For those who pursue and acting career, Hollywood, from television shows to motion pictures, offers innumerable opportunities. During the 1920s, opportunities for black actors and actresses to appear on the big screen were a privilege. However, there were challenges and limitations. These men and women were given degrading roles that were depictions of how whites perceived blacks and the way in which white filmmakers wished to portray black life on the big screen. African Americans were not given respectable roles in these films. Despite their celebrity and their effort to break the color barrier in Hollywood, they were still considered “second class citizens.” African-Americans were slowly but surely going to change the makeup of “white Hollywood” they were going to break barriers and stand firm into their demands of being respected as equals in the white man’s world. As early as 1928, African American men and women were low-paid actors and actresses who were relegated to roles such as servants, “sambo,” and uneducated-men and women. White Hollywood was amazed at how black actors and actresses appealed to white audiences. White filmmakers capitalized off black entertainers, considering them a necessity for the financial success of the film industry. Black women, in particular, were instrumental in the growing success of white filmmakers in the 1920s. During this period, Evelyn Preer was a pioneer in Hollywood. She was the first black actress to appear in motion pictures. Preer faced many challenges that her successors would also confront during their respective film careers. While black actresses had to submit to playing stereotypical black female characters during the early history of Hollywood cinema, they did so with dignity but persisted in their demands of white filmmakers to provide fair work environments and to portray them in more respectable roles. During its infancy, the film industry did not cast black actors and actresses in roles as black characters. Black characters were played by white actors in blackface. However, as more Hollywood filmmakers included black characters in motion pictures, the need grew to fill a void that would bring color to the big screen. The early film industry offered various opportunities for black actors to play stereotypical roles. D.W. Griffith’s motion picture “The Birth of a Nation” gave rise to the black villain who was referred to as a “black brute” or “brutal buck.” However, the “black jester” who was a comical character, emerged and became more commonplace in Hollywood films during the post-World War I era.1 These stereotypical roles were only two out of many that black actors would be forced to play in motion pictures. Black actors and actresses played different stereotypical roles that included: the coon, the tragic Mulatto, the mammy, the Uncle Tom, the Jezebel, and the Sapphire. The “coon” character lacked common sense and developed into one of the most degrading of all black stereotypes in Hollywood. The character “Rastus,” in Thomas Alva Edison’s 1904 “Ten Pickaninnies” shed new light on the coon figure. By 1905, the coon figure made its way to the big screen in the film “Wooling and Weeding of a Coon.” Black child actors were not exempt from playing stereotypical roles, also bringing black humor to the screen. Child actors, such as “Sunshine Sammy,” were deemed “loveable little pickaninnies.” “Sunshine Sammy” was noted for his ability to widen his eyes to the size of golf balls, having so much success in his talents that he became one of the highest paid juvenile actors during the early 1920s. In 1927, “Our Gang” made its debut on the big screen. It was a comedy short that showed child-like fun and humor. Black children auditioned and