This late 1950s black-and-white film about the Youth for Service program sponsored by The American Friends Service Committee Inc. of Northern California. Youth for Service was an inter-racial inter-faith organization founded by Carl May in 1957 that enabled youth to serve the community doing volunteer work projects. A group of 1950s dressed white teenage guys, one in a letter jacket, stand on a corner. A woman passes by and they watch her walk. A group of black teenagers stand on a corner that advertises White Rock Beverages, Schlitz, and a sign for a telephone inside. A pair of policemen walk past. A Puerto-Rican teenager wearing a “Lonely Ones” jacket pulls up. His friends with pompadours hang out smoking cigarettes (:05-1:29). California Attorney General Stanley Mosk provides an introduction for dealing with juvenile delinquency from his office (1:30-3:16). Inside a row house, a Ravens jacket hangs on a chair. The wall has multiple pin-up posters on it. A sleeping white teenage boy answers the telephone (3:17-3:44). Inside a building, Ravens members shoot pool; teenage boys play pinball. The walls are covered in graffiti; a close-up of the words Puerto Rico is shown. Several couples dance (3:45-4:43). A black teenager wearing an Esquires jacket dances on the sidewalk. His friends play bongos and guitar. Two teenagers practice fight moves. A 1950s Vanguard pulls up (4:44-6:06). Help wanted newspaper ads are shown. A black teenager enters a Muffler Tail Pipe Services While You Wait Drive In building and exits buildings without a job. Club jacket backs say Los Lobos, Aces BTWC, Los Aguilas S.F., Little Sterling Royal Esquires, Sheiks, Hawaiian Warriors, Lonely Ones, Marquies, Timer’s, Royal Lancers, Ravens, and Warlords (6:07-7:07). Carl May talks to the Warlords President. May explains the program to the group of teenage boys with pompadours wearing Warlords club jackets and smoking cigarettes (7:08-8:45). Inter-racial Youth for Service teenagers stand on different levels of scaffolding painting a house. Teenagers shovel gravel and mix concrete for a new community center parking lot. Teenage boys clean a wall next to a elderly smoking bed-ridden man (8:46-12:06). Tenant houses are shown for Hispanics in Alviso, California. Inside a church, a group of teenagers plasters and paints the ceiling as a Youth for Service project. A white teenager shares his cigarette with a black teenager. Inside the church, a teenage worker plays the organ. The back of a delivery truck says Sugar Pine Lumber. A sign advertises McCulloch equipment; two teenagers carry out a chainsaw. The mixed-raced boys eat together (12:07-14:08). San Francisco newspaper clippings advertise the club’s success. The reward is a formal dance for all involved. 24 tough clubs agree to peace via an inter-racial council sanctioned by Washington D.C. (14:09-16:58). Two kids swing on a 1940s car door at the Pomo Indian Lytton Band Rancheria. Youth for Service members help build a bridge. The teenagers run to take a dip in a pond wearing their underwear (16:59-21:20).
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a Religious Society of Friends (Quaker) founded organization working for peace and social justice in the United States and around the world. AFSC was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by American members of the Religious Society of Friends to assist civilian victims of World War I. It continued to engage in relief action in Europe and the Soviet Union after the Armistice of 1918. By the mid-1920s it focused on improving racial relations in the U.S., as well as exploring ways to prevent the outbreak of another conflict before and after World War II. As the Cold War developed, it moved to employ more professionals rather than Quaker volunteers, and over time attempting to broaden its appeal and respond more forcefully to racial injustice, women’s issues, and demands of sexual minorities for equal treatment.
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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
