Donald Bogle

Donald Bogle, the author of the highly acclaimed book Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography, is one of the foremost authorities on African Americans in the movies. His book Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies, and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films, which is considered a classic study of Black movie images in America, is now in its fourth edition. A new updated, expanded edition of his book Brown Sugar: Over A Hundred Years of America’s Black Female Superstars---which is a stunning examination of the lives and careers of African American women from the early years of the twentieth century to the present, from Bessie Smith and Josephine Baker up to today’s Beyonce-- was recently published. Brown Sugar was also previously adapted by Bogle into a four-hour, four-part documentary for PBS. He is also the author of such prize-winning books as Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood; Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television; and Blacks in American Films and Television: An Illustrated Encyclopedia. He is presently completing work on a biography of African American singer/actress Ethel Waters, which is to be published in 2011 by HarperCollins Publishers. Presently, Bogle teaches at both the University of Pennsylvania and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.