Free, White and 21
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Free, White and 21 is a 1963 movie by self-proclaimed "schlockmeister", Larry Buchanan. It was based on the true story of the controversial trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman in Dallas, Texas in the 1960s. The central conflict in this film is whether African-American businessman Ernie Jones (played by Frederick O'Neal) raped Swedish immigrant and civil rights Freedom Rider Greta Mae Hansen (played by Annalena Lund). Jones was the proprietor of the hotel at which Hansen decided to stay during her time in Dallas. The movie is primarily a court room drama, with many of the key events portrayed in flashback sequences as Ernie Jones and Greta Mae Hansen testify
Free, White and 21 also refers to a 1980 video performance by artist Howardena Pindell. Pindell recounts bias incidents she has experienced as an African American woman in educational institutions, employment offices, and in various social settings.
As a student, Pindell was prevented from overstepping black/ white boundaries. For example, she was discouraged from being "accelerated" at the expense of a white student and her name was taken off a student body officer ballot because officials considered it inappropriate. Out of school, as a potential employee, she was turned away from jobs that were then offered to white candidates. As a member of a wedding party in Kennebunkport, Maine, Pindell experienced a different type of racism as guests selectively shook hands with everyone but her and later stared at her as she ate her food, thus turning basic human functions into spectacle.
As Pindell tells these stories she wraps her head in white gauze bandages, an image that serves as a metaphor for being "white-faced" and white, out in society. Pindell also portrays a white woman with blonde wig, a stocking over her head, and dark glasses who appears between story segments to reprimand black Howardena for being paranoid and ungrateful. "But then," says white Howardena, "you're not free, white and twenty one."
The phrase "Free, White and 21" is also used in the 1932 film I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang starring Paul Muni. Muni stars as prisoner who escapes from a chain gang and falls in love. While on a romantic outing with his young love, Muni asks the young lady if there is anything that requires her to be home and she responds by saying she has no responsibilities, she is "Free, White and 21".
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