Name Carlton Moss Role Screenwriter | Movies The Negro Soldier | |
Born February 14, 1909 Newark, New Jersey Alma mater Morgan State University Occupation Screenwriter, film director Died August 10, 1997, Los Angeles, California, United States | ||
Education Morgan State University | ||
Carlton Moss (February 14, 1909 in Newark, New Jersey – August 10, 1997) was an African-American screenwriter, actor and film director. Moss directed the documentary Frederick Douglass: The House on Cedar Hill.
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Biography
Moss was raised in both North Carolina and Newark. He attended Morgan State University, where he formed an acting troupe called "Toward a Black Theater". Later he wrote The Negro Soldier for Frank Capra, a propaganda film encouraging racial harmony among World War II soldiers and specifically encouraging African-American men to enlist. After this film he became an important figure in independent cinema of African Americans In 1944 Moss went to Europe and made the film Teamwork, a documentary about the work of an African-American quartermaster unit known as "The Redball Express". He had the chance to work with Elia Kazan on Pinky but left the project, as he felt it demeaning to blacks. He later taught as a guest lecturer at Fisk University in Nashville and as a professor at the University of California at Irvine in the Comparative Culture Program, and made educational films about African-American history.