The Du Bois Theater Guild Richard Durham and Revolutionary Creative Expression in 1940s Chicago

• In Event: Black American Cultural Aesthetics Creative in Drama and Revolutionary in Politics

Abstract

During the mid-1940s, a group of black, Chicago-based artists proactively developed vehicles through which they could perform their own progressive brand of creative and political expression. Inspired by distinguished scholar W.E.B. Du Bois, these talented actors and writers formed a theatrical group called the Du Bois Theater Guild. The members of this guild included singer/activist Oscar Brown, Jr., a young journalist named Vernon Jarrett, and a pioneering writer named Richard Durham. In addition to the guild's performances of stage plays by Clifford Odets and John Steinbeck, the actors brought Durham's lyrical and politically outspoken radio scripts to life. This paper will explore the contributions of the DuBois Theater Guild and Durham's radio dramas. These historically significant, if not revolutionary, programs unapologetically advocated for freedom, justice and equality for Black Americans and all oppressed people.

Author

• Sonja D. Williams, Howard University