Noble Johnson was the first famous Black actor under the classic Hollywood studio system, but he reached his success playing characters of every race but his own. In order to play Black roles, he created a groundbreaking film company in L.A. that made some of the earliest Black produced films for Black audiences.
Jan. 11, 1897: The Chattanooga Daily Times reported on the frightening, sudden blindness of a Johnson City resident. With a dateline from Johnson City, readers learned, âMrs. Thos. J. Cox, wife of the proprietor of the Greenwood hotel (sic), was stricken blind in her left eye in a very mysterious manner about 7 oâclock last night. She was sitting in a parlor of the hotel talking to a lady friend when she felt a dizziness about the head and a blurring of the sight. She applied camphor and other convenient restoratives, and was soon as well as ever, except that she was unable to see the most powerful light with the left eye. The physicians have examined the eye and can see nothing unusual about it.â