The House Behind the Cedars facts for kids

The House Behind the Cedars is a 1927 silent movie made by the famous director Oscar Micheaux. He directed, wrote, produced, and shared the film himself. It was based on a 1900 book with the same name by African-American writer Charles W. Chesnutt. Chesnutt's stories often looked at ideas about race, social class, and who people are, especially in the South after the Civil War.

Sadly, no copies of this film are known to exist today. This means it is considered a lost film. Oscar Micheaux later remade the movie in 1932, calling it Veiled Aristocrats.

At first, the Virginia Censorship Board tried to stop the film from being shown in their state. They worried it would cause problems between different racial groups. In 1924, Virginia had passed a law called the Racial Integrity Act. This law said that anyone with any known African family history would be officially classified as Black, no matter how they saw themselves. Even though Micheaux made some changes to the film to get it shown, he told the board that another movie, Birth of a Nation, was the one that truly caused trouble and anger among Black people.

The Story of the Film

Rena's Difficult Choices

The film's main character is Rena (Shingzie Howard), a young woman of mixed-race heritage. She is liked by Frank (C.D. Griffith), a successful African American man. However, Rena does not choose him. Because of her appearance, she can be seen as white, even though she grew up in the Black community.

Rena meets and falls in love with George Tryon (Lawrence Chenault), a young white man from a wealthy family. As their relationship grows, Rena feels she must tell him about her African ancestry. She leaves George and goes back to Frank. But this decision makes her feel very upset inside. When she accepts Frank as her partner, she tells him, "Frank, I am miserable."

How the Film Was Made

Inspired by a Book

The House Behind the Cedars was based on a book written in 1900 by Charles W. Chesnutt. Chesnutt himself was of mixed heritage, mostly European, but with some African ancestry. He grew up in the Black community, where his family had been classified due to slavery. His books often explored the lives of people with mixed heritage, especially in the South after the Civil War. This was the second movie Oscar Micheaux made based on Chesnutt's books. The first was The Conjure Woman in 1926.

Connecting to Current Events

Micheaux promoted The House Behind the Cedars by linking it to a real-life event happening in New York at the time. This was the legal case of Leonard Rhinelander, a rich man who wanted to end his marriage to Alice Jones. He said he didn't know she had mixed-race parents until after they were married.

Even though the film's story was different from the Rhinelander case, the movie's advertisements pointed out the similarities. They used phrases like "An Amazing Parallel to the Famous Rhinelander Case!" and "Rhinelander Case at the Regent." A longer ad explained that the film was "a remarkable parallel to the famous Rhinelander Case... It tells the story of a beautiful mixed-race girl who pretends to be white, and is loved by a young white millionaire. Though worried, she does not tell her secret. Then comes the discovery as in the Rhinelander case."

The Actors and Filming Location

The actor who played the white aristocrat, Lawrence Chenault, was actually a light-skinned actor of mixed heritage. Shingzie Howard, who played Rena, was also of mixed race. She had acted in other Micheaux films before, like The Virgin of the Seminole and Uncle Jasper's Will.

Micheaux filmed The House Behind the Cedars in Roanoke, Virginia.

Facing Challenges in Virginia

Film Banned at First

When Oscar Micheaux returned to Virginia to show his film, the state's three-man Board of Censors banned it. They found the movie "so objectionable" that they refused to allow it to be shown. This happened just a few years after Virginia passed its Racial Integrity Act in 1924. This law created the one-drop rule, which meant anyone with any African heritage was officially classified as Black.

The board asked other state officials, including Walter Plecker, who supported ideas about improving the human race through controlled breeding and helped put the new law into practice, to review the film. All these officials were white. They felt the film's story was too dangerous for their social system, known as Jim Crow, which kept racial groups separate and unequal. They worried it would harm relationships between the races.

Micheaux's Response and Cuts

Micheaux agreed to make some cuts to the film. However, he pointed out that no other state or censorship board had objected to the movie or asked for changes. He said it had been shown in many places "without incident." He also mentioned that when Chesnutt's book was published 30 years earlier, "over a thousand white people" read it for every Black person. He repeated that only one film, Birth of a Nation, had ever caused riots among Black people. After Micheaux made the cuts, the film was finally shown in Virginia.

Later, the board used their review of the film to test if white government workers truly supported the Racial Integrity Act. They thought some comments from board member Arthur James were not critical enough of the film. They shared these comments with John Powell, who led the Anglo-Saxon Clubs, a group that supported white supremacy. Powell then tried to get James removed from his job and caused many critical letters to be sent by members of the Anglo-Saxon Clubs. James kept his job and was later given a different important role in the government.

Micheaux remade The House Behind the Cedars in 1932, giving it the new title Veiled Aristocrats. As mentioned, no copies of the original 1927 film are known to exist, and it is believed to be a lost film.

Cast

The actors in the film included:

• Lawrence Chenault
• Shingzie Howard
• C. D. Griffith