The Dr. Pauline E. Brooks and Abye family collection consists of early Black film actor Clarence Ahart Brooks' personal collection of films, early Black scripts and plays, documents, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, lobby cards, and advertisements pertaining to the Lincoln Motion Picture Company (1916-circa 1923) and other early Black filmmaking companies. Included, too, are press releases, publicity plans, press reviews, organizing efforts and contexts of early Black filmmaking. Clarence Ahart Brooks was co-founder and Executive Secretary of the Lincoln Motion Picture Company, the lead actor in at least three of its five films, and an important force in emergence and development of the Black film industry in the United States. The Lincoln was headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and is widely considered the first Black-founded film production company with a national system of distribution. Created with the mission to more realistically portray the lives and experiences of African Americans, the Lincoln's Black-cast films starkly contrasted with Hollywood's limited and stereotypic Black images. The period of this collection, 1916-1939, overlaps with the height of Jim Crow segregation in the United States, when cultural and legalized racial segregation and white racism were prominent characteristics of U.S. society. Dating from 1916-1939, this collection consists of films, personal letters, screen plays, scrapbooks, and photographs collected by Brooks.

Clarence Ahart Brooks (1896-1969) was a distinguished actor (stage and screen). He co-founded the Lincoln Motion Picture Company (founded 1916), and was the company's leading male actor after the resignation of Noble Johnson. This American film production company largely operated out of Los Angeles, California, with an office in Omaha, Nebraska. Lincoln Motion Picture Company is widely considered the first movie company founded by Black filmmakers with a national distribution.

10.41 linear feet (8 oversize flat boxes, 1 document box)

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Research Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Research Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Research Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

The collection is open for research.