Hosted by the Humanities Center and faculty fellow, Michelle Granshaw. Respondents include Sritama Chatterjee (English) & Doug Jones (Theater Studies, English, and African & African American Studies, Duke University). This event will be hybrid, so you can attend it either in person in 602 CL or via Zoom as you prefer.

While navigating pressing concerns like fighting for the right to vote, fair and equal access to employment, land, and education, and the desegregation of public transportation, after the Civil War, Black Americans repeatedly fought to attend the theatre on a scale never before seen in U.S. theatre history. From coast to coast, north and south, Black Americans brought federal and state lawsuits when denied equal access to theatre seating. Other activists operated outside of the legal system. Black patrons persisted in their demands, eventually wearing down some theatre managers. Crowds of Black Americans surrounded theatres and filled city streets in support of Black patrons’ efforts. Some Black patrons utilized theatre conventions related to gender and class to perform Black respectability as both an end in itself and a means to attain equal access. This paper explores how these actions reimagined public space and their immediate and long-term impact on U.S. theatrical culture.

Precirculated material for this colloquium will be available here about two weeks prior and up to the event.