The Emperor Jones: Our Ancestors' Favorite Play

In 1920, Emperor Jones was a bona fide Broadway hit. The controversial play’s lead is Charles Gilpin, the first Black man to head up an integrated cast on the Great White Way. Gilpin enjoys fame, accolades, and universal acclaim…but he does have a note for his playwright Eugene O’Neil. A note that will make and break careers and change the course of Black history!

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SOURCES

1. The Emperor Jones by Eugene O'Neil
2. Preserving African-American Cinema: The Case of The Emperor Jones by Jennie Saxena with contributions from Ken Weissman and James Cozart
3. "The Truth About Haiti: An NAACP Investigation" by James Weldon Johnson
4. Charles Gilpin. The Kennedy Center
5. Jackson Ward and its Black Wall Street. National Park Service
6. Beyond Tulsa: The Historic Legacies and Overlooked Stories of America's Black Wall Streets. Time Magazine
7. The Richmond Planet is digitized and stored at The Library of Congress.