The Negro Farmer: Extension Work for Better Farming and Better Living is a 1938 educational film made by the
United States Department of Agriculture with assistance from the
Tuskegee Institute. It features music, entitled "Negro Melodies", from the Tuskegee Institute Choir directed by African American composer
William L. Dawson (composer)
William Levi Dawson (September 26, 1899 – May 2, 1990) was an American composer, choir director, professor, and musicologist.
Life
Of African Americans, African American heritage, Dawson was born in Anniston, Alabama. In 1912, Dawson ran away fr ...
. Through commentary from a white male narrator using racial innuendo inferring African American inferiority in farming practices, the film is a condescending, "paternalistic portrait of black rural life", intended to "halt a mass migration to the urban north by black people".
With a 23 minute runtime, the film features
Redoshi (c. 1848 – 1937) (renamed Sally Smith by her enslaver, Washington Smith), a West African woman taken to
Dallas County, Alabama in 1860. Redoshi is considered one of the two last surviving victims of the transatlantic slave trade.
The film is held by the
Library of Congress. It was part of a U.S. governmental effort to promote agricultural improvements guided by the USDA's guidance, emphasizing that "blacks should stay on Southern farms".
Crew
*
Raymond Evans (director) Raymond Evans may refer to:
* Raymond Evans (architect), see Clifford Percy Evans
* Raymond Evans (director), films included 1943's Hemp for Victory
* Raymond Evans (field hockey), Australian field hockey player
* Raymond T. Evans, a state legisl ...
- Director, Producer. Directed
Poor Mrs. Jones!
Poor Mrs. Jones (1926) is a 46-minute, black-and-white comedy, drama and family silent film produced by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1925 and released in 1926. It was directed by Raymond Evans, a former newspaperman. Shot on locat ...
(1926) and
Hemp for Victory (1943)
[IMDb. "Raymond Evans." https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1378746/?ref_=tt_ov_dr]
*
George G Farrington - Narrator
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negro Farmer
Documentary films about African Americans
1938 short films
American documentary films
1938 films
1930s American films
Articles containing video clips
African-American-related controversies in film