FIFTEEN [15] *RARE* AFRICAN AMERICAN
HISTORICAL FILMS ON THREE DVDs

*** OVER SIX HOURS OF RARE FOOTAGE ***

(circa 1936-1972)

AN INCREDIBLE LIBRARY OF RARE AND HISTORICAL FILMS DOCUMENTING THE STRUGGLES, TRIUMPHS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICANS DURING THE EARLY TO MID-20TH CENTURY!

DVD #1

STUDY OF EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITIES IN S. CAROLINA (1936)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 33 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

This film was produced by the NAACP in its drive to desegregate schools which ultimately led to the landmark Supreme Court decision in Brown vs Board of Education. We are shown what "separate but equal" means in the ramshackle conditions of many school, dozens of young children piling into cars, the disparity in state funding and many other facets of the educational reality for Negro students.

HENRY BROWNE, FARMER (1942)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 11 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

A historical documentary film showing a patriotic African American farming family in Georgia during World War II and their collective efforts to support themselves and America in wartime.

NEW GIRL IN THE OFFICE (1942)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 31 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

Government produced docudrama that tries to promote diversity and tackle the problem of negative racial stereotypes in the workplace. The white male executives are concerned when they introduce their first black woman to the secretarial pool. Controversial on many levels.

THE NEGRO SOLDIER (1943)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 40 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

This is a WWII recruitment film aimed at African Americans. The film opens with an African American minister in church telling his flock why they should join the armed forces to fight the Nazis. Shows African American's training and get ready for the current war and re-enactments of African American participation in wars dating back to American Revolution.

NEGRO COLLEGES IN WARTIME (1944)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 8 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

This amazing little film shows how black colleges educated and prepared students for a variety of non combat jobs for the military during WWII (chemists, doctors, pilots, etc) as well as  soy experiments to see if it can be used as a nutritional supplement for meats and dairy.

DVD #2

PLANTATION SYSTEM IN SOUTHERN LIFE (1950)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 10 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

From the view of a white family on a site seeing tour of a historically preserved Southern plantation, the past system and relationship between owners and slaves is re-created and then compared to Southern Life today (in 1950).

PALMOUR STREET (1957)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 22 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

This film is a remarkable bit of history because it shows an African American community dealing with poverty, oppression, and everyday problems in a civilized and ordinary manner. What makes it remarkable is that it avoids any political message and unintentionally breaks the negative stereotypes that were portrayed in many outlets during the 1950s.

THE NEW NEGRO (1957)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 28 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

Incredibly rare NBC interview featuring a young Martin Luther King and Judge Waring J. Waites, who pushed for desegregation and the 1957 Civil Rights Act, discussing the "new" mindset of blacks in America... no longer feeling inferior or submissive, blacks are reborn with newly found self-respect.

ALL THE WAY HOME (1957)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 30 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

Everything is fine until a white family considers selling their house to a black family. This film exposes the property value fallacy and demonstrates, in a positive fashion, that integrated communities can and do work.

INTEGRATION REPORT (I) (1960)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 20 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

Grass roots documentary showing the civil rights movement of 1959 and 1960: sit-ins, marches, boycotts and rallies in Montgomery, Ala., Brooklyn, N.Y., and Washington, D.C. Speeches by most of the major civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King, Jr. are also featured.

DVD #3

WITH NO ONE TO HELP US (1967)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 19 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

Documentary demonstrating how the formation of a food-buying club by a group of Newark welfare mothers brought about a necessary change in the community.
Nice images of a African-American neighborhood in Newark.

JOSHUA, BLACK BOY OF HARLEM (1969)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 19 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

This films documents the internal struggles of Joshua, a black boy from Harlem, who has just won a scholarship to attend college in Texas. While romping through the park he hears a young white boy use the "n" word, storms off in anger and then runs into an older white boy and starts a fight. The 2 boys scrap for a while, calm down and become friends.

COLUMBIA REVOLT (1969)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 50 MINUTES : B/W : W/SOUND

This incredible, somewhat grainy, film was created by students from Columbia University and documents the violent 1968 demonstrations from the student radicals' point of view. Blacks and whites protesting the colleges close ties to the War Department and the creation of a new gymnasium which was scheduled to be built on a site in the mostly black Morningside Heights neighborhood which would have displaced many black families from their homes.

TEDDY (1972)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 17 MINUTES : COLOR : W/SOUND

Documentary film that shows the experiences of an African American teenager who relates his views of the System, the Vietnam war, Civil Rights, the Watts community, the Black Panther Party and the treatment of blacks by the Los Angeles police.

ALL TOGETHER (1970s)

APPROX. RUN TIME: 21 MINUTES : COLOR : W/SOUND

Early '70s Naval Recruitment film aimed at African Americans - narrated by Lou Rawls.

FIFTEEN (15) RARE AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORICAL FILMS

A final word about these films... They are old, unedited, original films created between 50 and 70 years ago so please don't expect them to have the same production quality as you would find in a feature film produced using today's technology.