The Symbol of the Unconquered/ Two-Gun Man from Harlem

Professor Michael Johnson – author of “Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos,” who brings conceptions of the African American West starting with Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 silent The Symbol of the Unconquered + Herb Jeffries in Two-Gun Man from Harlem. The Symbol of the Unconquered: Directed by Oscar Micheaux and designed especially for black audiences, this silent romance flirts with the notion of miscegenation – the hatred of inter-racial relations. The trouble begins when a dark-skinned black man finds himself avoiding the affections of a light-skinned woman because he thinks she is white. It takes quite a bit of convincing for her to prove him wrong. Two-Gun Man from Harlem: Bob Blake is a ranch foreman falsely accused of killing his boss, John Steele (Tom Southern) after spurning the man’s flirtatious wife, Ruth (Mae Turner. Returning from a stay in New York’s Harlem, Bob returns West in the guise of the Deacon, a former preacher turned killer and Bob’s look-alike.