The Negro Sailor
Directed byHenry Levin
CinematographyUnited States Navy
Production
company
Distributed byAll-American News
Release date
  • 14 July 1945 (1945-07-14)[2]
Running time
27 Minutes
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish

The Negro Sailor is a 1945 documentary short film made for the U.S. Navy[3] and shown by All-American News, a company producing newsreels and later feature films for the race film market. It was directed by Henry Levin.[4] The film was inspired by the success of the film The Negro Soldier,[5] and was one of only five films documenting the war time activities of African Americans in a positive light before 1950.[6][7] Released after the surrender of Japan, the film highlights the service of African American seamen.[8]

Plot

Bill learns about the heroism of William Pinkney

At an African American newspaper, employee Bill Johnson enlists in the U.S. Navy. Frank Roberts, the sports editor for the paper, convinces the newspaper's editor it would be a great idea for the paper to publish a column called "The Navy Team" where Bill would write about his experiences serving.

The film follows Bill from Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Illinois, including a spell in the brig, to a variety of technical training. Bill later serves on a ship escorting a destroyer with a crew of other African Americans working under white officers.[9] The film mentions several black war heroes of World War II, including Navy Cross recipients William Pinckney for his actions at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands, Doris Miller for his actions at Pearl Harbor, and Leonard Roy Harmon for his actions during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.[10][9][11]

Cast

Production

The Negro Sailor was filmed at Columbia Studios and completed in July 1945.[13]

Release and legacy

Caleb Peterson, Jr., the founder of the Interracial Film & Radio Guild, praised the Columbia Studios executives for including him in discussions in developing film.[14] However, the film was also seen as "an attempt to polish the notoriously racist reputation of the navy—made worse by events such as the Port Chicago mutiny—among African Americans".[15] And while this film and The Negro Soldier "acknowledged African Americans' contributions to America's military history, by overlooking the persistence of racial segregation in the armed forces, they implied that the black struggle for civil rights was complete".[16]

The film is included as a supplement to releases of Harry Levin’s films The Family Secret[17] and Convicted.[18] The film was also released on a 2010 DVD set of race films and was restored in 2016.[19]

The film is stored in the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration.[20][21]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Columbia Pictures : portrait of a studio. Bernard F. Dick. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. 2010. p. 252. ISBN 978-0-8131-3019-4. OCLC 880860178. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2022-06-28.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. ↑ Richards, L. (1998). African American Films Through 1959: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography. United States: McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers.
  3. ↑ "The Negro in the United States Navy During World War II" by L. D. Reddick, The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Apr., 1947), page 215.
  4. ↑ p. 265 Murray, Florence (editor) The Negro Handbook 1946-1947 Current Books, Incorporated, 1947
  5. ↑ Murphy, William T. (2021-09-24), "The United States Government and the Use of Motion Pictures During World War II", The Japan/America Film Wars (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 59–68, doi:10.4324/9781003205289-3, ISBN 978-1-003-20528-9, S2CID 244222903, archived from the original on 2023-04-11, retrieved 2022-06-28
  6. ↑ "The USIA Motion Picture Collection and African American History". National Archives. 2016-08-15. Archived from the original on 2022-06-28. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  7. ↑ "The Negro Soldier Sat 20.11.10". archive.blackhistorywalks.co.uk. Archived from the original on 2021-03-05. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  8. ↑ "[The Negro Sailor] | C-SPAN.org". www.c-span.org. Archived from the original on 2022-06-28. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  9. 1 2 Garrett, Greg (1994). "It's Everybody's War: Racism and the World War Two Documentary". Journal of Popular Film and Television. 22 (2): 70–78. doi:10.1080/01956051.1994.9943671. ISSN 0195-6051. Archived from the original on 2023-02-18. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  10. ↑ Ramos, John (2022-05-30). "Black sailor's World War II heroism commemorated in San Francisco". KESQ. Archived from the original on 2022-06-17. Retrieved 2022-06-28.
  11. ↑ "The Negro Sailor" [Film]. Navy Motion Picture Film Productions, ca. 1939 - ca. 1947, ID: NWDNM(m)-80-MN-4360. College Park, MD United States of America: National Archives at College Park - Motion Pictures (RDSM).
  12. ↑ Larry Richards (2015). African American Films Through 1959: A Comprehensive, Illustrated Filmography. McFarland & Company. p. 123. ISBN 9781476610528. Archived from the original on 2023-04-11. Retrieved 2023-04-11.
  13. ↑ "'Negro Sailor' To Be Released," The Pittsburgh Courier, July 21, 1945. p. 13.
  14. ↑ "IFRG Member in Opinion on the 'Negro Sailor'", California Eagle, June 28, 1945, p. 12.
  15. ↑ Promises of Citizenship: Film Recruitment of African Americans in World War II By Kathleen German, University Press of Mississippi, 2017, pages 90-91
  16. ↑ African Americans and the Pacific War, 1941–1945: Race, Nationality, and the Fight for Freedom by Chris Dixon, Cambridge University Press, 2018, page 9.
  17. ↑ "The Family Secret Details :: Criterion Forum". www.criterionforum.org. Archived from the original on 2022-06-24. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  18. ↑ "Convicted Details :: Criterion Forum". www.criterionforum.org. Archived from the original on 2021-04-14. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
  19. ↑ Race films DVD set. Disc 11. Disc 11. June 30, 2010. OCLC 714188484. Archived from the original on August 22, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2023 – via Open WorldCat.
  20. ↑ "The USIA Motion Picture Collection and African American History: A Reference Review Archived 2022-06-28 at the Wayback Machine" by Donald Roe, Federal Records and African American History, Summer 1997, Vol. 29, No. 2.
  21. ↑ Film & Radio Propaganda in World War II edited by K.R.M. Short, Taylor & Francis, 2021
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