Contrary to what many people may think, a “RACE FILM” it is not a movie like F1, Ford v Ferrari, or Talladega Nights. In fact, race films have nothing to do with racing. RACE FILM was a term popularized 1916 and used to describe and categorize movies produced for Black audiences, starring all-Black casts. To be clear, there were films with Black characters and even all-Black cast movies before 1916; but it was after the 1915 release of D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, that an entire industry was born in response to what was a monumentally racist cinematic love letter to the Ku Klux Klan.
Dozens of independent film production companies formed at a time when much of the country was still segregated, and the film industry was doing little to cater to Black audiences or show Black characters in roles that weren’t demeaning. Keep in mind that the Black characters that appeared in early silent films were most often racist stereotypes, and many were portrayed by white actors in blackface. One of the first production companies to form in 1916 was The Lincoln Motion Picture Company, founded by brothers George and Noble Johnson. Lincoln produced such notable race films as By Right of Birth, The Realization of the Negro’s Ambition, and The Trooper of Troop K, which starred Noble Johnson.
To learn more about race movies, check out my new book Black Film: A History of Black Representation and Participation in the Movies, which will be released by Ten Speed Press on March 24, 2026.
You can pre-order the book here.