“So, what is a bale of cotton doing in Harlem?”
About the Series: Blaxploitation and the Cities That Make Us is a 6-week analytical series exploring the relationship between Blaxploitation protagonists and the communities that shape them. Whether Los Angeles, Harlem, Oakland, or Detroit, these cities are living organisms that influence each protagonist’s identity. Through historical, cultural, and film analyses, this series examines how each project reflects the neighborhoods, struggles, and communities that gave rise to some of Black cinema’s most adored heroes.
Raymond St. Jacques as “Coffin” Ed Johnson and Godfrey Cambridge as “Grave Digger” Jones in Cotton Comes to Harlem (1970)
Directed by the late, great Ossie Davis, Cotton Comes to Harlem is an electric early Blaxploitation classic centering “Grave Digger” Jones (Godfrey Cambridge) and “Coffin” Ed Johnson (Raymond St. Jacques), two wise-cracking, street-smart Black American cops working in tandem in Harlem. While often remembered for its punchy comedy and noir flair, Davis’ greatest feat is embedding Harlem as a character as central to the story as Digger and Ed. Every scene reveals the neighborhood as a living structure built on protecting itself despite the internal and external corruption threatening the community.