Birthright (1924 film)

Birthright
Directed by	Oscar Micheaux
Written by	Oscar Micheaux
Based on	Birthright by Thomas Sigismund Stribling
Produced by	Oscar Micheaux
Starring	J. Homer Tutt Evelyn Preer Salem Tutt Whitney
Production company	Micheaux Film Corporation
Release date	January 14, 1924 (1924-01-14)
Running time	10 reels
Country	United States
Language	Silent

Birthright is a 1924 silent film by American director Oscar Micheaux. Produced in 10 reels, it is adapted from Thomas Sigismund Stribling's novel of the same title (1922). The film is now lost.

The cast included J. Homer Tutt (as Peter Siner), Evelyn Preer (as Cissie Deldine), Salem Tutt Whitney (as Tump Pack), Lawrence Chenault, and W. B. F. Crowell.^[1] The film explores experiences of a young African-American man who returns to a small Tennessee town after getting a college degree. Of mixed-race (called mulatto in the book), he struggles against the systemic racial discrimination of his society around the First World War.

Micheaux later rewrote the adaptation, and co-produced and directed a new 35 mm version of Birthright as a talkie, in 1938. It had a new cast. He filmed it in New Jersey.

Cast

• J. Homer Tutt as Peter Siner
• Evelyn Preer as Cissie Deldine
• Salem Tutt Whitney as Tump Pack
• Lawrence Chenault

References

1. Couvares, Francis G., ed. (1996). Movie Censorship and American Culture. University of Massachusetts Press. p 173: "... from members of his own community who resented such depictions. It seems logical that Micheaux would anticipate criticism from both blacks and whites again in response to his 1924 film Birthright, which portrayed an African American ...

External links

• Birthright at IMDb
• Birthright at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films