since this thread started I've been trying to think of the movie I saw.
It was on TCM a while ago. it was like the very first blaxploitation movie from like 1927. It was good. the guy ran a protection racket or somethign
Actually, all -black cast films go back to 1916, where Noble (KING KONG, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE) Johnson and his brother
George started the first black production company- Lincoln Motion Picture Company. Another early films company was Ebony Pictures which made all black comedies as early as 1918. Of course they weren't called 'blaxploitation" films back then- they were called "race pictures".