‘The Little Rascals’ star Allen Hoskins kept his past a secret

The first Black male psychiatric technician who worked at the Sonoma Developmental Center — a man named Allen Hoskins in 1956 — had a secret past unlike any of his colleagues or friends.

As a toddler, Hoskins embarked on an acting career that spanned hundreds of performances in the “Our Gang” films between 1921 and 1931, also known as “The Little Rascals” in TV syndication. The franchise began as silent films and later transitioned into “talkies.”

His character, Farina, was often poorly dressed with hair in pigtails and was criticized by some for perpetuating racial stereotypes, which Hoskins remained unapologetic for during his lifetime.

After a stint in the Army and a string of odd jobs, Hoskins moved to the Bay Area from Los Angeles in the 1950s. He came to Sonoma County in 1953 “to redecorate a Windsor motel which became the Cottage Grove Convalescent Home,” according to an obituary in The Press Democrat. During that time he met his wife, Franzy. He lived in Kenwood and Santa Rosa until the mid-1960s.

A member of the NAACP, Hoskins was quoted in The Press Democrat in 1965 for a story about lack of adequate housing for minorities in certain areas of Santa Rosa, including Wright and Stony Point roads.

“I don’t understand why the white community doesn’t open it up,” Hoskins said. “There is plenty of housing in the area, but for some reason or other our people don’t seem to be able to get in.”

He was also involved in the arts while living in Santa Rosa as a member of a local theater group and owner of a photography studio on Santa Rosa Avenue.

Hoskins later moved to Oakland, where he worked for the Alameda County Chapter of the Association of Retarded People, a national organization that is now known as The Arc.

He didn’t like to speak publicly about his past as a child star, but toward the end of his life he opened up in media interviews about his experience as a film actor.

“Those were the only roles a lot of Black actors could get, and jobs were scarce,” Hoskins said to the San Francisco Examiner in 1978 about his performance of Farina.

A year later, he spoke to the Associated Press about fond memories he had of playing Farina, a closely guarded secret he kept from friends for most of his adult life.

“The gang was unique, well-integrated, ahead of its time,” Hoskins said of “Our Gang.” “There was nothing else to compare with it in its day. I’d fall into a bucket of feathers; a white kid would fall into a bucket of feathers.”

Hoskins was inducted in the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1975. He died of cancer in 1980 at the age of 59.

See the gallery above for photos of the life of child actor Allen Hoskins.