In 1971, Black people were hungry and tired for many things.
The Civil Rights Era had seemingly ended, bringing with it laws that protected instead of restricting People of Color.
Progress had come at a heavy cost.
Martin was gone.
So was Medgar and Malcolm.
While Blacks felt the strongest rush of self-determination they had ever felt, much of it still seemed theoretical. Things were demonstratively better, but some things had not changed much.
Popular media tended to feature Blacks in the same old ways.
Butlers and maids.
Pimps and hustlers.
Expendable best friends.
Comic relief.
There were a few exceptions, most notably former pro football player Jim Brown, who starred in some action and Western films. While he died in some of his films like “Rio Conchos,” “Dark of the Sun,” and most notably, “The Dirty Dozen,” he also was a leading man who survived in such films as “100 Rifles.”
But overall, we were in the background. Sometimes part of the scenery, sometimes a bit more, but rarely playing someone substantially noble who walks into the sunset living and breathing at the end.
We were intimidating, savage, subhuman. Not worthy of carrying the hero mantle.
But 1971 was a year of change.
That was the year “Shaft” was released.
Starring Richard Roundtree, the film about a Black private detective caught up in gang warfare in New York City was a major box office success.
Roundtree was hailed as the “first Black action hero.”
The beloved and reviled “blaxploitation” era in Hollywood had begun.
Black heroes and heroines were everywhere. Throughout the seventies, mostly Black audiences were treated to Black men and women being focal points, either exacting revenge, working hard to maintain their criminal enterprise, and sometimes both.
While some blaxploitation lead characters were detectives and secret agents, others were gangsters, pimps, and drug dealers. The joy experienced at having Black film leads was tempered by an outcry that the movies glorified and perpetuated damaging stereotypes.
The stalwarts of the blaxploitation era include Jim Brown, fellow former football player Fred Williamson, Pam Grier, Tamara Dobson, and Jim Kelly.
The blaxploitation era was firmly over by the early eighties. For about a decade, Black heroism was rarely seen on either movie or television screens.
The 1990s saw a resurgence of the Black action hero. Wesley Snipes became an action film staple with films such “Passenger 57,” “Rising Sun,” “Drop Zone,” and “Money Train.”
Rapper turned actor Will Smith began to play a leading man in action thrillers in the mid-nineties with “Bad Boys,” “Independence Day,” and “Enemy of the State.”
Actress Zoe Saldana has appeared in the “Avatar” films, “Columbiana,” the “Star Trek” reboot, and “The Guardians of the Galaxy” films.
The new millennium has seen a number of Black action heroes made up from a diverse group of Black men and women.
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has parlayed his former wrestling career into leading man status, playing in everything from science fiction/fantasy to comedy, with a healthy number of action films mixed in, including “The Rundown,” “Walking Tall,” “San Andreas,” and his appearance in some of the “Fast and Furious” films.
Vin Diesel has starred in the “Fast and Furious” films, as well as “Pitch Black” and the subsequent Riddick films.
Halle Berry was the first Black Bond “girl” who matched her action skills with 007 in “Die Another Day.” The Academy Award-winning actress also performed in other action films such as playing Storm in the “X-Men” movies, “Executive Action,” “Catwoman,” and “John Wick: Chapter 3.”
Finally, Denzel Washington, Oscar winner for “Glory” and “Training Day,” has starred in several action films, including “Man on Fire,” “John Q,” “Inside Man,” “Safe House,” and perhaps most notably, the “Equalizer” films where he portrays an ex-government assassin who is now a vigilante using his “special skills to help the weak and helpless.
The proliferation of Black action heroes doesn’t mean that society is perfect. No rational person believes that racism is dead, but the rise of the Black Action Hero has run parallel to racial advancements. Art often mirrors society, and as deeply flawed as American society is, it is laudable that Black men and women can be shown as heroic and virtuous.
Laudable is not perfection, but it is something.
And we can hope that laudable will lead to much, much more.