Hollywood and the Slave Narrative

Gayle Pemberton, professor of English and African American studies, emerita, appeared on WGBH’s “Basic Black” to discuss the new film, “12 Years a Slave,” a true story about a free black man who was tricked into being a slave.

“The problem with film, of course, is that the Confederacy won the battle of images for Hollywood. The historians of Reconstruction and slavery were Southern apologists… This narrative and this movie redresses an enormous part of [the problem],” said Pemberton.