In the 1920s, Richard E. Norman (1891-1960) a white filmmaker and distributor of silent films, produced a number of works using all African American casts and crews. This was during the era of a rising racism, including the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan.

Norman's feature-length race films,such as the Flying Ace and Bull Doggers, were part of a national movement to portray positive images of blacks, and served as an antidote to the racism of the time.

The Norman Studios in Jacksonville represent the last remaining vestiges of the city's movie industry that rivaled Hollywood, California, in the early years of film making.

They are nationally significant as one of the few remaining intact studios in the country that demonstrate the participation of African Americans in the early history of film making in the United States.

Information provided by the Florida Division of Historical Resources, a division of the Florida Department of State.

Photo courtesy normanstudios.org