In 1913 author Oscar Micheaux published his first novel, The Conquest. Six years later he adapted that novel into a film entitled The Homesteader. Since then, dozens of novels written by Black Americans have been adapted for screens.
You’re listening to Remarkable Receptions – a podcast about popular and critical responses to African American novels.
After 1919, Micheaux wrote, directed, and produced over 40 films, establishing himself as the first prominent African American feature filmmaker. Several of his films were adaptations by Black novelists, including himself and Charles W. Chestnutt.
Micheaux helped to break barriers for Black filmmakers, which also benefitted Black novelists. Since The Homesteader, many novels have been transformed for the big screen, such as Richard Wright’s Native Son, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, Sapphire’s Push, and more.
Later, with the rise in access to television, the work of novelists and filmmakers could be seen from the pleasure of people’s living rooms. Cable networks facilitated the proliferation of Black novel adaptions. One of the earliest examples is Ernest Gaines’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. The television movie adaptation premiered on CBS in 1974 featuring actress Cicely Tyson.
Television provided the possibility of extending these stories beyond the average 90 minutes, too. Some novels were transformed into television miniseries, such as Roots by Alex Hayley and The Women of Brewster Place by Gloria Naylor. Queen Sugar by Natalie Baszile was adapted to a series that aired from 2016 to 2022.
Between 1974 and 2020, cable networks like ABC, HBO, and Showtime have adapted nearly 15 novels by Black authors for television.
Between 2021 and 2023, a timespan of just three years, streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video produced 9 adaptations of Black novels. Soon, streaming services will become the primary destination of adaptations.
The advent of streaming platforms functioning as production companies has created opportunities for more televisual depictions of Black narratives. Thus, more motion picture adaptations of Black novels. Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, Zakiya Dalila Harris’s The Other Black Girl, and The Channeling by Victor LaValle have all been transformed into series by way of streaming platforms.
The adaption of novels into big and small screen productions raises the possibilities that these works by African American novelists will gain a remarkable reception.
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This episode was written by Nicole Dixon. The episode was edited by Elizabeth Cali and Howard Rambsy.