Civil Rights in Hollywood

The Civil Rights movement ofthe 60's proved to be equally relative to hollywood as it was everywhere else in America. In earlier decades, blacks were mostly cast as degrading roles, such as servants and criminals. This created an issue for black actors attempting to gain larger roles, since this mindset essentially cypecast every black actor in hollywood as a submissive role. Furthermore, this action was criticized as incredibly racist by civil rights leaders.

Due to criticism, Hollywood began to give larger roles to black actors. In order to appease the public, roles originally written for whites would be reassigned to blacks. However, in doing this, new problems have arisen in hollywood for blacks. Though they recieved roles intended for whites, black actors often recieved roles which involved being the victim of violence or roles with little screentime. Many people critique this new form of discrimination in Hollywood, which is only now beginning to be resolved.

(source:http://www.spectacle.org/1295/blacks.html)