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Sheppard Randolph Edmonds (1900-1983) authored forty-nine plays, chaired three Drama Departments, and was a major influence in African American drama in the South. Yet his importance is overlooked. This essay illuminates Edmonds and his contributions by focusing on his role as educator and dramatist. His plays anticipate August Wilson, who also stressed the South's importance to history and community. By examining Edmonds's work, we will understand the ideals of black theatre's principal architect.
Introduction: Banishing Uncle Tom
That from March 22, 1945, onward "Uncle Tom" and all that he connotes shall be considered banished forever from the American Stage.1
In 1945, The Louisiana Weekly reported a theatrical production by the Dillard Players commemorating the tenth anniversary of Dillard University's theatrical group. The play, Uncle Tom, written by Arthur Clifton Lamb and directed by Sheppard Randolph Edmonds, was a one-act courtroom drama portraying the symbolic trial of the well-known stereotype. According to the Weekly, the drama conveyed the final "nail-in-the-coffin" for Uncle Tom: "No more will the theater have to worry along with 'Uncle Tom,' the weak and grinning caricature for the Dillard Players' Guild" ("Dillard Players"). Edmonds, who also played the role of the presiding judge, described the drama's significance for black educational theatre: "Uncle Tom was summoned to court and given a fair trial for his crimes against the theatre, and then banished forever from the stage." Since then, he adds, "Colleges have been working for a new type of black theatre-one that will portray black people honestly, fairly and sincerely" (Edmonds, "Black Drama" 413). The tenth anniversary production was a landmark for two reasons: first, it showcased the sustained efforts of black theatre in higher education during the 1930s and 1940s; and second, it illustrated the work of one of the most important figures in African American theatre history at the time, Sheppard Randolph Edmonds (1900-1983).
The following will examine Edmonds's contributions as both educator and playwright, emphasizing various intellectual frameworks that might assist us in understanding his place in theatre history. Edmonds's importance was primarily during the 1930s and early 1940s, a time that occurred after the 1920s New Negro-Harlem Renaissance period and before the Civil Rights-Black Arts Movement of post-World War II and 1960s. Because his major accomplishments are...