Early in the film a black cop throws a white dude into the paddy wagon. This is 1949 where segregation especially the south was widespread.
Besides an all black cast film, were there any other movies around that time that had a black actor portraying a cop?
I noticed that too. This is the earliest film I've seen with a mostly white cast in which a black police officer was shown. It doesn't necessarily mean it's the first, but it is the earliest I've seen.
In reality, however, there were black police officers long before movies started being made. Boston and Chicago (where "Knock on Any Door" takes place) had black police officers as early as the 1870s.
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Thanks for responding. And a black judge was portrayed by Juano Hernandez in the 1955 film TRIAL
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048748/
Thanks for raising this.. I felt sure i'd seen a clack cop.. but it was gone so quickly..I sort of went.. Wow, a black cop in 1940's?! And working as partner to a white cop..And I seriously began to doubt if I was right or had imagined it.
Can anyone tell me this was likely to be realistic.. or just wishful thinking?
few visible scars
or just wishful thinking?
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Some northern cities wishful thinking some not. If they had clean records and were HS grads they had a shot. In the post-WW2 years
for a lot of black vets getting out of the service, it was probably a reasonable possibility if they got civil service bonus points for being in the militiary.
Fire fighters are a different ballgame though. Very hard for any minority hires to get a job.
If you look at the Bilko and Car54 comedies (same production) they always had AFAm in the cast.
Kisskiss, Bangbang
There's also a black cop in the movie DETECTIVE STORY (1951).
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