‘The Underground Railroad’: A Dignified Representation of Black People During the Age of Our Greatest Indignity

If The Underground Railroad were the first-ever piece of media about the experience of African American slavery, the landscape of cinema at large, Black cinema in particular, could be entirely different today. Barry Jenkins did not come here to play with y’all and no games were played in either the creation or the production of this limited series. A certain mastery of craft and understanding of culture come together to deliver insights and parallels that speak to today way too easily. Started From A Novel Now We Here If you didn’t know, The Underground Railroad is an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s award-winning novel of the same name. It follows Cora Randall’s escape from a Georgia plantation for the rumored Underground Railroad. What she finds is no mere metaphor, but an actual railroad full of engineers and conductors, and a secret network of tracks and tunnels beneath the Southern soil. Cora is pursued by a bounty hunter obsessed with bringing her back to the plantation since her mother Mabel is the only runaway he has never caught.

Pictured (L-R): Amber Gray (Gloria Valentine), Peter de Jersey (John Valentine); Copyright: Amazon Studios

The Whole Truth And Nothing But Following Cora’s journey through the antebellum South, The Underground Railroad connects the Black experience to every aspect of the United States’ rise to empire. There has never been a more dignified representation of Black people during the age of our greatest indignity. Equally, never has there bee…