Black Horror Journal

In this episode, we take a look at Mantan Moreland, who became the first Black person to die in a modern mainstream horror movie. Moreland has a complicated legacy rooted in vaudeville and as the poster child for Black stereotypes in cinema, but his death in 1968's "Spider Baby," was symbolic of Hollywood's, and by extension, the world's troubling relationship with Black Lives in real life, and on film. We also explore how the erosion of censorship under the Hays Code and the end of the Civil Rights Era played roles in his career as well.