Maurice Ellis

The role of African Americans in the recovery years of the Great Depression is the subject of this informational short, which offers an idealized depiction of life in a segregated society. The highlight, by far, is rare footage of Orson Welles’s “Voodoo Macbeth,” produced in 1935 for the New York Negro Unit of the WPA’s Federal Theatre Project.

"One Tenth of Our Nation" is a 1940 documentary directed by Felix Greene that documents the historical and contemporary conditions of African Americans in the southern United States, with a particular focus on education. Produced for the General Education Board, the film contrasts poverty and limited opportunity with educational initiatives at secondary and collegiate levels, tracing Black life from the legacy of slavery and agricultural labor to modern training programs and institutions.