Oscar Micheaux

Black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux stands with his arm on his camera, posing between a cameraman and one of his actors. Micheaux, the child of two formerly enslaved people, dedicated his life to creating art about and for Black people. He directed about fifty films over the course of his career, touching on subjects like “passing” for white, interracial relationships, and Ku Klux Klan violence. From 1922 to 1925 Micheaux produced eight films out of his production company at the Strand Theatre in Roanoke, while boarding at the Hampton Hotel on Henry Street.