We've Come a Long, Long Way
Cast & Crew
Jack Goldberg
Mary Mcleod Bethune
Elder Lightfoot Solomon Michaux
Major Wright
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
On the occasion of a memorial service for Lt. Lester Collins, an African-American officer, who gave his life for his country after the attack on Pearl Harbor, achievements of African Americans during the seventy-five years since emancipation are highlighted. The narrator suggests what would happen to black culture, society, and politics if Nazism was allowed to dominate the world. Prominent twentieth-century African Americans are shown flourishing in education, business, science, the military, and sports, among them actor and singer Paul Robeson, opera singer Marian Anderson, dancer Bill Robinson, boxer Joe Louis, educator and scientist George Washington Carver, Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, band leader Duke Ellington and singer Lena Horne.
Director
Jack Goldberg
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Although a print of this film was not viewed, the above credits and summary were taken from a dialogue continuity deposited with the NYSA. The dialogue continuity indicates that either a voice-over or an on-screen prologue states: "December 7th-A day that will go down in infamy. The United States of America was deliberately and cruelly attacked by the Empire of Japan. No matter how long it May take and no matter what the cost May be, we will win through to absolute victory." The film opens with a speech by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The film's principle narrator, Elder Solomon Lightfoot Michaux, was the pastor of the Radio Church in Washington, D. C. Additional narrators included Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, president of Bethune Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women, and Major Wright, a banker and former college president. Wright's narration states that he was the sponsor of a bill that would commemorate the 1st of February, 1864 as the day that Congress adopted the resolution proposing the ratification of the 13th Amendment, which prohibited slavery in the United States. Portions of the film were shot in New York City's Harlem.
