Censorship, Control and Resistance in Eugene O’Neill’s “black plays” The Emperor Jones and All God’s Chillun Got Wings by Gwenola Le Bastard

“…White actors with their faces painted black played the roles of the black characters, while black audiences were generally denied access to Broadway theaters. In this context of severe prohibition and regulation, Eugene O’Neill wrote and produced The Emperor Jones (1920) and All God’s Chillun Got Wings (1923), two plays which bear witness to the then rising interest of white avant-garde writers and artists in African-American life and culture, and to their productive connection with the emerging literature of the Harlem Renaissance. …”
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