Carlton Moss facts for kids

Carlton Moss (born February 14, 1909 – died August 10, 1997) was an important African-American writer, actor, and film director. He created movies and plays that often explored the lives and experiences of Black people in America. One of his well-known films was the documentary Frederick Douglass: The House on Cedar Hill.

About Carlton Moss

Early Life and Theatre Work

Carlton Moss grew up in both North Carolina and Newark, New Jersey. He went to Morgan State University, where he started an acting group called "Toward a Black Theater."

In 1936, he became a leader in the Negro Theatre Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. This was a government program that helped artists find work during the Great Depression. Carlton Moss was chosen because he was skilled and understood the community well. He directed a successful play called The Show-Off in 1937 at the Lafayette Theatre.

Moss directed The Show-Off (1937), a play from the Federal Theatre Project.

Filmmaking for Change

Later, Carlton Moss wrote a film for director Frank Capra called The Negro Soldier (1944). This movie was made during World War II to encourage teamwork among soldiers. It also aimed to inspire African-American men to join the military.

After this film, Moss became a key person in making independent movies about African American life. In 1944, he went to Europe and made Teamwork. This was a documentary about an African-American supply unit called "The Redball Express."

He was asked to work on the film Pinky with director Elia Kazan. However, he left the project because he felt the film did not show Black people in a fair or respectful way.

Teaching and Educational Films

Carlton Moss also shared his knowledge by teaching. He was a guest lecturer at Fisk University in Nashville. He also became a professor at the University of California at Irvine. There, he taught in the Comparative Culture Program. He continued to make educational films that taught people about African-American history.

Carlton Moss's Films

Here is a list of some of the films Carlton Moss worked on:

• The Negro Soldier (1943)
• Teamwork (1944)
• Frederick Douglass: The House on Cedar Hill (1953)
• George Washington Carver (1959)
• Black Genesis: The Art of Tribal Africa (1970)
• Portraits in Black: Paul Laurence Dunbar: America's First Black Poet (1972)
• The Afro-American Artist (1976)
• Portraits in Black: Two Centuries of Black American Art (1976)
• Portraits in Black: The Gift of the Black Folk (1978)
• All the World's A Stage (1979)
• Drawings from Life: Charles White (1980)
• Forever Free (1983)