This classic, definitive study of Black images in American movies has been completely revised and updated to include new chapters on the films of the 1970s and 1980s. This new version of the book reveals the way in which the image of Blacks in American movies has changed--and also the way in which it has remained the same. Following a preface to the expanded edition and a preface to the first edition in which the author details many personal interviews with Black performers in addition to his archival research, the book proceeds chronologically, beginning with silent films. Chapters in the books are: (1) Black Beginnings: From "Uncle Tom's Cabin" to "The Birth of a Nation"; (2) Into the 1920s: The Jesters; (3) The 1930s: The Servants; (4) The Interlude: Black-Market Cinema; (5) The 1940s: The Entertainers, the New Negroes, and the Problem People; (6) The 1950s: Black Stars; (7) The 1960s: Problem People into Militants; (8) The 1970s: Bucks and a Black Movie Boom; and (9) The 1980s: Black Superstars and the Era of Tan. The book is generously illustrated with movie stills throughout the years. (NKA)