Disney Made An Animation About An African-American Hero That Most People Don't Recognize

[By: Travon Bracey]

Disney Studios has always been supportive of African Americans' history, but they have done it again by them creating an African American short film about a former slave named John Henry. The movie, released in 2002 as a direct-to-video animated anthropology film, hosted by James Earl Jones on the Disney's American Legends DVD, is a movie about a slave who worked on the railroad tracks who they say was capable of the fact that he "could move mountains".
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Here is the full summary:

"John Henry, a freed slave, happens across a railroad building project. An entire crew of freed slaves has been promised land if they can finish by deadline, but they’re exhausted and unable to continue. John, though, has the strength of ten men, and revitalizes all of them. But despair sets in again when the railroad sends a steam hammer to replace the crew and burns the contract. John proposes a challenge: man against machine. After a heroic effort, including a tunnel through solid rock by swinging two hammers at once, John wins, but he also collapses in his wife Polly’s arms. She’s recounting this whole story to their young son, to explain why his father was so great."

The film's new short is based on John Henry and is starring Alfre Woodard and Tim Hodge. It was released on August 18, 2015 on Blu-ray in Walt Disney Animation Studios Short Film Collection. 

How cool is that? Go buy the DVD and check it out, already!

Here's a click of the 2002 release of John Henry short film: