Within Our Gates

Opening from writer, producer and director Oscar Micheaux, introducing Evelyn Preer as the protagonist Sylvia, Flo Clements as her cousin Alma and via the mail, James D. Ruffin as Conrad, in South America, in the oldest-known feature made by an African-American director, Within Our Gates, 1920.

Sylvia (Evelyn Preer), now committed to educating “Negroes” in the southern school where she works, arrives in Boston aiming to raise funds and is fortunate to be observed and rescued by virtuous Dr. Vivian (Charles D. Lucas), in writer-producer-director Oscar Micheaux’s landmark “race film” feature, Within Our Gates, 1920.

A diabolical move by smitten cousin Alma (Flo Clements), who intercepted the telegram from architect Conrad (James D. Ruffin) announcing his arrival to collect his fianceé Sylvia (Evelyn Preer), who has somehow been framed to be seen with another man, an irreconcilable fissure, in Oscar Micheaux’s Within Our Gates, 1920.