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I truly believe the Harlem Renaissance inspired a national community of black writers from as early as 1858 when William Wells Brown wrote the first play Escape and a Leap to Freedom and Joseph Cotter Sr who wrote the play Caleb, the Degenerate in 1903. The pioneering efforts of these two men was the beginning. The true serious beginning was in 1917 by Ridgely Torrence who wrote The Rider Dreams, Simon the Cyrenian and Granny Maumee. Later there was Eugene O'Neill, Willis Richardson and Garland Anderson. Frank Wilson made history with Porgy and Bess. Wallace Thurman capitalized on Harlem in the twenties. The there was Langston Hughes Richard Wright. By this time the Black theaters with all of the exciting plays were going very strong. Langston Hughes who founded The Suitcase Theater was a very important beginning. Theodore Wards, Louis Peterson, Charles Sebree, James Baldwin Lorraine Hansberry, LeRoi Jones and the list goes on. After the civil war a group of free New York blacks organized the African Company which was destroyed by racists later. Later on the first show to be written directed and produced by blacks was A Trip To Coontown by Bob Cole following was Will Cook, Paul Dunbar, Bert Williams, George Walker, Ernest Hogan, Alex Rogers Jesse Shipp. S Dudley and Rosamond Johnson. Of course the blacks had problems after The Birth Of a Nation film was presented. Race riots broke out. At this time the blacks found themselves unable to get inside the Broadway Theaters to perform. Some black writers and actors welcome the exile to Harlem because they could play and perform roles they were denied before like love scenes.. In or around 1900 a race riot broke out and the racist wanted Bert Williams and I think one named Walker. They escaped the riot.

Harlem offered the blacks a haven from a not so friendly world despite the fact they had to fight neighboring whites in hand to hand battles. A great many blacks went into Harlem from the south because they had heard about the theater or seen black touring companies. The blacks that had moved to Harlem was receptive to the theater movement.. Stage presentations gave way to vaudeville then the movie industry. The depression in the twenties halted the Harlem Theater. The nineteen thirties brought professional attempts to the Harlem era.. Later came the Negro Playwright Company close to the end of the thirties. The forties the blacks were on Broadway as well as in Harlem . Well at last the American Negro Theater was formed by Abram Hill, Frederick Oneal, Austin hall and a few more thus taking it into the commercial focus.

American attitudes towards blacks underwent a change in the post war era. A number of barriers relaxed and now blacks could purchase seats to Broadway plays. Around the early fifties a group of black playwrights met in Harlem for a meeting and at the meeting a council of the Harlem Theater was formed. and the council urged groups to produce plays by black writers. The Apollo Theater's management served as a catalytic agent for productions by black authors. The Blacks utilized the rich dramatic history of these times, the wonderful artist and the audiences that was produced. All of this past history was the foundation for the black writers without where would the black writers be today. Thanks to all of

the black pioneer writers and actors.

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