Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame

The Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, Inc. (BFHFI), was founded in 1974, in Oakland, California. It supported and promoted black filmmaking, and preserved the contributions by African-American artists both before and behind the camera. It also sponsored advance screenings of films by and about people of African descent and hosted the Oscar Micheaux Awards Ceremony, held each February, from 1974 to 1993, in Oakland.

The Hall started as the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1974, as an all-volunteer project of Oakland Museum of California's Cultural and Ethnics Affairs Guild. It grew quickly, incorporating as BFHFI in 1977.

In 2014, all its archives were given to the Black Film Center/Archive, within the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington.^[1]

This is a partial list of inductees:^[2]

Inductees

1974

• Alvin Childress (1907–1986)
• Lillian Cumber (1920–2002)
• Ossie Davis (1917–2005)
• Sammy Davis Jr. (1925–1990)
• Katherine Dunham (1909–2006)
• Theresa Harris (1906–1985)
• Eugene Jackson (1916–2001)
• William Marshall (1924–2003)
• Juanita Moore (1914–2014)
• Clarence Muse (1889–1979)
• Gordon Parks Sr. (1912–2006)
• Lincoln Theodore Perry (stage name Stepin Fetchit) (1902–1985)
• Beah Richards (1920–2000)
• Paul Robeson (1898–1976)
• Vincent Tubbs (1915–1989)
• Lorenzo Tucker (1907–1986)
• Leigh Whipper (1876–1975)

1975

• Ruby Dee (1922–2014)
• Allen Hoskins (1920–1980)
• Hall Johnson (1888–1970)
• Abbey Lincoln (1930–2010)
• Hattie McDaniel (1895–1952)
• Butterfly McQueen (1911–1995)
• Louis S. Peterson (1922–1998)
• Fredi Washington (1903–1994)

1976

• Eubie Blake (1887–1983)
• Louise Beavers (1902–1962)
• Oscar Micheaux (1884–1951)
• Brock Peters (1927–2005)
• Melvin Van Peebles (1932–2021)
• Diahann Carroll (1935–2019)

1977

• Maidie Norman (1912–1998)
• Cicely Tyson (1924–2021)

1978

• Benny Carter (1907–2003)
• Nicholas Brothers - Fayard (1914–2006), Harold (1921–2000)
• Nina Mae McKinney (1912–1967)
• Sidney Poitier (1927-2022)

1979

• Lonne Elder III (1927–1996)
• Earl "Fatha" Hines (1903–1983)
• Herb Jeffries (1913–2014)
• Etta Moten Barnett (1901–2004)
• Oodgeroo Noonuccal (1920–1993)
• Floyd Norman (born 1935)
• Diana Sands (1934–1973)
• Leo D. Sullivan (1940–2023)
• Paul Winfield (1939–2004)

1980

• Vinnette Carroll (1922–2002)
• Ivan Dixon (1931–2008)
• James Edwards (1918–1970)
• William Greaves (1926–2014)
• Lillian Randolph (1898–1980)
• Frank Silvera (1914–1970)
• Woody Strode (1914–1994)

1982

• Cab Calloway (1907–1994)

1984

• Billy Dee Williams (born 1937)

1986

• Madame Sul-Te-Wan (1873–1959)

1987

• Sammy Davis, Jr. (1925–1990)
• Scatman Crothers (1910–1986)
• Jeni Le Gon (1916–2012)
• Ernie Morrison (1912–1989)

1990

• Suzanne de Passe (born 1948)
• Danny Glover (born 1946)

1991

• Michael Schultz (born 1938)
• August Wilson (1945–2005)

1993

• Madeline Anderson (born 1923/4)
• Rosalind Cash (1938–1995)

1995

• William D. Alexander (1916–1991)

See also

• Black Reel Awards
• Mary Perry Smith

Additional resources

• Indiana University maintains the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame Archives.