The James Wheeler Collection

Between 1910 and 1950, over 150 independent film companies, African American and white, were organized for the specific purpose of producing “all-colored cast” films for exclusive exhibition to African American audiences in the de jure segregated theaters of the South and the de facto segregated theaters in the North and West.

 

During this period, more than 500 “all-colored cast” films were produced.  Many of these “race films,” as they were called, were written, produced, directed and distributed by independent African American filmmakers, including Oscar Micheaux, Spencer Williams, George Randol and William D. Alexander. Although these filmmakers created substantial and distinctive bodies of work that rank with leading white independent filmmakers, their contributions to American cinema have yet to be generally  recognized. It is estimated that the number of segregated theaters on the African American theater circuit had grown to nearly 700 by the end of the 1940s, at least 100 of which were owned and operated by African Americans. These films were produced on low budgets with untrained crews and actors.   Therefore, technical flaws were unavoidable since producers could rarely afford to reshoot scenes.  

 

Nevertheless, African American audiences flocked to see them because they not only served as a source of entertainment and escapism, but also to instill racial identity, pride and dignity.  The most significant fact regarding these films was that they were one of the most important efforts by African American people to represent themselves as multifaceted human beings, capable of virtue and sin, thereby contradicting the stereotypes of African American people as lazy, superstitious, criminal, uncivilized and simple-minded that were popularized in Hollywood films. Although the era of “race films” ended about 1950, collecting, documenting and exhibiting films and memorabilia from the “golden age” of African American cinema has been a major goal of James E. Wheeler.  

 

Since most of these “all-colored cast” films were lost or are not known to exist, posters such as those in this exhibition are often the only visual record of these films and fill a void in the understanding of early African American independent filmmaking.   This special exhibition in no way includes all those early producers, directors, writers and performers who made significant contributions in the world of independent African American cinema.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Marching On: Independent African American

Films From 1935—1950