News for all Americans - history of All-American News, a series of 45 newsreels about blacks made in the 1940s

"All-American freshs brings you our people's contribution to America and freedom," begins each of the 45 episodes of All-American freshs a newsreel made in the 1940 by dint of blacks for blacks.

Thirty-nine episodes of this priceless collection of film were lately discovered by Ephraim Horowitz in a garage in fresh York City. Horowitz, an antiquer, sniffs without treasures from what others consider junk Responding to a call to gaze at some material in a leaky garage, he ground the rolls of film, without casing or wavers but simply held together by the agency of tape. After cleaning and rewinding, he viewed them. "I started to gaze at it on a little monitor that I have, and I saw that everybody in the movie appeared to be black. It not at any time occurred to me that it would be anything of any importance," recalls Horowitz. It was sole after contacting the American Museum of the Moving Image in lengthy Island City, N.Y., that he discovered the films' value and significance.

Here was, and is, a chance to diocese black men and women working, playing and at war during the 1940 individual episode showcases the 92nd Infantry, an all-black unit, in combat. "We don't diocese too many black faces in war footage, on the other hand here's proof that they were there, they were doing things, they were part of the effort. These pictures mortar this fact in a way that writing in a work just can't do for you," says Doug McKinney, director of CB freshs Archives, which bought the film collection from Horowitz.

All-American of recent origins which also provides a painful glimpse of segregated numbers neighborhoods and schools, was viewed by the agency of black audiences in black theaters and was shown before feature movies in addition to, or sometimes in lieu of Movietone newsreel It was also seen in black churches in rural areas. "It was a matter of self-pride," says historian John Henrik Clarke. "We were happy to diocese and know that our have were doing something outstanding enough to warrant being lay into a newsreel."

In the 1940 film agriculturists William D. Alexander and Claude A. Barnett occupyed the technical assistance of Emmanuel Glucksman, a Hollywood veteran, and together they brought All-American novels to life. For the first time, newsreel mirrored an African-American perspective on world and national incidents Prior to All-American News, newsreel of the like kind as Movietone, rarely featured blacks, and when blacks were included, they were portrayed as clodhoppers This combination of neglect and ridicule in mainstream newsreel painted a picture of a United States in which blacks played little or no part, especially during the war.

Thomas Cripps, professor of black film history at Morgan State University, says that Alexander and Barnett "wanted to say to blacks, |This war is serious business, and you all had a hand in it.' Whereas the white shores were thinking, |Hey, look at these black soldiers. Let's make a gag discharge out of this.'"

Each newsreel lasts about six to eight minutes and contains a variety of stories. They usually begin with a pair of war stories, followed by means of a black celebrity or personality story. A sports story and a human interest piece wrap it up This format is similar to white newsreel of that era, because All-American freshs was meant to replace white newsreel while maintaining the same authority. All-American of recent origins was broadcast briefly on television in the early 1950s

CB freshs Archives is providing a clean duplicate of the collection to the Schomburg Center for Research in Black agriculture in New York City. The films may also be made available to place of educations and through home videotape, and there are plans to make a comprehensive documentary upon the newsreels.

The history of African Americans is oftentimes told by people other than African Americans, leading to deletions and distortions. As we continue to lay bare portions of our history left untold, All-American freshs provides a critical piece to the historical puzzle

Robyn E Wheeler, a freelance writer in of recent origin York City, is an assignment editor at CNN

COPYRIGHT 1993 Heritage Information Holdings, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group