The Life of George Johnson
George Perry Johnson
A pioneer in black film, George and his brother Noble together founded Lincoln Motion Pictures. George's contributions to the field paved the way for the contribution of African Americans in the film world to move beyond merely bit parts and uncredited work, but rather towards empathetic and recognized work.
Early Life
George Perry Johnson was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on October 29, 1885. He was born to father Perry Johnson, a horse trainer, and mother Georgia Reed, who died when George was young. George, along with brothers Noble and Virgil and sister Iris, were "turned over by an uneducated father to an uneducated Negro servant in a rich white man's home to be raised."
His education was not an experience he looked upon fondly. Johnson was sent to the Hampton Institute in Virginia in 1899 and graduated in 1904. The Hampton Institute, now called Hampton University, was founded in 1868 by Brigadier General Samuel Chapman Armstrong, "to train the many former enslaved African Americans who had gathered in the area." Reflecting upon his experience at the military school, George remarked that he was shocked at how he was treated due to his race, that he did not "know any more when [he] left than [he] did when [he] went there," and that he disliked the food so much that he got a job so he might eat in a restaurant instead.
Adult Life
After graduating, George moved to Oklahoma and became the first black clerk at the Tulsa Post Office. He started the first black paper, The Tulsa Guide, when he was 21. The first issue was published on June 9th, 1906, and the paper ran for five or six years. The paper included local news and a column called the Colored Immigration Bureau, which focused on opportunities in Oklahoma for African Americans.
Lincoln Motion Pictures
In 1916, with brother Noble, George P. Johnson helped found Lincoln Motion Pictures. This was the second African American film company and was dedicated to creating and distributing "Black films with Black financing for Black audiences, and with Black actors and actresses" (Johnson, Noble and George | Encyclopedia.Com, n.d.).
George began with Lincoln Motion pictures in 1916 and remained until the company disbanded in 1923. While the films were originally exclusively shown in Los Angeles, the company wanted to expand. George became the general booking and publicity manager Omaha and organized showings in Omaha and Kansas City. While also working at the post office, George worked to expand the reach of the company's films across the nation. Eventually, George moved to Los Angeles to support the company while also working at the post office. It is here that he changed his name to George Perry.
George's work in black film did not end with Lincoln Motion Pictures. He formed the Pacific Coast News Bureau in 1923, which was dedicated to all gossip, news, and information about black film companies. He managed this organization until 1927, obtaining information from other publicity companies and his company and industry connections.
All information sourced from the oral history interview at UCLA (Johnson et al., 1970) unless otherwise noted.