You’re watching something few people got to see during WWII — a special African American newsreel made by and for African Americans. The story behind this begins in November 1942 when producer E.M. Glucksman founded All American News of Chicago, Illinois. The company began releasing newsreels showcasing the lives of America’s African Americans, including showing their contributions to the WWII war effort. The newsreels were shown only in African American movie theaters (and did not get shown in all of them — the nation had 451 segregated theaters in 1943, and these newsreels were shown in 365 of them) .

This fragment of one of the newsreels is typical of what audiences would have seen and enjoyed, with various segments including news, lifestyle and fashion, and sports. It begins with a look at a military field hospital in Burma in the Pacific Theater that is staffed entirely by African American doctors, lab technicians and dentists. African American officers are shown working taking x-rays, doing laboratory work, and operating. This is not altogether surprising considering that In the China-Burma-India Theater, 60 percent of the engineer units that built the Ledo Road from India to the connection with the Burma Road were African Americans. The segment ends with a plea to donate to the Red Cross and for blood donations.

At 2:42, John G. Shackleford, a Cleveland attorney, is seen. He has just joined the new United States League of Negro Ballclubs as its president. This organization included teams in Pittsburgh, Detroit, Philadelphia and elsewhere. John Shackelford, born July 17th, 1905 in Tennessee, was a Negro league baseball player, manager and executive. The USLNB league operated from 1945-1946, but competition from already existing Negro leagues, as well as difficulties associated with wartime economics, ultimately caused it to fail. Shackelford returned to law thereafter.

At 3:12, a student named Evelyn Boyd receives a sorority award and wins a scholarship to Yale University. This is Evelyn Boyd Granville (born May 1, 1924), who was the second African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in mathematics from an American university; she earned it in 1949 from Yale. She graduated from Smith College in 1945. She performed pioneering work in the field of computing

At 3:40, a Pittsburgh man who raises prize Collies is profiled.

Given the proud tone of All American News and the accomplishments it profiled, it’s a shame that the company did not survive long after WWII. What happened to All American News? Well unfortunately after 1946 with the war over, audiences turned away from newsreels. All American News gave up making them and began to turn towards drama and comedy films including “Chicago After Dark”, a series of comedy sketches performed by Lollypop Jones and the feature film “Big Timers” starring a controversial “lazy Negro” character called “Stepin Fetchit”. These unfortunately stereotyped films were a sad contrast to what the company made during the war — namely, films everyone in the African American community could be proud of.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com