5 Blaxploitation Posters That Define a Redefining Movement

In 1971, a film called Shaft—a breakthrough for Black cinema—was released. It was what Junius Griffin, then president of the Beverly Hills-Hollywood branch of the NAACP, called “Blaxploitation,” a term he derisively coined by combining “Black” with the “exploitation” genre of film. Blaxploitation films have since been reappraised for elevating Black characters into heroes, rather than sidekicks or criminals, as...