Black History Month pays homage to the many African Americans who have shaped history, from Rosa Parks to Martin Luther King Jr. Yet there are a number of significant African Americans whose achievements are not as widely remembered. If you’ve never heard of Maria P. Williams you’re certainly not alone, but her cinematic achievements paved the way for countless Black women who followed in her footsteps; and her life is just as interesting as her work.

While African American filmmakers have been around since the birth of cinema, their achievements have gone largely unrecognized until recently. Black filmmakers like Oscar Micheaux and the Lincoln Motion Picture Company – one of the first Black production companies led by brothers George and Noble Johnson, widely considered the first African American movie star – made what became known as “race films” for segregated audiences, featuring nearly all-Black casts to craft a self-determined image of African American life. Yet, the vast majority of Black cinematic contributions from the early 20th century have been lost, with just four minutes of the Lincoln Motion Picture Company’s final film, By Right of Birth (1921) remaining.