A Question of Color: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

A documentary film with the title A Question of Color. It consists of a single reel of color 16mm polyester film with optical sound.

The film explores feelings many African Americans harbor about themselves and their appearance. It opens with a quote by author bell hooks about how black people can change the way they are seen by themselves and others before segueing to a scene in which a young woman (Curtina Jones) relates her experience dating a man whom she describes as "very dark skinned" but who refused to allow her to meet his mother because she was too dark. In the next scene, a chorus rehearses various words and idioms used to refer to skin color and hair texture such as ebony, coal black, tar baby, red, red bone, chocolate, nappy, good hair etc.

Later in the film, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Payton, then president of Tuskegee University, discusses his experience as the institution’s first dark-skinned president, while tracing the origins of color discrimination back to slavery. Other prominent individuals featured in the film include Johnny L. Ford, then mayor of Tuskegee; artist and commentator Vertamae Smart-Grosvenor; prominent Tuskegee banker Bobby Davis and other members of the Davis family. The film also explores issues such as the resentment some light-skinned people believe darker people harbor towards them; the discontent some light-skinned people experience because of how they are perceived within the black community; as well as the strain colorism precipitates within relationships.

In the closing scenes, filmmaker Kathe Sandler relates an experience in which she and her mother were featured on the cover of Essence magazine, but her darker sister was not invited to the photoshoot. As she walks down a busy street, her own voiceover narration describes the sense of isolation she feels being a biracial light-skinned black woman, despite recognizing the privileges this confers.

Materials, dates and provenance

• Date: 1993
• Directed by: Kathe Sandler, American, born 1959
• Produced by: St. Clair Bourne, American, 1943 - 2007
• Written by: Kathe Sandler, American, born 1959
• Written by: Luke Harris, American
• Subject of: Tuskegee Institute, American, founded 1881
• Subject of: Booker T. Washington, American, 1856 - 1915
• Subject of: Dr. Benjamin Franklin Payton, American, 1932 - 2016
• Subject of: Johnny L. Ford, American, born 1942
• Type: sound films
• Type: color films (visual works)
• Type: short subjects
• Type: 16mm (photographic film size)
• Medium: polyester film
• Dimensions: Duration: 31 Minutes
• Dimensions: Length (Film): 1100 Feet
• Place used: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, United States, North and Central America
• Place depicted: Crown Heights, New York City, Kings County, New York, United States, North and Central America
• Topic: African American
• Topic: Beauty culture
• Topic: Colorism
• Topic: Documentary films
• Topic: Education
• Topic: Film
• Topic: Identity
• Topic: Politics
• Object number: 2017.55.16.1a
• Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Transferred from the DC Public Library
• Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.