Lost Black History
By Don Valentine
Nubian artistic excellence is the calling card for Gordon Parks. In 1969 he became the first Black person to write and direct a major Hollywood studio feature film, “The Learning Tree,” based on his best selling novel. Two years later he continued breaking new cinematic directorial ground with the 1971 movie “Shaft.” That movie was not only a hit, but it had wide critical acclaim. That movie is recognized as the vanguard movie for “Blaxploitation” cinema of that era. Academic racism was why Mr. Parks’ work was never compared to his White peers, like Spielberg, Hitchcock and Scorsese. If academicians had compared them, they would find a resume that overshadowed those premiere directors.
Consider Spielberg had the privilege to attend Cal State Long Beach and Scorsese received a Masters from New York University. Mr. Parks grew up a poor Black kid in 1912, submerged in the Jim Crow south. A CNN article described his baptism to Jim Crow in Fort Scott, Kansas. “Three White boys, who presumably did not believe Parks could swim, threw him into the Marmaton River, yelling ‘Swim, Black boy, or die!’ ”
When he was 7-years-old, his mother bought a piano through an installment plan, and he began learning to play by ear. At that tender age we could see the germination of talent begin. CNN describes his Rubicon crossing, “while he was working as a train waiter, another waiter gave him a magazine that featured pictorials of Dust Bowl migrants. It showed Parks how powerful a tool photography could be in helping him document the injustice he had felt his entire life.”
A small purchase of a $25 camera from a pawn shop would be his pictorial hammer to fight for Black people’s justice. His vivid images of life on Chicago’s South Side won him a job documenting rural poverty for the Federal government. That led to his most famous picture, American Gothic. A weary Black cleaning lady stands in front of an American flag in a Federal office, holding the mop and broom she used to clean the building. Thanks to his brilliant vision, the rest of the world learned about the Black experience through his eyes. The voluminous work includes The Tuskegee Airmen, Malcolm X, Muhammed Ali, Dr. King, Stokely Carmichael and too many others to list.
This modern era Renaissance man’s creative talent extended beyond photography to encompass fiction and nonfiction writing, musical scores, filmmaking, and painting. He found time to write 20 books and co-found Essence magazine. In 1989 he produced, directed, and composed the music for a ballet, Martin, dedicated to Dr. King.
There is no comparison to the top 3 other movie directors. Mr. Parks received an Emmy Award in 1968 for best television documentary, Diary of a Harlem Family. That accompanied his other 200 awards, plus 56 honorary doctorates. In addition he was the first Black staff photographer for the behemoth Life magazine. He was one of our treasures.
