William D. Foster

William D. Foster, sometimes referred to as Bill Foster (1884 – 15 April 1940), was a pioneering African-American film producer who was an influential figure in the Black film industry in the early 20th century, along with others such as Oscar Micheaux. He was the first African American to found a film production company, establishing the Foster Photoplay Company in Chicago in 1910. Foster had a vision for the African-American community to portray themselves as they wanted to be seen, not as someone else depicted them. He was influenced by the black theater community and wanted to break the racial stereotyping of blacks in film. He was an actor and writer under the stage name Juli Jones, as well as an agent for numerous vaudeville stars. His film The Railroad Porter, released in 1912, is credited as being the world's first film with an entirely black cast and director. The film is also credited with being the first black newsreel, featuring images of a YMCA parade. Foster's company produced four films that were silent shorts. William Foster was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1884. He started his career as a sports writer for the Chicago Defender, a local African-American newspaper, writing under the name Juli Jones.

The Defender had recently been established in 1905 by Robert Sengstacke Abbott. By the First World War, it became the nation's "most influential Black weekly newspaper." Foster periodically wrote for other newspapers as well, still under the penname Juli Jones, including an article for the Indianapolis Freeman published in 1913, in which he "sketches out the public disclosure on the representation of blacks in white-produced films, a disclosure that would define the terms of the debate for the rest of the century". In addition to being a writer, Foster was a press agent for vaudeville stars such as Bert Williams and George Walker (vaudeville) and also worked as a booking agent and business manager for Chicago's Pekin Theater, which at the time was a well known vaudeville house. With these connections, he had his foot in the door of the theater industry years before he started his own film company.

In 1910 he founded the Foster Photoplay Company, which is credited as the first African-American independent film company. Foster stated that the film industry "is the Negro businessman's only international chance to make money and put his race right with the world." His goal was not only business success but also to show that African Americans could improve their image and standing all over the world. From the start Foster intended to leave his mark on the film industry and make an impact on the culture of his time and the culture of the future. In the words of film critic Thomas R. Cripps, Foster was “a clever hustler from Chicago, he had been a press agent for the [Bert] Williams and [George] Walker revues and [Bob] Cole and Johnson's A Trip to Coontown [circa 1898], a sportswriter for the [Chicago] Defender, an occasional actor under the name of Juli Jones, and finally a purveyor of sheet music and Haitian coffee. He may have made the first black movie, The Railroad Porter, an imitation of Keystone comic chases completed perhaps three years before The Birth of a Nation [February 8, 1915]."

He died in Chicago, Illinois on 15 April 1940.