Black women in the silent film era
African American cinema evolved at just about the same pace as white cinema, and although the role of Black women in early silent film has only recently begun to receive popular and academic attention, Black women were involved in Black cinema from the very start of American film history. In their own day, Maria P. Williams was called the first Black woman filmmaker for her work on The Flames of Wrath (1923) and Tressie Souders was also honored with the same distinction for her work in A Woman’s Error (1922).
Source: Wikipedia — Black women in the silent film era (CC BY-SA 4.0)