Wake up Black Theater

These clippings from the June 1889 edition of Harper's Magazine provide a brief history of minstrelsy as written by Laurence Hutton. The article includes an account of the first minstrel, other notable minstrels, and the rise of minstrelsy in the United States.

Images of minstrel actors G. Swaine Buckley, R. Bishop Buckley, and Frederick Buckley.

This is a poster advertisement for the minstrel actor W. W. Newcomb, expressing comedy by poking fun at black people’s challenges living in America. He mocked the way they talked, walked, dressed, danced, and used facial expressions.

Notable Minstrel show songs: “Bonny Eloise,” “Virginia Rosebuds” “Bonny Jean,” and “Lilly Dear.” These songs were meant to represent blacks as inferior. However, Benjamin Hanby’s “Nelly Gray” was written from the perspective of a male slave in Kentucky. His lover was sold and taken away to Georgia and he is devastated. He eventually dies and joins her in heaven. The song lyrics summarize one way slavery was cruel and inhumane.

This is a series of stock images meant to be used in advertisements. Using exaggerated stereotypes, they show minstrel actors in blackface, wigs, comedic expressions, and tattered clothes. At this time, minstrel shows were widely popular forms of comedy. They generally mocked blacks due to slavery, poor living conditions, and poor grammar.

African Americans were seen as inferior and undignified in mass media. This image of actor Sam Lucas is more dignified than was typical of this period. It illustrates the point that African Americans were slowly receiving more serious roles.

Best-known for his contributions to blues music, musician and composer W. C. Handy was also a member of the Negro Actors Guild. He did not compose the traditional “Careless Love,” but his version was well-known, and he used it as the basis for the popular “Loveless Love.”

Willis Richardson, a pioneer in the black theater movement, emerged as a playwright at the dawn of the New Negro movement. His plays were crucial for black audiences, mainly students. Richardson, the editor of Play and Pageants from the Life of the Negro, helped to lay the foundations of African American theatrical drama.

This is a review of past activities from the Negro-Unit of the Federal Theatre Project of Raleigh, North Carolina. Members both met with and presented plays to the community.

This letter from Solomon Swaney to the General Manager of the Works Progress Administration reveals the deep discrimination toward the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project. The young actors working under the supervision of Venzalla Jones were discriminated against because she was a woman and black. This resulted in the project not being able to perform publicly despite practicing all year.

Josh White was an African American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor, and civil rights activist. He appeared several times on Broadway in the late 1940s.

1947 was the tenth anniversary of the Negro Actors Guild, founded by Fredi Washington and others. The Guild included such actors as Leigh Whipper, Noble Sissle, W.C. Handy, and Dick Campbell. The organization was established to try to eliminate the stereotyping of African Americans in theatrical and cinematic performances. It also stressed the need for more realistic roles for people of color, helped foster the skills of African American actors, and worked to generate more acting opportunities for blacks.

Founded in 1910, the Howard Theater was the biggest black theater in the world. The theater helped launch the careers of performers such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Marvin Gaye, and the Supremes.

Black Theater was a periodical of the Black Theatre Movement. This magazine contains articles about black playwrights. The cover of the third issue depicts The King of Soul or The Devil and Otis Redding, which represents Otis Redding encountering the devil and the toll it took on his life.

A drama club at Howard University, the Howard Players drew on their traditions while bringing in new tools and techniques. Members of this group believed older theatrical styles were still relevant to contemporary struggles.

Advertisement for an evening of entertainment to salute the April 1975 reopening of the New Howard Theater Corporation.

A list of some of the most prominent acts that have appeared at the Howard Theater.

In April 1975, the New Howard Theater Corporation presented an evening of entertainment to salute the reopening of the theater. Redd Foxx was among the featured acts.

Teenagers shown helping to promote the comedian Redd Foxx show at the Howard Theater. In the 1970s, the Afro hairstyle represented individuality and self-love.

Broadway and film performer Glory Van Scott wrote this musical based on the life of Sojourner Truth for the National Black Touring Circuit, Inc. Founded in 1974, this group aimed to increase access to black theater for communities across the nation.

Langston Hughes' play Simply Heavenly was performed in 1989 with Melba Moore at the Freedom Theater in Philadelphia. Moore performed at the theater in such plays as Day of Absence and The Happy Ending. She was heavily involved with the Freedom Theater and its productions.

Pennsylvania's oldest black theatrical institution, the Freedom Theater held a fundraising event at the Academy of Music in 1988. Founded in 1966, Freedom Theater has presented over 275 plays, bringing the affirmation of black culture to more than 400,000 theatergoers.