To start, like all of mankind's art forms, this is a flawed art form. If video game's curse is warfare, and television's is trash, what is film's? Hidden Figures. I will explain what I mean thusly.
The Horse in Motion is the beginning of the myth of the silver screen. Like Spacewar, it wasn't the first of its kind, nor was it a full-on film by modern definition. However, there goes this legend that Eadweard Muybridge, a photographer, made a bet with a really stinkin rich guy to determine whether a horse lifts all of its legs off the ground when it gallops. He set up a series of tripwire-powered cameras that would flash when a horse galloped over them, and let them loose.
This is the proto-film here.
As you can see, there seems to be a missing person in this story on screen. The unknown black man who is riding the horse, hopefully for a pay cut. This was a time of insane racism, and black people at best, were seen as an afterthought. This was 1878, a time just 13 years removed from the Civil War, and centuries before the civil rights and BLM movements. To date, we know naught who this man is, only that he started an entire art form without being credited. This is oftentimes known as the "original sin" of cinema, and we will see the effects of this racist decision as we journey on.