Within Our Gates (1920)

Abandoned by her fiancé, an educated negro woman with a shocking past dedicates herself to helping a near bankrupt school for impoverished negro youths.

Director:

Oscar Micheaux

Writer:

Oscar Micheaux

Stars:

Evelyn Preer, Flo Clements, James D. Ruffin

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Evelyn Preer	...	Sylvia Landry
Flo Clements	...	Alma Prichard
James D. Ruffin	...	Conrad Drebert - Sylvia's Fiancé
Jack Chenault	...	Larry Prichard - Alma's Stepbrother
William Smith	...	Philip Gentry - A Detective
Charles D. Lucas	...	Dr. V. Vivian
Bernice Ladd	...	Mrs. Geraldine Stratton
Mrs. Evelyn	...	Mrs. Elena Warwick
William Stark	...	Jasper Landry
Mattie Edwards	...	Jasper's Wife
Ralph Johnson	...	Philip Gridlestone
E.G. Tatum	...	Efram - Gridlestone's Servant
Grant Edwards	...	Emil Landry
Grant Gorman	...	Armand Gridlestone
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Leigh Whipper

Storyline

Southern negro Sylvia Landry visits her cousin Alma in the north, where there is less racial prejudice than in her home town of Piney Woods in the deep south, and is anxiously awaiting her fiancé, Conrad. But Alma has designs on Conrad and tricks Sylvia into a compromising situation when he arrives, and he abandons her. Disheartened, she returns to Piney Woods to help a reverend running a school for young negroes. Sylvia learns that the reverend hasn't the heart to turn away poor students, and unless he can raise $5,000 to supplement the $1.49 per child per year that the state supplies, the school will be closed. She goes up north again to try to raise the money and has little success, but meets kindly negro, Dr. V. Vivian, who helps her regain her stolen purse. When she saves a child from being hit by an auto, she herself is slightly injured. But the owner of the car is philanthropist Mrs. Elena Warwick, who is sympathetic to her quest and promises to donate the $5,000 to the school....

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Plot Keywords:

school | reverend | student | prejudice | philanthropist | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Details

Country:

USA

Release Date:

12 January 1920 (USA)

Also Known As:

Chocolate Kiddies

Filming Locations:

Capital City Studios, Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Micheaux Book & Film Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This film was thought to be lost until it resurfaced in the early-1990s, in the Filmoteca Espanol in Madrid, Spain.

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Connections

Featured in Movies of Color: Black Southern Cinema (2002)

User Reviews

Oscar Micheaux's Within Our Gates is an interesting historical fictionalization of the plight of African-Americans during the early '20s

With this month being once again Black History Month, I'm-for the second time since first writing these IMDb reviews back in 2006-commenting on various films made by African-Americans both in front of and behind the screen in the order they were made and released chronologically whenever possible. So it's 1920, which is the year from which the earliest surviving movie made by writer, producer, and director Oscar Micheax comes from. In Within Our Gates, Sylvia Landry (Evelyn Preer) dedicates her life to helping poorly educated kids of her race get a good education in the Southern states she resides in. But the money the school gets are not enough so she goes up North to get some more funding from a rich white lady. I'll stop there and just say that while there are some compelling scenes concerning other characters-like that of a couple of people that betray their own race like that of Rev. Wilson Jacobs (S. T. Jacks) and Efram (E. G. Tatum), a loyal butler of a wealthy white man named Gridlestone-the most compelling focus of the story concerns Sylvia's background concerning her previous family life with the Landrys which consist of father Jasper (William Stark), his wife (Mattie Edwards), and their young pre-teen son, Emil, (Grant Edwards) when we learn of their fates and that of Sylvia herself when she nearly gets mixed up with another man named Gridlestone, especially when the intertitle reveals his connection with her. Some of the other characters like that of fiancée Conrad Drebert (James D. Ruffin), Alma Prichard (Flo Clements), Larry Prichard (Jack Chenault), Dr. V. Vivian (Charles D. Lucas), and Det. Philip Gentry (William Smith) don't seem so connected especially concerning Conrad but they also have some compelling scenes. One more thing, as a Chicago native, I was fascinated seeing the Windy City as it looked at the time and learning that some of these players came from there. So on that note, Within Our Gates is worth seeing.