 7 "We Were Never Immigrants": Oscar Micheaux and the Reconstruction of Black American Identity Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index