I used to love those movies too. I was turned on to them when I was a kid and a local tv station used to air one each weekend morning. It was a few years before I discovered that the "regulars" (Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, etc.) were a part of the Dead End kids before being "The Bowery Boys" or "The East Side Kids".

If you've never seen the movie "Dead End" (Joel McCrea and Sylvia Sidney star along with a young Humphrey Bogart) you should really try to catch it on tv or rent it. It was a serious movie showcasing the poverty of a tenement street and some of its inhabitants. The kids were supposed to be tough kids (dated by today's standards) rather than the clowns they later portrayed.

Back to the subject of blacks in film.... Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, arguably one of the best dancers who ever performed in the 20th century appeared in a movie with a very young Shirley Temple in the mid 30s. It created quite an uproar to have them dancing together.

Sammy Davis Jr appeared in a film in the late 20s.... I'd highly recommend his autobiography, "Yes I Can", for some good insight into blacks and films and the entertainment industry back then.