I Crossed The Color Line (1966)

“I Crossed the Color Line” (1966) is the original release title of The Black Klansman, a low‑budget exploitation drama directed by Ted V. Mikels. It was later reissued under the more provocative name The Black Klansman. The film is remembered today as a controversial artifact of 1960s race‑relations cinema, blending pulp melodrama with civil rights themes.

The film was marketed under multiple titles: I Crossed the Color Line, I Crossed the Line, and The Black Klansman. Posters and trailers emphasized its sensationalist premise to attract audiences during the height of civil rights tensions.

Plot Summary

Set during the civil rights movement, the story follows Jerry Ellsworth (played by Richard Gilden, a white actor cast as a light‑skinned Black man), a Los Angeles jazz musician. After his young daughter is killed in a Ku Klux Klan bombing of a church, Ellsworth vows revenge.

To infiltrate the Klan, he “crosses the color line” by passing as white and joining the organization. His mission of vengeance exposes the brutality and hypocrisy of the Klan, while his relationship with his white girlfriend Andrea (Rima Kutner) adds further tension. The narrative mixes exploitation tropes—violence, melodrama, and sensational dialogue—with topical civil rights issues.

Cast

• Richard Gilden as Jerry Ellsworth
• Rima Kutner as Andrea
• Harry Lovejoy as Rook
• Max Julien as Raymond
• Jakie Deslonde as Farley
• James McEachin as Lonnie
• Supporting roles by Maureen Gaffney, William McLennard, and others

Production Notes

• Filmed on a low budget, with Mikels himself handling editing.
• The casting of a white actor as a Black protagonist was controversial even at the time, reflecting both exploitation marketing strategies and Hollywood’s racial blind spots.
• The film’s lurid advertising promised “a Negro infiltrates the Ku Klux Klan!”—a sensational hook designed to shock audiences.
• Despite its exploitative framing, the film touched on real anxieties of the civil rights era, including interracial relationships and racial violence.