Although I believe that "The Thing With Two Heads" with Rosey Grier came out first, it was "Blacula" that fully meshed horror with blaxploitation. As a stand alone vampire movie, the best thing about it is William Marshall's strong performance as the title character and the lovely Vonetta McGee, one of the more popular starlets in the blaxploitation genre. In terms of transplanting a Gothic style monster in a contemporary setting, it is less awkward than Hammer's "Dracula A.D." but not as good as "Count Yorga, Vampire".
Nevertheless, "Blacula" was a hit and this led to a small wave of average to truly bad horror films featuring black casts including "Abby", "J.D.'s Revenge", a sequel to Blacula and the wonderfully awful "Blackenstein".
You would be hard pressed to find a decade that had a greater variety (but not necessarily quality or quantity) of horror films than 70's and "Blacula" is an example of a movie that came from the same decade that gave horror fans "The Exorcist", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Alien".
Nevertheless, "Blacula" was a hit and this led to a small wave of average to truly bad horror films featuring black casts including "Abby", "J.D.'s Revenge", a sequel to Blacula and the wonderfully awful "Blackenstein".
You would be hard pressed to find a decade that had a greater variety (but not necessarily quality or quantity) of horror films than 70's and "Blacula" is an example of a movie that came from the same decade that gave horror fans "The Exorcist", "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "Alien".