Charles Woods ( The Professor) Sidney Poitier the Slap Heard Round the World

Black film historian CHARLES WOODS recounts the depiction of Black men in American film leading up to Sidney Poitier s groundbreaking performance in IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT (1967). Woods contends the pivotal scene in which Tibbs strikes a southern racist opened the door for the 1970s Blaxploitation boom in this mini lesson on the transition of black defiance depicted in motion pictures.