Film Forum

MIRACLE IN HARLEM

Jack Kemp · 1948 · U.S. · 69 min

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“Generally considered a technical landmark in the history of race movies, MIRACLE IN HARLEM appeared toward the end of the early Black independent film movement. Ostensibly the movie’s a murder mystery centering on a candy-store swindle. But beneath its glossy veneer lies an interesting subtext: it’s a look at post-World War II Black America’s vision of its new tomorrow of promise and prosperity. Its lead characters—serious, noble, educated, bourgeois, less ethnic—stand as embodiments of the new social/economic philosophy: they are attractive, optimistic, capitalistic go-getters, who believe in the American system of free enterprise and are determined to make the system work for them.” – Donald Bogle, Blacks in American Film and Television (Garland Publishing, 1988) Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Gift of Randall and Sam Nieman