The Negro Soldier
| The Negro Soldier | |
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Film poster
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| Directed by | Stuart Heisler |
| Produced by |
Frank Capra United States Department of War |
| Written by | Carlton Moss |
| Starring |
Carlton Moss Norman Ford Bertha Woolford George Washington Carver Benjamin O. Davis Jr. Jesse Owens |
| Music by |
Albert Glasser Calvin Jackson Howard Jackson Earl Robinson Dimitri Tiomkin |
| Cinematography | CPO Alan Q. Thompson Capt. Horace Woodard Lt. Paul C. Vogel |
| Distributed by | War Activities Committee of the Motion Pictures Industry |
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Release date
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Running time
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43 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The Negro Soldier is a 1944 documentary created by the United States Army during World War II. The film was produced by Frank Capra as a follow up to his successful film series Why We Fight. The army used this film as propaganda to convince Black Americans to enlist in the army and fight in the war. Most people regarded the film very highly, some going as far as to say that The Negro Soldier was "one of the finest things that ever happened to America". Due to both high reviews and great cinematography, The Negro Soldier proved to be a breakout film influencing army members and civilians of all races. In 2011, it was chosen to be preserved in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.
During World War II, Nazi Germany threatened to take over Europe, North Africa and the Near East. The United States Army was looking for men to enlist. Although the U.S. army was officially committed to practicing segregation, they looked to African Americans to add manpower to the group. Social scientists of the time argued that the mass media were the best method of instilling a message within people and pushing them to act towards a common goal.
The army selected Frank Capra to head the effort to create morale films that were designed to build enthusiasm for war purposes. Capra was an immigrant from Sicily, who began his career in Hollywood working on humorous short films. However, he went on to create many well-known films that made it big in the box office. In March 1942, Capra began brainstorming The Negro Soldier. He asked different researchers to inform him about what was okay and not okay when it came to creating a cinematic depiction of African Americans. These researchers came up with a list of cautions, some of which included “avoid stereotypes such as the Negroes’ alleged affinity for watermelon or pork; also avoid strong images of racial identity (‘play down colored soldiers more Negroid in appearance’ and omit ‘Lincoln, emancipation, or any race leaders or friends of the Negro’)”. With these cautions in mind, the writer Marc Connelly created the first script for The Negro Soldier, with the same sympathetic treatment for Negro themes that he had used in his earlier work, The Green Pastures. Connelly’s first script ended up being too dramatic for the Army’s tastes. In response, Ben Hecht and Jo Swerling prepared a second draft of the movie; however, it too was rejected because the Army insisted the movie be more of a documentary. Ultimately, Carlton Moss was hired to write the movie and Stuart Heisler became director. Moss attended Columbia University and worked for the Federal Theater Project. Both Moss and Heisler worked very well together.
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