Popular Culture Review Vol. 5, No. 1, February 1994 | Page 54

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^Po£ular^ultureReview

Criticized for his portrayals in this film, Micheaux publicly
defended his actions by stating, ”I am too much imbued with the
spirit of Booker T. Washington to engraft false virtues upx)n ourselves,
to make ourselves that which we are not. Nothing could be a greater
blow to our own progress" (Pittsburgh Courier, 13 December 1924:10).
Exposing hypocritical African-American ministers was an issue
that Micheaux refused to abandon and this issue resurfaced in his
motion picture Body and Soul, produced in 1924. This film featured
Paul Robeson in his first screen performance as a "jack-leg" preacher.
An advertisement for this film reported it is the "story of a good but
helpless girl in the toils of a h)rpocritical beast who ruins her very
'Body and Soul’ for his greed and lust" (Afro-American, Baltimore 25
September 1926: 6). Given such an offensive portrayal of the African
American minister, Micheaux ends the film by revealing that it was
only a dream, which is believed to have been an attempt to salvage
his reputation as a filmmaker and redeem himself with the black
community.
Color divisions between light-complexioned and darkcomplexioned African-Americans surfaced in Micheaux's A Daughter
of the Congo, a film for which he was harshly criticized. The film
was based on an East African tale written by Henry F. Downing and
was produced in 1930. A review of this film stated:
The story is rich in its jungle [lore], different from
most African stories which are greatly exaggerated,
in that this is tensely realistic, but the events that
follow are charged so highly with action, thrill and
suspense that it is difficult to describe them in detail.
An all colored cast which includes the best makes the
picture a superb attraction. (Pittsburgh Courier, 30
August 1930: 7.2)
However, Theophilus Lewis, critic of the New York Amsterdam
News asserted:
The first offense of this new film is its persistent
vaunting of intraracial color fetishism . . . . All the
noble characters are high yellows; all the ignoble