Black Women

Within Our Gates is a 1920 film starring Evelyn Preer. It was made in direct response to The Birth of a Nation. It is the story of a black woman who raises money for a local school in need. She faces adversity and finds love along the way. The director and producer, Oscar Micheaux, was the first African American filmmaker. Preer wears almost the same outfit throughout the film. She is very put together. Her skirt is a hobble skirt.
Students pictured in The Crisis magazine in 1914. The Crisis was the NAACP magazine, edited by W.E.B. DuBois. The 1910s was a period when women began entering schools and the workforce in unprecedented numbers. We see here that in addition to the freedom to attend school, women's dresses were not as restricting. However, the students' dress is still very formal.

Though fashion at the turn of the century was becoming looser and less formal, many black women still wore Victorian styles to clarify their respectability. The suffrage movement, which brought women together, inspired fashion choices, and forever altered women's place in society, was, unfortunately, as segregated as the rest of the country. Black women responded to these obstacles by gaining education, entering the workforce, making art, and much more. "Within Our Gates" is a film from 1920. It was created by the first African-American filmmaker, Oscar Micheaux, and starred Evelyn Preer. It was made in direct response to "Birth of a Nation." It followed a black woman who had faced difficulties but led a good life despite them. She fell in love with a black man and gave back to the community around her.

Rhodes, Jane. “Pedagogies of Respectability: Race, Media, and Black Womanhood in the Early 20th Century.” Souls 18, no. 2–4 (October 2016): 201–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/10999949.2016.1230814.