GOD'S STEP CHILDREN (1938) Jacqueline Lewis & Ethel Moses | Drama, Black Cinema | B&W

God's Step Children is a 1938 American drama film directed by Oscar Micheaux and starring Jacqueline Lewis.

SYNOPSIS
A young light-skinned Negress struggles to find her place in both the black and the white worlds.

A young black woman arrives at the home of Mrs. Saunders, a widow who is black, and begs her to look after her light-skinned baby, whom she cannot afford to feed. At first she says this is temporary while she looks for work, but leaves declaring she will never be back. Mrs. Saunders pledges to raise the child as her own, along with her own son Jimmie. She names the child Naomi.

Nine years later, schoolgirl Naomi is thought by the other black children to be aloof and they accuse the light-complexioned child of not wanting to be black. This looks true the day Naomi disappears on her way to school and Jimmie tells his mother that Naomi deliberately avoided the black school she was supposed to attend and instead went to a white school. Naomi denies Jimmie's accusation, saying he's lying because he hates girls. When Mrs. Cushinberry threatens to punish her for being insolent and mean, Naomi furiously explodes that she hates her and the other children and that she only came to the school because her mother sent her there. She spits in the teacher's face which results in Mrs. Cushinberry spanking her.

That evening, Mrs. Cushinberry visits Mrs. Saunders, but when she realizes that Naomi didn't tell her mother what happened that afternoon, she decides to keep silent. But Naomi has been eavesdropping, and when the teacher leaves she starts to tell her mother that the teacher was the one at fault. Then Jimmie reveals the truth: Naomi was spanked at school for being unruly and then spitting in the teacher's face. Mrs. Saunders spanks Naomi herself. Later, Naomi starts a rumor that Mrs. Cushinberry is having an affair with a married professor; soon a riot erupts at school and a crowd of angry parents marches to the school superintendent's house to demand that he fire both teachers. When Jimmie tells Mrs. Saunders about the riot, she rushes to the superintendent's office to dispel the rumor Naomi started. Because of this, Naomi is soon sent to a convent.

About ten to twelve years later Jimmie, a young man now, has earned $6,700 as a Pullman porter when he is approached by Ontrue Cowper, a gambler, who tries to interest him in investing in the numbers racket. Jimmie rejects this offer, investing in a farm instead. After proposing to his sweetheart Eva, Jimmie invites his mother to live on his new farm. Naomi returns to town, reformed by her life at the convent, and apologizes to her mother for having been a bad child. When Jimmie and Naomi are reunited, the scene implies Naomi's romantic attachment towards him. Mrs. Saunders arranges to have Jimmie take Naomi to see the city. Although things go well, Eva's Aunt Carrie doesn't trust Naomi's unnatural interest in Jimmie and believes that she should be watched.

Aunt Carrie’s suspicions prove to be well-founded as Naomi soon confesses her love for her adoptive brother. When Jimmie, Eva, and Naomi return to the country, Jimmie introduces Naomi to his friend, Clyde Wade, who immediately falls in love with her. Clyde is a dark-skinned African American with a country accent. Naomi finds him repulsive and confesses to Jimmie that she has always wanted him to marry her. Realizing that Eva would be crushed by the loss of Jimmie, Naomi consents to marry Clyde.

CAST & CREW
Jacqueline Lewis as Naomi, as a Child
Ethel Moses as Mrs. Cushinberry / Her Daughter Eva
Alice B. Russell as Mrs. Saunders
Charles Thompson as Jimmie, as a Child
Carman Newsome as Jimmie, as an Adult
Gloria Press as Naomi, as an Adult
Alec Lovejoy as Ontrue Cowper, a Gambler
Columbus Jackson as Cowper's Associate
Laura Bowman as Aunt Carrie
Sam Patterson as A Banker
Charles R. Moore as School Superintendent
Consuelo Harris as Muscle Dancer
Sammy Gardiner as Tap Dancer
Leon Gross as Orchestra Leader
Dolly Jones as a Dancer

Directed by Oscar Micheaux
Written by Alice B. Russell, Oscar Micheaux
Produced by Oscar Micheaux
Cinematography Lester Lang
Edited by Patricia Rooney, Leonard Weiss
Distributed by Micheaux Pictures Corporation
Release date 1938
Running time 70 minutes
Country United States
Language English

NOTES
The film is inspired by a combination of elements shared from two previously released Hollywood productions, Imitation of Life and These Three.

God's Step Children has been hailed as a masterpiece and denounced as stereotypical and racially denigrating. Protests at the time of the film's release apparently targeted scenes and dialogue in which Micheaux repeated his long-standing criticisms of his race, charging it with a lack of ambition and an inability to plan. As in previous Micheaux films, God's Step Children seems to repeat the same bias in favor of light-skinned blacks that it also attempts to critique. The "bad" blacks, such as the gamblers, are dark-complexioned.