Duke University Libraries is now showing an exhibit documenting the portrayal of African Americans in film. The exhibit, entitled “From Blackface to Blaxploitation: Representations of African Americans in Film,” includes still shots from films from the Thomas Cripps Collection and the African Americans in Film Collection held by Duke University.
The curators of the exhibit note that “the ways in which the motion picture industry has portrayed African Americans over the vast majority of the 20th century have evolved in a more positive direction; nevertheless, these portrayals have continued to be fraught with controversial images and stereotypical messages.”
The exhibit is being shown until July 29 in the hallway of the Rare Books Division at Duke. Many of the photographs in the exhibit can be seen online, here.
