• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Site Directory
  • Home
  • Alex’s Lounge
  • P.O.U. Health and Fitness
  • POU Comments of the Week
  • P.O.U. Daily Link Sweep
Pragmatic Obots Unite

Pragmatic Obots Unite

Shooting down firebaggers & teabaggers one truth at a time...

Tuesday Open Thread: Lesser-Known African-American Actors & Actresses

September 22, 2015 by pragobots 297 Comments

GOOD MORNING, P.O.U.!

JOEL FLUELLEN

blkactors_joelfluellen

Joel Fluellen, an instrumental figure in the fight to end Hollywood bias during the 1940’s and 1950’s, was born in 1908 in Louisiana. Prior to beginning his acting career, Fluellen resided in Chicago where he worked as a milliner and store clerk.  After appearing on stage in New York, he relocated to Hollywood in the early 1940’s and gained his first role as a bit player in Cabin in the Sky (1943).

Realizing that acting opportunities were scarce for African Americans, Fluellen became a member of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and submitted numerous resolutions urging the union to “use all its power to oppose discrimination against Negroes in the motion picture industry.” After SAG ignored his concerns, Fluellen became one of the founding members the Negro Actors Guild to help provide better opportunities on the West Coast. He also organized the Negro Arts Theater in Los Angeles.

Although his involvement in the SAG led to gradual changes for African American actors, more than twenty years passed before the guild formed the Ethnic Equal Opportunity Committee to help improve film roles for the race. Fluellen continued to work as a film extra but his roles became no more substantial in mainstream films. He did, however, gain notable exposure in all-black films such as The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) in which he portrayed Jackie’s college-educated, Olympic-winning brother; A Raisin in the Sun (1961) as Walter Lee’s potential business partner; and the Great White Hope (1970) as Jack Jefferson’s coach.

When Fluellen’s film career ended in the late 1970’s, he continued to promote racial equality in Hollywood. In 1984, his supportive efforts for the advancement of African Americans in film led to a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for the late Dorothy Dandridge. The following year, he received the first Paul Robeson Pioneer Award from the Black American Cinema Society.

During the last years of his life, Fluellen suffered from prolonged illness and blindness. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot on February, 6, 1990.

(SOURCE: Blackpast.org)

Filed Under: African Americans, Arts and Culture, Film, Open Thread, Television Tagged With: African American Actors, African American Actresses, Black Actors, Black Actresses, Joel Fluellen, Negro Actors Guild, Negro Arts Theater

Primary Sidebar

Recent Comments

  • People
  • Recent
  • Popular

Top Commenters

  • GreenLadyHere13
     · 222133 posts
  • Alma98
     · 206663 posts
  • rikyrah
     · 182441 posts
  • nellcote
     · 100641 posts

Recent Comments

  • Worldwatcher7

    Whytes who say “the Blacks” are bigots and they mean us no good.

    Wednesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts · 0 minutes ago

  • Worldwatcher7

    His little soft-looking privileged ass was out here moving fentanyl. Now he wanna snitch. No honor among crooks.

    Wednesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts · 3 minutes ago

  • Alma98

    Hey Ww7 👋🏽

    Wednesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts · 15 minutes ago

  • Alma98

    hahahaha

    Wednesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts · 15 minutes ago

Most Discussed

  • Wednesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts

    72 comments · 0 minutes ago

  • Tuesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts

    120 comments · 10 hours ago

  • Monday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts

    193 comments · 1 day ago

  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – Detroit

    125 comments · 2 days ago

Powered by Disqus

Twitter

Tweets by @PragObots

Recent Posts

  • Wednesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts
  • Tuesday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts
  • Monday Open Thread: Black Owned Resorts
  • Sunday Open Thread: POU Movie Day – Detroit
  • Saturday Open Thread: Historic Black Resorts and Beaches

Tags

#HTGAWM #TGIT African American History African History Black History Civil Rights Movement Divas Forward Friday Open Thread Funk Grammy Winners Great Bands Hip-Hop How To Get Away With Murder Jazz Kerry Washington Legends Monday Open Thread Motown Records NFL Obama Biden 2012 Olivia Pope Open Thread P.O.U. Sunday Jazz Brunch POU Weekly NFL Picks President Barack H. Obama President Barack Obama President Obama R&B racism Rap Saturday Open Thread Scandal Shondaland Shonda Rhimes slavery Songwriters Soul Sports Sunday Open Thread Thursday Open Thread Tuesday Open Thread Video Viola Davis Wednesday Open Thread

Footer

A-F

  • African American Pundit
  • Afrospear
  • All About Race
  • Angry Black Lady Chronicles
  • AverageBro.com
  • Black Politics on the Web
  • Blacks 4 Barack
  • Blue Wave News
  • Brown Man Thinking Hard
  • Crooks and Liars
  • Democracy Now!
  • Democrats for Progress
  • Eclectablog
  • Extreme Liberal's Blog
  • FactCheck.org
  • Field Negro
  • FiveThirtyEight

G-S

  • GrannyStandingforTruth
  • Hello, Negro
  • Jack & Jill Politics
  • Latino Politico
  • Margaret and Helen
  • Melissa Harris Perry
  • Michelle Obama Watch
  • Mirror On America
  • Momma, here come that woman again!
  • New Black Woman
  • Obama Foodorama
  • Obama for America 2012
  • Positively Barack
  • Raving Black Lunatic
  • Sheryl Kaye's Blog
  • Sojourner's Place
  • Stuff White People Do

T-Z

  • Talking Points Memo
  • The Black Snob Feed
  • The Field
  • The Hill
  • The Mudflats
  • The Obama Diary
  • The only adult in the room
  • The Peoples View
  • The Reid Report
  • The Rude Pundit
  • The Starting Five
  • ThinkProgress
  • This Week in Blackness
  • Tim Wise
  • Uppity Negro Network
  • What About Our Daughters
  • White House Blog
  • Womanist Musings

Copyright © 2025 · Log in