Prepare for a visit to AAMLO with these special topic resource guides.
This resource guide is intended to help users locate holdings at AAMLO recognizing African American film and filmmakers.
It highlights holdings in the following areas:
● Selected Library Material at AAMLO
● Selected Archival Collections at AAMLO
Other collections may contain relevant materials. Please contact AAMLO (aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org) with any questions or to schedule an appointment to view materials in person.
Selected Library Materials
Directory of Black film/TV Technicians & Artists, West Coast | Los Angeles : Togetherness Productions, 1980-
Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World by Wil Haygood
Reel Black Talk: a Sourcebook of 50 American Filmmakers by Spencer Moon
Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: the Story of Black Hollywood by Donald Bogle
Soul Searching: Black-themed Cinema From the March on Washington to the Rise of Blaxploitation by Christopher Sieving
Black City Cinema: African American Urban Experiences in Film by Paula J. Massood
A Piece of the Action: Race and Labor in Post-civil Rights Hollywood by Eithne Quinn
Reflections on Blaxploitation: Actors and Directors Speak edited by David Walker, Andrew J. Rausch, and Chris Watson
L.A. Rebellion: Creating a New Black Cinema edited by Allyson Nadia Field, Jan-Christopher Horak, and Jacqueline Najuma Stewart
Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video edited by Janet K. Cutler and Phyllis Rauch Klotman
Sisters in the Life: a History of Out African American Lesbian Media-making edited by Yvonne Welbon and Alexandra Juhasz
Selected Films
They Call Me Mister Tibbs! [DVD]
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [DVD]
The Mack [DVD]
Blindspotting [DVD]
Black Panther [DVD]
Fruitvale Station [DVD]
Made in America [DVD]
Poetic Justice [DVD]
Romeo Must Die [DVD]
Dr. Dolittle [DVD]
Coach Carter [DVD]
Sorry to Bother You [DVD]
Ethnic Notions [DVD]
The Waiting Room [DVD]
The Early Works of Cheryl Dunye [Streaming Video]
Evolutionary Blues [Streaming Video]
Selected Archival Collections
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Vertical File Collection. Selected items include
- Flyers, brochures, calendar of events, invitations, schedules, and ceremony programs of the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Also included are letters from cofounder Mary Perry Smith (1926-2015).The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc. (BFHFI) was founded in Oakland, California in 1974. The BFHFI began as a collaboration among Roy Thomas from the Afro-American Studies Department at UC-Berkeley, Mary Perry Smith, who was the co-chairperson of the Cultural and Ethnic Affairs Guild and at the Oakland Museum, and Sonny Buxton of the San Francisco Bay Area station KGO-TV. Notable programs established by the BFHFI include the Oscar Micheaux Awards Ceremony, the International Black Film, Video & Screenplay Competition, the Black Filmworks International Film Festival, and the Sidney Poitier Fellowship.
- African American film & video rental service catalogues
- Assorted flyers and programs related to Bay Area film festivals including the San Francisco Black Film Festival, Malcolm X Film Festival, and many others
- Assorted flyers and programs related to African American film actors including Paul Robeson, Ossie Davis, and many others
Jay Payton Papers. Legendary Bay Area emcee Jay Payton (1925-2016) served as technical advisor, along with Don Barksdale (1923-1993), for the 1973 blaxploitation film The Mack directed by Michael Campus and starring Max Julien and Richard Pryor. The film was produced in Oakland and written by Payton’s friend Robert J. Poole, then an inmate at San Quentin State Prison and a member of the Barbwire Theater Company, an outgrowth of the San Quentin Drama Workshop. Payton appears in the film playing himself as the convention emcee who awards Goldie the "Mack of the Year Award." View online at the Internet Archive.
East Bay Negro Historical Society Records. In 1988, the Northern California Center for Afro-American History and Life contracted filmmaker Marlon Riggs to shoot a series of interviews with prominent African Americans in Oakland for the Vision Toward Tomorrow exhibit and to shoot footage of the exhibit's premiere at the Oakland Museum. The East Bay Negro Historical Society Records include the Vision Toward Tomorrow premiere footage as well as Riggs' master tapes of an oral history interview with educator Ida L. Jackson (1902-1996). Available to watch online.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Oral History Collection. Includes an oral history interview with Allen Willis (1916-2013) recounting his childhood in Washington D.C., his involvement with socialist and civil rights movements, and his accomplishments as a documentary filmmaker. Available to watch online.
Henry Delton Williams Papers. Fashion designer Henry Delton Williams (b. 1941) contributed costumes for Hollywood productions such as Dr. Black, Mr. Hyde (1976) and the Fred Williamson films Adios Amigo (1976), Death Journey (1976), Mean Johnny Barrows (1976), No Way Back (1976), and One Down Two to Go (1982).
Rhonda White-Warner Papers. Publisher and media consultant Rhonda White-Warner (1951-2014) created her first media consulting and event planning agency, Authenic Vint’age Promotions, in 1981. The agency was renamed Rhonda White-Warner & Associates and was contracted to assist with promoting and coordinating many African American political and cultural events in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1980s. The White-Warner Papers include subject files on assorted African American film productions in the Bay Area, 1988-1992.
Ruth Beckford Papers. Dancer, teacher, and author Ruth Beckford (1925-2019) joined Katherine Dunham’s Company in 1943, training for three weeks before performing with the company at shows on the West Coast. In 1954 Beckford started her own dance company, Ruth Beckford African-Haitian Dance Company, which toured across the country performing African and Haitian dances. After retiring from dance, Beckford shifted to writing and acting. In 1974, she signed with Grimme talent agency and she performed in theater productions at the Oakland Ensemble Theater and parts in various television and movie roles. She appeared in Maya Angelou’s made-for-television movies Circles and Tapestry, the PBS television series Up and Coming, movie roles in The Principal (1987), Angels in the Outfield (1994), America’s Dream (1996), and in television commercials for Safeway, JC Penny, and Little Debbie Snacks.
Henry Williams Jr. Film Collection. The Henry Williams Jr. Film Collection consists of 175 films and 3 reel-to-reel audiotapes mostly documenting the Black Panther Party and student and union protest movements of the late 1960s. The Black Panther Party film reels include outtakes and b-roll footage shot in preparation of the California Newsreel film MayDay and includes film footage of Kathleen Cleaver, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, and other party leaders. Available to watch online.
Brownie McGhee Papers. Blues musician Walter B. "Brownie" McGhee (1915-1996) began his acting career in 1955 when he was cast in Tennessee Williams’ Broadway production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Throughout the 1970s, McGhee continued to perform and appeared in a number of film and television roles, including The Jerk (1979), Angel Heart (1987), and episodes of Family Ties and Matlock. He performed and continued to record music through the 1990s until his death in 1996 in Oakland, California. Listen to oral history interviews with McGhee at the Internet Archive.
Jesse Fuller Collection. West Coast Blues musician Jesse Fuller (1896-1976) was born in Jonesboro, Georgia on March 12, 1896. As a young man he found his way to Los Angeles, California, where he worked as an extra in films such as The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and East of Suez (1925). In the 1950s, Fuller started to focus on music, preforming as a one man band and in 1954 Fuller recorded his most notable song, "San Francisco Bay Blues." Listen to recordings with Jesse Fuller at the Internet Archive.
Cleveland Glover Papers. Photographer Cleveland Glover (1922-1995) was born on August 22, 1922 in Savannah, Georgia. After attending school in Savannah, Glover joined the U.S. Army and served as an Army photographer and film projectionist during World War II and the Korean War.
Benjamin V. Williams Papers. The papers of journalist and television reporter Benjamin Vernon Williams (1927-2012) include a press statement from Bobby Seale on “Blaxploitation” (1972).
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Audiovisual Collection. Includes the documentary film Honoring a great lady: Dr. Marcella W. Ford (1996) by Griot Productions.
African American Museum & Library at Oakland Photograph Collection. Includes assorted publicity stills and photographs of African American actors including Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Clarence Muse, and Paul Robeson, and photographs taken at the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Oscar Micheaux Awards ceremony in Oakland, California.
Oakland Post Photograph Collection. The Oakland Post Photograph Collection consists of 11,797 photographs appearing in the Oakland Post newspaper between 1963-2005. Includes assorted publicity stills and photographs of African American actors and filmmakers including Fred Williamson, Danny Glover, Jonelle Allen, Ted Lange, Clarence Muse, and many others.
Additional Information
Search the library using the catalog.
Consult AAMLO's finding aids in the Online Archive of California.
We are working to create new resource guides. Have an idea for a new guide? Contact us at aamlo@oaklandlibrary.org.
