For the first 60 years of science fiction in the 20th Century the presence of black people had only been seen once on movies screens, French Surrealist filmmaker's Jean Renoir's 1927 film Charleston(Sur Air un de Charleston).

33 years later 2 Sci-fi space films arrive with black men as significant characters. First Space Ship on Venus and Assignment Outer Space. Both films were produced abroad.

For much of the history of American cinema, the racial character of film was controlled by the Hayes Code, or the Motion Picture Production Code.

The code forbid or implied strongly that black characters in cinema be relegated to specific subservient roles and that no scenes of "miscegenation, or intimate portrayals of black and white characters appear on screen.

The Motion Picture Production Code was the set of industry moral guidelines that was applied to most United States motion pictures released by major studios from 1930 to 1968. It is also popularly, albeit inaccurately, known as the Hays Code, after Will H. Hays, who was the president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) from 1922 to 1945. Under Hays' leadership, the MPPDA, later known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), adopted the Production Code in 1930 and began strictly enforcing it in 1934. The Production Code spelled out what was acceptable and what was unacceptable content for motion pictures produced for a public audience in the United States.

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