Something Good-Negro Kiss (1898)

Something Good – Negro Kiss is an American short silent film from 1898, directed by early cinema pioneer William Nicholas Selig and starring performers Saint Suttle and Gertie Brown. It runs for about 20–30 seconds and shows the couple dressed in nice attire, holding hands, laughing, and sharing several kisses, conveying a palpable sense of joy and genuine affection rather than caricature.

What makes this film historically significant is that it is believed to be the earliest known on-screen depiction of an affectionate embrace and kiss between African-American performers, at a time when most representations of Black people in American cinema were steeped in racial stereotypes or minstrel conventions.

The film was long thought lost until a nitrate print was rediscovered in 2017, after which scholars traced it back to Selig’s Chicago studio and its original production history. In 2018 Something Good – Negro Kiss was added to the U.S. Library of Congress National Film Registry in recognition of its cultural, historical, and aesthetic importance—preserving this rare early window into Black love and representation in the formative years of cinema. The clip stands out not only as a landmark in film history but also as a positive, humanizing portrayal of African-American intimacy long before such imagery became commonplace on screen.