Birthright
Brief Synopsis
A Harvard graduate returns to his Southern home to create an all-black school.
Cast & Crew
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Oscar Micheaux
Director
Carman Newsome
S. O. Moses
Alec Lovejoy
Trixie Smith
Hazel Lisz
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jan
1938
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Micheaux Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company
Micheaux Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Birthright by T. S. Stribling (New York, 1922).
Synopsis
Harvard University graduate Peter Siner is trying to raise money to start a school for blacks. On his way to Hookers Bend, his hometown in the South, Peter encounters his friend Tump Pack, a decorated war hero and a gambler. While Tump is charged under an old town ordinance forbidding gambling, Peter becomes the object of attention from every eligible girl in town, including Cissie Dildane. Although Cissie pledges a contribution to fund Peter's school, she tells him that she disagrees with his approach to bettering the condition of blacks through industrial training, and instead favors literacy education. Soon after purchasing an old building from the unscrupulous white banker Henry Hooker, to house his school, Peter learns that Hooker has been conniving against him and trying to thwart his efforts to establish a black school in the area. When Peter takes a closer look at the contract he signed, he realizes that it contains a "stopper clause" preventing blacks from having anything to do with the property. He complains to Hooker, who only offers to buy back the deed at a fraction of the original purchase price. As word of Hooker's act of treachery spreads through the town, Cissie sends a letter to her sister Ida May, in which she writes that "the whole dirty little town" has turned its back on Peter because he is a college graduate who has been duped by a white man. Even Peter's mother berates him for being taken in by a white man. When Cissie goes to Peter to comfort him, she is met with his mother's scorn and she and Peter leave together. Following the death of his mother, Peter goes to work for the town's richest man, Captain Renfrew. Renfrew's maid resents having to serve Peter as if he were a white man and lies to Renfrew, by telling him that Peter plans to marry Cissie, who, she claims, is a suspected thief. Although Peter denies the maid's charges and defends Cissie's innocence, the sheriff arrests Cissie for grand larceny. Soon after being arrested, however, Cissie escapes and goes to a nightclub, where Ida May is singing. There, Cissie tells her sister that it was Tump's brother who brought her to the nightclub, and that she witnessed him kill the jailer's assistant, known as "The Persimmon." When Peter shows up at the nightclub, he reads a telegram stating that Renfrew has died and left everything to him, including ninety percent of his ownership of the bank where Hooker works. He also reads that charges against Cissie have been dropped. As Peter develops plans to turn Renfrew's mansion into an industrial training school for black youths, he tries to encourage enrollment in his school by suggesting a law making it illegal to loiter near a popular meeting place. After having successfully established his school, Peter marries Cissie, and the couple drive to Chicago, where they will honeymoon.
Director
Oscar Micheaux
Director
Cast
Carman Newsome
S. O. Moses
Alec Lovejoy
Trixie Smith
Hazel Lisz
W. Herbert Jelly
Ida Forsyne
John Ward
C. R. Chace
Alice B. Russell
H. E. Knight
George Lessey
Columbus Jackson
Harry Moses
Tom Dillon
Allen Lee
Robert Alderdice
Crew
Ted Fiorito
Composer
J. C. Johnson
Composer
Walter Jurmann
Composer
Gus Kahn
Composer
Bronislau Kaper
Composer
Robert Marshall
Photography
Oscar Micheaux
Adaptation
Oscar Micheaux
Producer
Burton Russell
Presented By
Nat Schwartz
Composer
Juan Tizol
Composer
George Whiting
Composer
George Wicker
Sound Engineer
Film Details
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jan
1938
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Micheaux Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company
Micheaux Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the novel Birthright by T. S. Stribling (New York, 1922).
Articles
Birthright (1938)
A Harvard graduate returns to his Southern home to create an all-black school.
Birthright (1938)
A Harvard graduate returns to his Southern home to create an all-black school.
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The film's subtitle is, "A story of the Negro and the South." Oscar Micheaux made an earlier film based on the same source in 1924.
