From the U.S.’s first Black theater in New York to today's Broadway stages, there’s been “a kind of de facto censorship” of diverse stories throughout the country's history, says Professor Shannon Steen.
In 1821, two free Black men from the West Indies — playwright William Alexander Brown and actor James Hewlett — opened what’s considered the United States’ first Black theater in New York City.
At the African Grove Theatre, as it was known, Black performers put on classical pieces, like Shakespeare’s Richard III and Othello, as well asballets, operas, comedies and Brown’s original plays Its audiences were racially integrated, but most often were made up of Black patrons, both free and enslaved. (In 1799, the New York Legislature passed a law to gradually end slavery, but full emancipation didn’t happen until 1827.)
When white attendees came to the shows, they were often hostile, harassing the actors and rioting until the performances couldn’t go on. When police came to the scene, instead of arresting the white rioters, they arrested the Black performers.
“This is just one example of a long history of performers from vulnerable or excluded communities having their events shut down in this way,” said Shannon Steen, a UC Berkeley professor of theater, dance and performance studies and of American studies.