Beginning with the release of The Birth of a Nation through the mid-twentieth century, the film industry began featuring African Americans on the silver screen. The emergence of race films—major film productions made by African Americans and featuring Black artists—were frequently reported and reviewed in the Black press. This examination of the coverage of race films in three major Black newspapers, the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and Baltimore Afro-American, traces coverage of race films by the Black press between 1915 and 1950. This study builds on literature from journalism and communication studies, as well as film studies to illustrate how the Black press fulfilled its role as an advocacy press and served its mission of racial uplift through its race film coverage. It argues that Black newspapers achieved this by giving positive coverage to race films, their actors, producers, and crew members, and by unreservedly criticizing Black members of the entertainment industry if the Black press perceived that they were acting in ways detrimental to the greater cause of improving attitudes toward the Black community.

从二十世纪中叶《一个国家的诞生》的上映开始，电影业开始将非裔美国人搬上银幕。黑人媒体经常报道和评论种族电影（由非裔美国人制作并以黑人艺术家为主角的主要电影作品）的出现。对三大黑人报纸《芝加哥卫报》 、《匹兹堡信使》和《巴尔的摩美国黑人报》对种族电影的报道进行了考察，追溯 1915 年至 1950 年间黑人媒体对种族电影的报道。这项研究以新闻学和传播研究以及电影研究的文献为基础，说明黑人媒体如何履行其作为倡导媒体的角色并服务于其种族提升的使命通过其比赛电影报道。它认为，黑人报纸通过对种族电影及其演员、制片人和工作人员进行积极报道来实现这一目标，并且如果黑人媒体认为娱乐业的黑人成员的行为不利于更大的事业，则毫无保留地批评他们改善对黑人社区的态度。