Black History Matters

As part of its program for Black History month, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) recently showed “Stars in My Crown,” a 1950 film that dealt with a small Southern town right after the Civil War. The film was based on a  1947 novel of the same name by Joe David Brown, a writer from Alabama who is best known for “Paper Moon,” another novel that became an even more successful film. 

In viewing this  film, it seemed obvious that its creators, back in 1950, included an indictment of racial prejudice and violence. Nevertheless, in an interview after the showing on TCM, a black critic claimed that the film was itself racist, a claim that the host did not dispute. Why is it racist?

 “Stars in My Crown” is the story of an ex-Confederate soldier who becomes a preacher after the war and takes up duties in a small Southern town that resembles a movie Western frontier town in its lawlessness and lack of religion. Joe David Brown claimed that the preacher was based on the life of his Alabama grandfather. 

Initially, the preacher, played imposingly by Joel McCrae, uses his guns and physical presence to gain the attention and respect of the townspeople, but then puts away his guns and relies on his spiritual strength to gain a respected place. He marries one of the townswomen, and even adopts her orphaned nephew. Much of the film is seen through the eyes of this boy. Together they establish a congregation and build a church. 

TCM presented the film as part of Black History month because one of its core conflicts concerns the one black man in the town. He is an elderly ex-slave, Uncle Famous, played by Juano Hernandez, who had apparently been given his freedom as well as a small farmstead by his former white master. 

Actually, he lives outside of town and supports himself with the produce of his garden, animals, and fish from a nearby stream. His skill as a fisherman is legendary and he has instructed  most of the white boys in the town in the fine art of fishing. He is revered and respected by all. All is well until a local businessman tries to buy his property in order to continue a mica mining project that employs many of the townsmen.

The old man rejects the offer. He explains that he  is self-sufficient and doesn’t need the money, and that he would have nowhere to go if he left his small farm. The businessman then launches a campaign of harassment against the old black man, and has thugs destroy his crops. When that fails to move him, the businessman forms a gang, complete with Klan costumes, that rides out to lynch the old man. Only the intervention of the white preacher saves the old man.  He reminds the members of the lynch mob of all that Uncle Famous has done for them and their children over the years, and the shamed mob disperses.

Why is the film racist? If I can remember correctly, there were two reasons. First, the critic did not like the portrayal of the old man as friendly, fatherly, kindly, wise, and generous. He was not angry or bitter. He was even thankful that his old master had emancipated him. He was even grateful for his small farm and never considered it a kind of reparation for his years in slavery. In other words, he was not a modern Black Lives Matter protestor.

I am not an expert on American Reconstruction history, but I have read “Up from Slavery,” the autobiography of Booker T. Washington, a former slave who went on to become one of the most famous and esteemed figures in America during his lifetime. His life no longer matters today, and I did not see one mention of him during this Black History month.

Like Uncle Famous, Booker T. Washington is the wrong kind of Black man. He was only a child when the Civil war ended. Even though emancipated, most slaves were uneducated, illiterate, and knew no other world than the plantation on which they had served. Although they were free to leave, most former slaves chose to remain on the plantations that still needed their labor. I doubt if they are covered in black history classes. 

Booker T. Washington was among the first to leave when members of his family sought work in the mines of West Virginia. He was a child laborer but passionately anxious to learn how to read and write. His first tutor was an older black boy and once he learned to read there was no stopping him. On his way he  continued his education in schools founded by white Northerners to educate the emancipated slaves. He became a famous educator himself and founded the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In his autobiography, I recall no bitterness or anger. Rather, there was thankfulness for the help he had received on the way, and for the great opportunity that America had given him. 

The film is also considered racist today because its sympathetic portrayal  of the white preacher and other white people in town does not fit a modern systemic racist narrative. The film was based on a real-life story. To make everyone a stereotype, in fiction or in real life, is to do a disservice to individuals, white or black, and to falsify history.  

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