Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed (Part 2): Museum Object and Cultural History
Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed (Part 2): Date: 1968. Written by: Andrew Rooney, American, 1919 - 2011. Written by: Perry Wolff, American, 1921 - 2019.
The object in the museum catalogue
A documentary film with the title “Black History: Lost, Stolen, or Strayed” from the television series Of Black America. It consists of a single reel of color acetate film with optical sound.
The documentary opens with narrator Bill Cosby discussing contributions that African Americans have made to American Life such as Norbert Rillieux's contributions to refining sugar; Jan Ernst Matzeliger's contributions to shoe manufacturing; Matthew Henson being one of the first men to successfully make an expedition to the North Pole; and Daniel Hale Williams performing the world's first open-heart surgery. Cosby then questions why these pioneering African Americans were excluded from history textbooks. After discussing the innovations of African Americans, Cosby discusses a study which compares the way white children and black children view and represent the world around them through art.
The rest of the documentary mostly focuses on African Americans in film. Cosby states that white filmmakers routinely represented black characters in ways that reinforced erroneous stereotypes of black people. He discusses films such as Uncle Tom's Cabin, The Birth of a Nation and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, as well as African American actors such as Stepin Fetchit, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, Sidney Poitier, and several others. In the final scenes, he comments on beauty culture and the practice of black men chemically straightening their hair, as well as shows footage of a man teaching a small class of young children the importance of black pride.
Materials, dates and provenance
- Date: 1968
- Written by: Andrew Rooney, American, 1919 - 2011
- Written by: Perry Wolff, American, 1921 - 2019
- Produced by: CBS Broadcasting, Inc., American, founded 1927
- Subject of: Bill Cosby, American, born 1937
- Subject of: Hattie McDaniel, American, 1895 - 1952
- Subject of: Sidney Poitier, Bahamian American, 1927 - 2022
- Subject of: Katharine Hepburn, American, 1907 - 2003
- Owned by: D.C. Public Library, American, founded 1896
- Type: sound films
- Type: color films (visual works)
- Type: 16mm (photographic film size)
- Medium: acetate film
- Dimensions: Physical extent (film): 900 ft
- Place used: Washington, District of Columbia, United States, North and Central America
- Topic: African American
- Topic: Actors
- Topic: Barbershops
- Topic: Black power
- Topic: Children
- Topic: Civil Rights
- Topic: Documentary films
- Topic: Education
- Object number: 2017.55.6.1a
- Credit Line: Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Transferred from the DC Public Library
- Data Source: National Museum of African American History and Culture
Sources and reuse
Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of African American History and Culture through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed. The underlying object's rights statement is: Restrictions likely apply. Proper usage is the responsibility of the user.
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