MY MEMORIAL DAY GIFT

WITHIN OUR GATES (1920), an early movie by Oscar Micheaux, pioneering African-American filmmaker, directing a multi-racial cast. The film has the usual Micheaux quirks (the lighter the skin, the more trustworthy the black), but I find the film to be sincere, and sometimes painfully honest concerning race relations. For those who crave fast action, the lynching/rape sequences (in answer to BIRTH OF A NATION, no doubt) are in the latter third of the film.