As the Struggle Continues...What Will the Future Hold???

As the 21st century moves quickly into its second decade, the question of "how far have we really come??" is still asked. Its only been been 50 years since the end of enslavement (yes, the emancipation proclamation was given in 1865, but Blacks did not have a true sense of freedom until the Civil Rights' Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965), so the answer is not too far...we still have a long way to go before equality will truly come to fruition. With the exception of films produced by Black producers and directors, like their forebears, Black actresses are still not able to transcend racial barriers, and still not being given leading roles in major Hollywood films. Few actresses have crossed over into mainstream Hollywood, and even fewer have had constant leading roles. Ladies such as Halle Berry, Gabrielle Union, and Queen Latifah are a few actresses that have been noted in big productions. But what is the future of the countless talented Black actresses in Hollywood? Will their full potential ever be recognized? These are common questions with complex answers. In order for this to happen, societal stigmas and what is accepted as beauty must be completely revamped.

Although Black women are looked as as having a type of exotic sexuality and having an alluring beauty, they are still not the standard of beauty. While White women are also considered sex objects, they are still looked at throughout the western world as to prototypical resemblance of "American Beauty". Black women are still not gracing the covers of magazines such as Marie Clair, Vogue, Elle, or People, nor are they lead characters on popular sitcoms or dramas.Progress has been made, but it will take decades before the racism and degradation that encompasses and is do deeply rooted into American society is uprooted.

The Sultry Seductresses of the Silver-Screen

While the 1950's would prove as a turning point in not only race relations, but the political discourse in regards to civil rights as well. The civil rights movement would be kicked into high gear by the Montgomery bus boycott, the formation of organizations such as the Southern Cristian Leadership Conference and the supreme court decision to desegregate schools in Brown vs. Board of Education.

While all this was going on, Hollywood was setting its sights and tuning into a provocative new sound. Black actresses had long been type-cast into the role of the mammy or maid, or supporting roles in which they were shadowing their white counterparts. However in 1954, Hollywood would see a new leading lady in Academy award nominated Dorothy Dandridge. Of course given the racial tensions and turmoil engulfing the United States would not allow for her to actually win the award, but she set in motion a new age of leading ladies. 

Playing the role of Carmen in the film Carmen Jones would shoot Dorothy Dandridge to stardom, however despite bringing about success in her career, she would unwittingly take part in shaping the views of Black womens' bodies and sexuality for years to come.

A Fresh New Face in Cinema

Throughout the 1940's race relations between whites and blacks were no better than they were in the antebellum south, in fact many attest to the fact that the jim crow south was exceptionally worse than the institution of slavery. Yet people  began to see a new face in cinema, one that added a bit more color and allure. However, these women were completely different from Hattie McDaniel and Louise Beavers, and although they were now light-skinned, singing, slim, sultry seductresses, yet they were still unable to transcend racial boundaries. While many might had viewed these women in a more favorable manner because they projected Black women in a positive light, the underlying motives of the white producers, casts, and production companies were in fact still placing them in demeaning roles. It was almost always the case that Black women would play some type of subservient role, essentially shadowing their white counterparts.

 

One such example was of the illustrious Lena Horne. Horne began her acting career in the late 1930's, but did not become notable until the early 1940's with the movie Cabin in the sky. However, like many Black actors and actresses of the early 20th century, she was not able to pick up a lead role because of the color of her skin. In fact, in several other roles she would be subsequently featured in, her part would be edited out because certain theaters refused to show black actors. The following decade would give rise to a new Hollywood beauty, but would still keep Black actresses from breaking the glass ceiling in terms of the roles they played.

The Black Actress and Her Fight Against Invisibility

Since the institution of slavery and colonization, Black women, their bodies and body images have been used, chastised, criticized and abused. Yet at the same time, they have been coveted and used as a global prototype for women to model after. From the images and desecration of Sarah Bartman, to breeding houses on plantations, to house slaves and domestics, Black women have always been described on two ends of the spectrum, either being over-sexualized described as "Jezebels", "floosies", or "loose", or completely desexualized. At the start of the 20th century, many assumed that Blacks' had made substansial strides towards equal opportunity, particularly because they were now being portrayed in film, many of these images only helped to further the perpetual condescending images of the black man being the happy, care-free sambo and the black woman portraying the mammy. One such example is of the actress Hattie McDaniel. Best known for her role of the maid, in the 1939 film "Gone With The Wind", she played the typical "mammy". Making sure to that she did not upstage her white counterparts, it was essential that she was desexualized, and shown as an unattractive, dark, overweight and opinionated woman.

Although Blacks were happy to finally see someone like them on the silver-screen, this still did not remove them from playing the same role they did in society.Women like Hattie McDaniel, Madame Sul-Te-Wan and Louise Beavers would continue to be used as shadow and satirical characters for years to come