Collection ID: COL 25
Printable View Printable View

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Green, Ronald J., 1944-
Abstract:
Papers and related materials of writer, researcher, and professor J. Ronald Green. The collection contains research, drafts, and correspondence pertaining to the publication of Green's books Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (2000) and With a Crooked Stick—The Films of Oscar Micheaux (2004), as well as a number of his scholarly articles.
Extent:
4 Boxes
Language:
Materials are in English
Preferred citation:

[item], J. Ronald Green Papers on Oscar Micheaux, COL 25, Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.

Background

Biographical / Historical:

J. Ronald Green began his academic career in 1963 at Rice University in Houston, Texas. While pursuing his Bachelor of Arts in English, Green was awarded a Visiting Scholar Fellowship at Trinity College in England to study the works of Shakespeare, Milton, metaphysical poets, and Russian novelists. Following the completion of his undergraduate degree, Green's increasing interest in media studies and film led him to the State University of New York at Buffalo where he received his Ph.D. in English/Cinema Studies upon the completition of his dissertation, "Political Evolution in Five Films by Jean-Luc Godard" (1972). Green went on to hold positions as Assistant Professor of Literature at American University (1971-75); Adjunct Associate Professor at the Center for Media Study/SUNY at Buffalo (1975-78); Associate Professor in the Department of Photography and Cinema at Ohio State (1978-91); and Associate, Full, and Emeritus Professor at Ohio State University (1991-present).

During this time Green was not only an educator and scholar, but also an active member in the communities where he lived. Green directed a media arts program at the National Endowment for the Arts, which brought artists and performers to the Buffalo area. For two years Green served as the president of the National Alliance of Media Arts Centers, and established several new programs and conferences in Minneapolis and Kentucky. Green also worked with the American Film Institute to represent and promote the interests of independent media artists. Since 1980 Green has dedicated his time as an advisor to the National Black Programming Consortium. His collaboration with the consortium led to the creation of a course on black cinema at Ohio State, where he continues to serve as a professor emeritus.

Green's numerous scholarly articles have graced the pages of journals such as Griffithiana, Black Film Review, Film Quarterly, Journal of Film and Video, Dialogue, Cinema Journal, Aperture, Afterimage, and Quarterly Review of Film and Video. In 2000, Indiana University Press released Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux, the most complete work on a pioneer of independent black film, Oscar Micheaux. Green explained that "Micheaux has been neglected for reasons similar to those that relegate other independent media artists to the margins – poor production values and cultural differences... [This] book on Micheaux is motivated primarily by my love for and appreciation of his work and ideas in the face of other critics' disdain for them." Following the publication of Straight Lick, Indiana University Press released With a Crooked Stick – The Films of Oscar Micheaux (2004), which offers critical analyses of fifteen of Micheaux's surviving films as well as insight into the social, political, and economic conditions endured by African Americans during the 1920s and '30s. After the success of his two published books on Oscar Micheaux, Green began a new project focusing on "poor cinema," the avant-garde films of France, the United States, and the Soviet Union from the 1920s to the 1960s.

Education
Date Event
1965-1966 Cambridge University, England - V.S. (Visiting Scholar), Fellowship to read Shakespeare, Milton, Metaphysical Poets, and Russian Novelists at Trinity College
1967 Rice University - B.A., English
1972 State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo - Ph.D., English/Cinema Studies, "Five Films by Jean-Luc Godard"
1974-1977 American Seminar on Film - Harvard University/SUNY at Buffalo/New York University: on documentary film, film narrative, and film theory
Professional Experience: Teaching
Date Event
2001-present Professor, Film Studies, Department of History of Art Ohio State University
2002-present Adjunct Professor, Department of English Ohio State University
1995-present Adjunct Professor, Advanced Computing Center for Art and Design, Ohio State University
1990-present Adjunct Professor, French and Italian, Ohio State University
1991-2001 Associate Professor, Department of History of Art Ohio State University
1978-1991 Associate Professor, Department of Photography and Cinema, Ohio State University
1975-1978 Adjunct Associate Professor, Center for Media Study/SUNY at Buffalo
1971-1975 Assistant Professor of Literature, American University
Professional Experience: Administrative
Date Event
1998 Acting Chair, Department of History of Art, Ohio State University
1993-present Co-Chair, University Film Studies Committee, Ohio State University
1989-1991 Acting Chair, Department of Photography & Cinema, Ohio State University
1983-1986 Board of Trustees, American Film Institute, Los Angeles
1982-1985 President, National Alliance of Media Arts Centers, New York City
1978-1982 Chair, Department of Photography and Cinema, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
1977-1978 Director, Media Study/Buffalo, an NEA-designated major media arts center
1975-1976 Assistant Director, Public Media Program (now called Media Arts Program), National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, DC
Scope and Content:

Papers and related materials of writer, researcher, and professor J. Ronald Green. The collection contains research, drafts, and correspondence pertaining to the publication of Green's books Straight Lick: The Cinema of Oscar Micheaux (2000) and With a Crooked Stick—The Films of Oscar Micheaux (2004), as well as a number of his scholarly articles.

Acquisition information:
Donated by J. Ronald Green to the Indiana University Black Film Center Archive in December 2012.
Processing information:

Processed by Ronda L. Sewald.

Completed in 2016.

Arrangement:

This collection is arranged into the following six subseries:

  1. * Subseries 3.1. Primary source, approximately 1911-1951
  2. * Subseries 3.2. Research notes, approximately 1991-2003
  3. * Subseries 3.3. Research trips, 1988-1993
  4. * Subseries 3.4. Secondary source, approximately 1930-1990s
General note:

Biographical Note on Oscar Micheaux

Born on January 2, 1884, Oscar Micheaux was one of thirteen siblings, eleven of whom lived to adulthood. Micheaux's mother and father, Bell Gough and Calvin Swan Micheaux, were largely illiterate, having received little education as slaves in Kentucky. Following the end of slavery, Micheaux's parents moved to the free state of Illinois near Metropolis where he was born. The Micheaux family owned an 80-acre farm, producing fruits and vegetables. It's said Micheaux's family members believed he was a loafer, unmotivated to work in unseasonable weather. Due to his behavior Oscar was shipped off to the city to work as the salesman for their company. Through this work Micheaux came to realize his skills as a persuasive public speaker and pitchman.

After moving around and working several jobs as a shoeshine and a Pullman porter on railroad cars, Micheaux began to save up money. He eventually moved to South Dakota where he took advantage of the Homestead Act, which offered free land as an incentive to settle and farm the land. It was during this time that Micheaux began writing, particularly about his experiences attempting to tame the wild and unforgiving terrain of South Dakota. His relationships with his neighbors, a largely white populace, were also a focus of his writings. Micheaux's efforts culminated in his novel The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Homesteader. Initial attempts to adapt the novel to the film screen failed, so entrepreneurial Micheaux set up the Micheaux Film and Book Company. His next film, Within Our Gates (1920), was a rebuttal to D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation (1915), which glorified the supremacy of whites and the efforts of the Klu Klux Klan. Working with largely African American casts, Micheaux focused his work on issues of racism, class, American identity, interracial marriage, anti-Semitism, black poverty, stereotypes, censorship, and Klan violence.

Following Within Our Gates, Micheaux went on to produce over forty films and six more novels from the 1920s through the 1940s. Even as increasingly larger white-owned media companies began shouldering out and shutting down the work of independents and African American filmmakers, Micheaux strove on. His work continued to serve as the lone voice reflecting the lives of poor and middle class African Americans until the late 1940s. Although his budget was often small, Oscar Micheaux worked tirelessly to have his works seen. He began filming in friends' homes and continually dealt with poor quality equipment. When promoting his new films Micheaux traveled thousands of miles across the United States, stopping at hundreds of black- and white-owned theaters. His perseverance and persuasive sales pitches resulted in special showings for black audiences in white theaters and increased showings of his films at black cinemas.

For many years after Oscar Micheaux's death his films languished. Reels of his footage have been lost or destroyed. Within the last twenty years, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in Micheaux's film endeavors and the pioneering work he accomplished in a time rife with barriers for African Americans. Increasingly, many in the art, film, and literary world recognize Oscar Micheaux for his contributions to cinema and discussions of racism in the 1920s, '30s, and '40s. Today Oscar Micheaux's legacy has been resurrected. He is rightfully known not only as the first prominent and successful African American filmmaker, but also as the most prolific African American filmmaker in history.

In 2022, the Black Film Center/Archive (BFC/A) transitioned to its current name, the Black Film Center & Archive (BFCA). This finding aid was created under the organizational name Black Film Center/Archive. Upon this organizational name change, all previous references to the BFC/A were updated in this finding aid to match the current name, Black Film Center & Archive.

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

This collection is open to the public.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

Materials may be used in-house at the BFCA; duplication permitted only with permission of the Archivist.

PREFERRED CITATION:

[item], J. Ronald Green Papers on Oscar Micheaux, COL 25, Black Film Center & Archive, Indiana University, Bloomington.

CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library, Room 044
Bloomington, Indiana 47405-7000, United States
CAMPUS:
Indiana University Bloomington
CONTACT:
812-855-6041
bfca@iu.edu