I had a thought about Black History Month and zombie fiction. Books and movies about the undead are horrific escapism but serve as social commentaries reflecting the times in which they are created. If you want to find groundbreaking actors and characters of all colors look in the fictional fights against the undead.

George Romero’s classic Night of the Living Dead filmed in stark black and white arrived in 1968 and reflected the horrors of the Vietnam war and racial unrest in the United States. Romero made an African-American man the hero of his film. Duane Jones played Ben, one of five people trapped in a farmhouse as the undead rise and attack.  This was 1968. A black man portrayed as the hero and doing such things Continue reading Black History Month and Zombies?