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Within Our Gates

The economic opportunities in the industrial north during and after World War One,

coupled with the returning of black soldiers from European warfronts after the war, prompted

thousands of black people to migrate from the south to the north. The north promised higher

wages, good life, and better social conditions (Butters Jr n.p). As the high migration led to the

development of black movements, such as the New Negro Movement, and increase in calls for

national attention by African American leaders, racism emerged as a major issue in postwar

America. Racial hatred and discrimination escalated to new heights of hostility, destruction, and

lynching as whites resisted the advancement of black people in the American community.

Responding to the postwar events, Oscar Micheaux, an African American filmmaker, released

Within Our Gates. The film portrays the realities of racism that African Americans endured.

Racial hostility, lynching, prejudice and segregation, and religious blackmail are the main social

experiences faced by African Americans in postwar America as presented by Micheaux in his

film Within Our Gates.

Innocent African Americans endured many injustices and brutalities. According to

Siomopoulos, black men were lynched by white mobs, while black women were sexually

assaulted by white men (115). Butter Jr posits that postwar America was characterized by many

acts of lynching by white mobs to keep back people in their place (n.p). In Within Our Gates, a
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black couple in Mississippi is lynched and touched to death by white people for allegedly killing

their white landlord (Micheaux 56:11). The couple’s children, including their adopted daughter

Sylvia, escape the lynching. As Sylvia escapes capture in the forest she cries for justice and asks

God how long she had to endure injustice in the hands of white people (Micheaux 1:15:50).

Moreover, Sylvia narrates that she was a victim of attempted rape (Siomopoulos 115). The

attacker supposedly stopped his attack when he realized Sylvia was his daughter after seeing a

scar on her chest (Siomopoulos 115). These incidences are just examples of the kind of horrible

injustices and brutalities faced by African Americas in postwar America.

Even though all men were subjected to lynching, many of them were black. Between

1990 and 1914, nearly 1,100 black Americans were lynched in the south (Butters Jr n.p). Like

the south, the north was also not safe as the number of African American communities continued

growing. Micheaux uses an intertitle at the beginning of the film citing that characters in the

movie are situated in the north where prejudices and hatreds of the south are not common but

blacks still get lynched (Butters Jr n.p). Even though African Americans expected to live better

lives in the north, they experienced the renaissance of the Ku Klux Clan and white racism,

promoted by whites who feared the growing number of blacks in the northern cities. Members of

these sects were notorious for lynching people of color and sexually attacking black women. The

Tulsa riot of 1921 was a response by African Americans to the lynching of and attacks on black

people by white mobs (Messer 1217). As seen, Micheaux dramatizes not only the injustices but

also the brutalities experienced by African Americans during postwar America.

African Americans experienced prejudice and racial segregation legalized by Jim Crow

laws. As black people moved into the northern cities to look for employment and fill labor

shortages caused by World War One, they faced racial segregation in public accommodations,
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institutions, and schools. Sylvia, the protagonist, is on a mission to raise funds for African

Americans schools and children. In Within Our Gates, the audience is introduced to Reverend

Wilson Jacobs who is the founder of a black school and advocate for black education. Blacks did

not enjoy the same educational opportunities like whites (Butters Jr n.p: Micheaux 15:28-18:20).

Apart from segregation, another reason why blacks did not have equal educational opportunities

is because of prejudice about African Americans. According to Butters Jr, many whites believed

that blacks were either too lazy or too stupid to want an education (n.p).

Micheaux also introduces the audience to a rich southern woman going by the name of

Mrs. Geraldine Stratton who expresses prejudice (Micheaux 23:57). Mrs. Stratton opposes

female suffrage fearing that African American women will also acquire the right to vote. At the

same time, Mrs. Geraldine is reading a column titled “Law Proposed to Stop Negroes,” in the

local newspapers explaining a bill proposed by Senator James Vardaman of Mississippi to

nullify the Fifteenth Amendment. The senator justifies his proposed bill saying that negroes are

inferior beings who cannot be allowed to vote (Micheaux 23:57). Later when another female

character, Mrs. Elena Warwick, seeks the advice of Mrs. Geraldine with regard to donating

money for black education, Geraldine gives her prejudicial reasons. She says that thinking about

black men would give her a headache because they are nothing but lumberjacks and field hands

(Micheaux 30:15). She further advices Mrs. Warwick to give $100 to Old Ned, a black preacher,

instead of donating $5,000 to black education (Micheaux 30:15). To conclude, white people had

prejudices about blacks and segregated them from voting and enjoying other public services.

Religious blackmail allowed African Americans to tolerate racial injustices and prevented

them from fighting for their rights and freedom. Micheaux saw black religion based on

Christianity as well as their leaders as a barrier the freedom and advancement of African
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Americans (Butters Jr n.p: Micheaux 40:40). Men who practiced black religiosity like Old Ned

lied to black people about their atrocities using religion. Thirty minutes into the movie, Old Ned

preaches to his congregation that white people, regardless of all their higher education and

wealth, will burn in hell, while black people who lacked them will go to heaven because their

souls are pure (Micheaux 30:15). Old Ned says that the present racial system is God’s plan. Later

when he meets his acquaintances who ask him about his opinions about voting rights for negroes,

Old Ned answers that he always tells his congregation that America is for the white people and

not black people (Micheaux 30:15 – 40:45). Old Ned continues to spread these religious lies

knowingly to please white people because he was a white benefactor.

Even though Old Ned preaches that most white people will go to hell, they still agree

with his religious views because black religious teachings tolerate the existing racial system. Just

like in the slavery era when Christianity was proslavery, black religion was used as a means of

controlling black people to tolerate the racial systems (Zauzmer n.p). Those who believed

Christianity teachings about racial systems obviously refrained from fighting for equal rights and

opportunities in postwar America, citing their troubles as God’s ordained plan. Moreover,

another scenario in which religion is used to blackmail African Americans in the movie is when

it is used to justify lynching (Micheaux 1:10:34). In particular, Deuteronomy 5: 12-17 which

talks about honoring the Sabbath day and allowing the strangers within one’s gates to rest as the

owners (The Bible), was translated by white people to justify lynching (Siomopoulos 115). It is

no wonder that in Within Our Gates Sunday is the day set aside for lynching offenders like

Sylvia’s family when whole families can attend (Micheaux 1:10:34). As can be seen, Christianity

was used to control African Americans and justify the presence of the racial system in America.
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In retrospect, Oscar Micheaux produced Within Our Gate to dramatize and unveil the

horrible injustices, brutalities, and experiences of African Americans in postwar America.

Racism heightened after World War One as many black people migrated to the north to look for

work. Although many film makers, both white and black, refrained from portraying real issues

that people of color faced in America, Micheaux vividly dramatizes it in his film. Lynching of

black men and families, sexual attacks on black women, prejudice, and segregation are the main

injustices black people experienced. Moreover, Christianity and black religious leaders were

used to control black people. The suffering of black people was translated as God’s ordained

plan, while certain bible verses were translated to justify lynching and American racial system.

Overall, Micheaux did an incredible job in the film to expose injustices committed against black

people, making his audience to identify with the victims of racism and white violence.
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Works Cited

Butters Jr, Gerald R. "From Homestead to Lynch Mob: Portrayals of Black Masculinity in Oscar

Micheaux’s Within Our Gates." Journal of Multi-Media History, vol. 3, 2000.

Messer, Chris M. "The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921: Toward an Integrative Theory of Collective

Violence." Journal of Social History, vol. 44, no. 4, 2011, pp. 1217-1232.

Micheaux, Oscar, et al. "Within our gates." Library of Congress [prod.], 2007.

Siomopoulos, Anna. "The Birth of a Black Cinema:" Race, Reception, and Oscar Micheaux's"

Within Our Gates." The Moving Image: The Journal of the Association of Moving Image

Archivists, vol. 6, no. 2, 2006, pp. 111-118.

The Bible. Authorized King James Version, Oxford UP, 1998.

Zauzmer, Julie. “The Bible was Used to Justify Slavery. Then Africans Made it their Path to

Freedom. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/the-bible-was-

used-to-justify-slavery-then-africans-made-it-their-path-to-

freedom/2019/04/29/34699e8e-6512-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html