They also sought to do damage control: A year earlier, Birth of a Nation made the race—mostly played by whites in black face—look bad, rebooted the previously dormant Klan, and unleashed a parade of other horribles.
Elder brother, 
Noble, entered films by accident in 1914, according to Valerie Yaros of Screen Actor magazine. He got his first break when a production company, shooting a Western in Colorado Springs, needed a replacement for an injured performer. Tall and athletic, Noble was a skilled horseman and could pass for Native American.
Pursuing a career in acting, he moved to Los Angeles, along with friend and former classmate, Lon Chaney (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Noble became the first Black to sign with the newly minted Screen Actors guild in 1933, and went on to accrue upwards of 100 screen credits playing Arabs, Russians, Chinese, Mexicans and (mostly) Native Americans. He funneled income from his steady gig at Universal into Lincoln.
George, a Hampton Institute grad, settled in Omaha, Nebraska, splitting his time between delivering mail, writing scripts, and dealing with exhibitors.
‘A NEGRO’S AMBITION’
The brothers opened an office on LA’s famed black business row, Central Avenue*, with their film stage several miles to the west.
In their first production, The Realization of a Negro’s Ambition, Noble stars as an engineer who strikes oil and wins the girl. George called it “the first successful, Class-A Negro motion picture.” Well-placed friends at the Chicago Defender, Pittsburgh Courier, and Harlem’s Amsterdam News helped with promotion.
The Trooper of Troop K, the first black Western, which pit the black cavalry against the Mexican army, went over big with audiences. Noble starred in the film, which played Tuskegee, Alabama; New Orleans; Omaha, and beyond.
Though the brothers managed to ride out World War I and the Spanish flu—which killed more people than the war—their coffers dipped painfully low. They’d tried unsuccessfully to get a War Department contract to shoot newsfilm of black troops in France. Distribution remained a hurdle. George ultimately took a leave from the post office to raise capital and shoo the wolf from the door.
TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION
In front of and be
hind the camera, Lincoln Motion Pictures trained a number of young Black actors, screenwriters and camera operators.
George planned street parades and hired comely young ladies to hawk movie tickets at LA’s social venues and churches. But Lincoln’s target market viewed movies as a luxury. Banks refused to give the company a loan, and Oscar Micheaux and other filmmakers began to nip at their heels. Then Universal pressured Noble to stop making race films. Lincoln closed shop in 1922.
While none of the brothers’ films survive in tact, portions of them are in the Library of Congress, and George left a 60-year file of clippings, correspondence and photographs at UCLA’s Research Library when he died in 1977. Noble passed away a year later.
*Central Avenue was “a Booker T. Washington building, two hotels, an employment agency, two newspapers, a confident Watts Colored Independent League, a Dahomey café, a tough NAACP branch, a black baseball league—in short, a swagger and bourgeois pride that concealed vestiges of an oppressed past,” Thomas Cripps, Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film
Pamela K. Johnson 
Although I’m familiar with the rich cultural history of L.A.’s BBR on Central Avenue, I did not know about the life, times and legacy of the other ‘Brothers Johnson’ – Noble and George. Thanks for a enlightening read!
Although I’m well aware of the other ‘Brothers Johnson’, and the rich cultural history of L.A.’s celebrated Central Ave., I must thank you for enlightening us about the life, times and legacy of brothers Noble and George – great visionaries!
Wow. So grateful to learn about the work of these courageous, creative men. Double wow.
I grew up at 82nd and Central in the mid-1950’s and 60’s. There was also a Lincoln Theatre that showed movies, however I don’t know if it was somehow linked to the brothers Johnson. Although the Avenue was already past it’s glory days, it was still a vibrant business community. That suddenly changed exactly 50 years ago in the summer of 1965 when much of Central Avenue was burned. It’s very sad to see there are still areas that have not been rebuilt after all this time. The struggle continues.
Their Lincoln Motion Picture Company had office space on the Avenue, but not a physical theater. A lot of black businesses used the name Lincoln out of gratitude for the role he played in ending slavery. Thanks for reading!