June 5, 1947: USC film student James C. Johnson, a member of the Delta Kappa Alpha cinema fraternity, said he would not play a role in a student’s radio play because it depicted “the Negro as stereotype,” the Sentinel said.

According to the Sentinel, Johnson said the story was degrading and had no moral value. Johnson said that many writers are unable to accurately portray African Americans “because they are not exposed to the proper environment of the Negro in order to characterize his stories.”

The Daily Trojan is online for this period, but a search yields nothing about this incident.