Lobby card for Harlem on the Prairie

Producers advertised Harlem on the Prairie as the first Western musical with an all-Black cast. In 1937, as now, the film was a corrective to the erasure of Black cowhands from popular culture’s imagination of the U.S. West. The film starred Herbert Jeffries, who was known for both his role as a cowhand and his racially ambiguous appearance, which the media frequently commented on. For his part, Jeffries articulated pride in representing the Black community onscreen. Harlem on the Prairie is a race film, a genre of films featuring Black casts (though largely white production teams), made primarily for Black audiences. The films sought to defy racist stereotypes. This image is a lobby card, typically a small set of images printed on cardstock to advertise upcoming films in the lobby of movie theaters. Learn more about race in depictions of the American West.