Released in 1972, in the wake of major advances in the African-American freedom struggle, Buck and The Preacher is considered the first African-American western film. It tells the forgotten story of free black pioneer families, recently released from slavery, who settle in the American West. By adapting the western genre to tell this story, a genre particularly associated with white male pioneers overcoming Native peoples and installing civilization, Poitier contests the hegemonic narrative of \u201cthe wild west.\u201d Buck and the Preacher operates as a counter-hegemonic narrative. Re-inserting African-Americans into the history of the West and reclaiming who can tell Western stories, Poitier\u2019s Hollywood film reverses the logics of cultural consent undergirding white supremacy.<\/p>\n
Born in Miami, on February 20, 1927, the son of Bahamian immigrants, Sidney Poitier once said of his experiences as a young fan of movies – westerns in particular \u2013 that, \u201cFilms taught me about other people, how to dial a telephone, geography, names of places, things I never knew before.\u201d Buck and The Preacher then, in a sense, originates from Poitier\u2019s childhood love of films and the fascination he had in separating reality from fiction. As the single most important black film star of the 1960s, Poitier developed an image as a suave black man who played roles that satisfied the expectations of white viewers. They enjoyed watching a black man play roles that were familiar and secondary to them.<\/p>\n
As director, Poitier was able to shake-up these expectations by utilizing his position as director to portray an image of black-self empowerment and struggle. In the opening scene of Buck and The Preacher, these following words depicting the time of the story\u2019s events are shown scrolling up the screen:<\/p>\n
The Civil War was over and by law the slaves were freed. But when the promise of land and freedom was not honored, many ex-slaves journeyed out of the land of bondage in search of new frontiers where they could be free at last. They placed their hopes in the hands of the few black wagon masters that knew the territories of the West. None of this came easy, for not only did they have to overcome a hostile wilderness, but night riders and bounty hunters were hired by \u201cpersons unknown\u201d to hunt them down and turn them back to the fields. This picture is dedicated to those men, women, and children who lie in graves as unmarked as their place in history.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The excerpt summarized practical problems that faced African-Americans settling in the west: avoiding night riders, securing safe passage across Native-American territory, having money, and finding land to settle. By drawing attention to these problems that are typically associated with white pioneers, Poitier raises questions of power. In society, to whom does power belong, and how do those with power ensure that their marginalized citizens refuse rebellion and remain complacent? Within history, whose stories are remembered and whose are forgotten?<\/p>\n
Power distribution reveals itself in the preacher\u2019s brandishing of the Bible. Also known as Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford, the Preacher, an African-American, takes on the identity of his former slave master, in order to navigate his way in a society that does not value the lives of black people. In doing this, the preacher enables himself to travel freely within a white majority culture that would rather see him live his whole life as a slave, unable to make any decisions in his life. By becoming a preacher, acting out the religion of his oppressors, the Preacher is able to maneuver more easily through certain social spaces because of his \u2018familiarity\u2019 and respectability. An example of this can be seen in the scene where the Preacher enters Esther\u2019s brothel to confront Ollie and his gang \u2013 a group of bona fide labor recruiters hired by the Delta Planters Association in Louisiana to hunt down freed slaves and to return them to work on the fields unannounced. It is astounding to see that Willis\u2019 occupation as a travelling preacher even saves him from the consideration of being captured. There for money and revenge, he and Buck use his role as a preacher to execute a sneak attack in which their revenge is successful and money is gained.<\/p>\n
Societal inclusivity can be achieved regardless of social class. Oppressed people can insert themselves into the dominant culture by living within and re-inventing the narrative to reflect the life and time of their communities. Reverend Willis Oakes Rutherford of the Holy Persuasion Church, does just this. Towards the end of the film, Buck asks the preacher, \u201cWhere\u2019d you get that funny Bible?\u201d The preacher replies with a statement that depicts the origin of his self-insertion into a predominantly white and Christian society as a former slave:<\/p>\n
Well, that my inheritance. Before the war, when I was a boy, my mama and me was sold to this here traveling preacher. And I\u2019d fetch for him and take up collection. And when he got drunk, I\u2019d haul him off to bed\u2026… Between revivals he\u2019d\u2026take my mama to bed, and I\u2019d sleep out with the horse. By and by, about 16, he sent me to town for a jug of whiskey. When I come back, my mama was gone. He sold her for a couple hundred dollars. He got drunk that night and he said, uh, \u2018Boy, put me to bed.\u2019 So I lead that man into the tanning yard by the lime pit. And I put him to bed right there. I hold him under with a cedar fence rail. There was no next of kin, so I got the cart, the horse, preacher clothes and\u2026this funny Bible.<\/p>\n
Upon reuniting with Buck and meeting the Preacher for the first time, Ruth, Buck\u2019s lover, expresses her excitement at the thought that she and Buck will finally be moving north to Canada. However, this excitement is short lived when Buck tells her that he must first help secure the safe passage of the St. Anne Parish people across Native-American lands before the two of them can commence their journey. The St. Anne Parish people have recently been attacked by night riders, have no money, and no shelter or food for the coming winter. As the person who vowed for their secure passage, Buck feels a responsibility to make sure that they arrive safely to their destination. However, Ruth is less than thrilled about remaining in the United States any longer and states:<\/p>\n
It\u2019s like a poison soaked into the ground. They ain\u2019t gonna give us nothing. Not no 40 acres and no mule. And not freedom, neither. I wanna live somewhere with you, Buck, like natural people. I wanna have your children, and I wanna raise them someplace where there ain\u2019t even a shadow of slavery.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Within this statement, Ruth\u2019s anxiety about remaining in the United States expresses the concern of minority populations in a white hegemonic society. Ruth serves as the representative of truth and reality. The truth is that black folks will never be seen as wholly equal to the white majority due to their past history as slaves, and the reality lies in the fact that the shadow of slavery will never go away. Living each day in the United States will be a constant reminder of it. So while the rhetoric of the hegemonic class says that black and white people are presently equal under the protection of the law, it remains undeniably true that some bodies are more valued than others. This is demonstrated by the night riders who specifically target the St. Anne Parish people to work as free farm laborers in Louisiana for the white folks whose way of life have been disrupted by their slaves\u2019 recent freedom. Ruth refuses to consent to the hegemonic narrative that naturalized African-American oppression.<\/p>\n
According to social theorist Antonio Gramsci, the cultural consent of oppressed people is required in order for hegemonic classes to rule. It is not only demonstrated by black Americans who decide to remain in the United States, but also by Native-Americans who, although they have fought and put up much resistance against white pioneers, have suffered tremendous losses and must now surrender to dominant American culture in order to ensure a future for their generations to come. In Buck and The Preacher, Buck negotiates regularly with Native-Americans to ensure the safe passage of black communities into the American West. However, negotiations do not always go as planned, even when two groups are being oppressed by the same oppressor. Buck acknowledges this common enemy when hoping to negotiate for some guns and bullets from the Native-Americans.<\/p>\n
In response to this declaration of being a united front against a white majority, the Native-American chief\u2019s wife translates for her husband: \u201cHe say you, black people, fought with that enemy against our people.\u201d This statement – because it is true – silences Buck, and he complies with their demands in return for their protection.<\/p>\n
Poitier\u2019s inclusion of Native-Americans in the film represents another image of a non-white west and also serves to show additional resistance, besides those of black people, against the white hegemonic power during the 1960s and 1970s. Poitier filmed at the height of the American Indian movement, which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1968. Its goal was to help Native-Americans in the ghettos demand justice against the United States for its failure to uphold the promises made between the U.S. and their ancestors long ago. The leaders of the movement pushed for the United States\u2019 government to recognize the Native-Americans living in Minneapolis as members of an independent republic – owners of the lands that were illegally taken away from them.<\/p>\n
By directing Buck and The Preacher<\/em>, Poitier used Hollywood as a vehicle to re-insert African-Americans and Native-Americans into the canonical American mythology of manifest destiny and the West. As one of the few black stars in Hollywood, Sidney Poitier felt like he had the responsibility to tell the untold stories of America\u2019s disenfranchised groups, to pull his weight in the movements. During a televised interview on August 22, 1967 in Atlanta, Georgia, Sidney Poitier told reporters asking him questions about the race riots that recently occurred in Newark, Delaware and Detroit, Michigan, \u201cIt seems to me that at this moment, this day, you could ask me about many positive things that are happening in this country\u2026to pay court to sensationalism, to pay court to negativism.\u201d Buck and The Preacher thus serves as Poitier\u2019s way of telling the narratives of those who would otherwise be painted negatively by the white hegemony in control of the media, to tell the positive stories and struggles of these folks in a real and humane way.<\/p>\nFurther Reading<\/strong><\/p>\nAram Goudsouzian, Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor<\/em>. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004.<\/p>\nAntonio Gramsci, The Prison Notebooks: Selected Writings, 1916-1935<\/em>. New York: New York University Press, 2000.<\/p>\nMichael K. Johnson, Hoo-Doo Cowboys and Bronze Buckaroos: Conceptions of the African American West<\/em> Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2015.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Dominique Brown ’17 Released in 1972, in the wake of major advances in the African-American freedom struggle, Buck and The Preacher is considered the first African-American western film. It tells the forgotten story of free black pioneer families, recently released from slavery, who settle in the American West. By adapting the western genre to tell this story, a genre particularly associated with white male … Continue reading Sidney Poitier\u2019s Buck and the Preacher<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2087,"featured_media":500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[52761],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interpretive-essays"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/05\/811826550424829844.jpg?fit=640%2C320&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7um32-87","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":370,"url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/2016\/05\/01\/sidney-poitier\/","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":0},"title":"SIDNEY POITIER","author":"Dominique Brown","date":"May 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"SIDNEY POITIER October 23, 1971 The first black actor to win the Academy Award, Sidney Poitier, is pictured here inside Richmond\u2019s Loew's Theater at a benefit screening of Buck and the Preacher, a western in which he co-produced, directed, and starred. Buck and the Preacher told the story of African-Americans\u2019\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Famous Visitors"","block_context":{"text":"Famous Visitors","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/category\/famous-visitors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/Poitier.png?fit=546%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/Poitier.png?fit=546%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/Poitier.png?fit=546%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":425,"url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/2016\/05\/05\/black-power-kwame-ture-and-college-activism-in-the-1960s-and-1970s\/","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":1},"title":"Black Power, Kwame Ture, and College Activism in the 1960s and 1970s","author":"Alexandra Byrum","date":"May 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Karolina Castro, '16 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stokely Carmichael was a Trinidadian-American revolutionary of the Civil Right era known for popularizing the term \u201cBlack Power.\u201d Carmichael started his activist career as a student at Howard University in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). \u00a0He later became the prime minister of the Black\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interpretive Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Interpretive Essays","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/category\/interpretive-essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/ture1.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/ture1.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/ture1.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/ture1.jpg?fit=1024%2C695&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":410,"url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/2016\/05\/05\/black-hawk-a-study-of-native-americans-in-virginia-and-their-role-in-american-cultural-studies\/","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":2},"title":"Black Hawk: A Study of Native Americans in Virginia and their Role in American Cultural Studies","author":"Alexandra Byrum","date":"May 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Kasey McGhee, '17 After English colonists landed in Virginia in the 1600s, they \u00a0established a social divide based on skin color. The Europeans regarded African slaves and Indians as a barbaric other. However, as time progressed and laws evolved, Virginians came to classify Africans and Indians differently. In his\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Interpretive Essays"","block_context":{"text":"Interpretive Essays","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/category\/interpretive-essays\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/index.html_.jpeg?fit=530%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/index.html_.jpeg?fit=530%2C360&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/index.html_.jpeg?fit=530%2C360&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":435,"url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/2016\/05\/05\/abolition-as-an-interracial-fight-in-richmond-virginia\/","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":3},"title":"Abolition as an Interracial Fight in Richmond, Virginia","author":"Alexandra Byrum","date":"May 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"By Sharon Lim, '16 Solomon Northrup\u2019s and Charles Dickens\u2019 visit to Richmond, and subsequent personal testimonies shed insight into the institution of slavery, through the very different eyes of a freeborn African American \u00a0and \u00a0an acclaimed British author. \u00a0Their vastly different social standing affected how they documented their experiences with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Famous Visitors"","block_context":{"text":"Famous Visitors","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/category\/famous-visitors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/HD_RichmondVAc1850.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/HD_RichmondVAc1850.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/HD_RichmondVAc1850.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/HD_RichmondVAc1850.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/HD_RichmondVAc1850.jpg?fit=1200%2C600&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":366,"url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/2016\/05\/01\/gertrude-stein\/","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":4},"title":"GERTRUDE STEIN","author":"Dominique Brown","date":"May 1, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"GERTRUDE STEIN February 5-8, 1935 Avant-garde poet and novelist, Gertrude Stein, made multiple visits to Richmond in the the 1930s and 1940s. Known for her experimentation with narrative literary conventions, Stein hosted acclaimed artists like Pablo Picasso and Ernest Hemingway at her Paris salon. The expatriate returned to the United\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Famous Visitors"","block_context":{"text":"Famous Visitors","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/category\/famous-visitors-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/GertrudeStein.png?fit=900%2C708&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/GertrudeStein.png?fit=900%2C708&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/GertrudeStein.png?fit=900%2C708&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/files\/2016\/04\/GertrudeStein.png?fit=900%2C708&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":273,"url":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/greetingsfromrichmond\/2016\/04\/28\/black-hawk\/","url_meta":{"origin":503,"position":5},"title":"BLACK HAWK","author":"Ryan Brazell (Admin)","date":"April 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"BLACK HAWK April 1833 In the Spring of 1833, Black Hawk, a Native American and member of the Sauk nation, was held captive in Richmond\u2019s Eagle Hotel at Broad and 12th Streets. 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