"One of the most original and successful filmmakers of all time, Oscar Micheaux was born into a rural, working-class African-American family in middle America in 1884, yet he created an impressive legacy in commercial cinema. Between 1913 and 1951 he wrote, directed, and distributed some forty-three feature films, more than any other black filmmaker in the world, a record of production that is likely to stand for a very long time."--BOOK JACKET.