Charles Gilpin’s Drama League Controversy

The twelfth post in our series on Black New York, 1921, for Black History Month, 2021

One hundred years ago today … Charles Gilpin was speaking out about his controversial Drama League Award and issues pertaining to being a Black actor–and so was James Weldon Johnson. Gilpin, star of Eugene O’Niell’s The Emperor Jones, had just been named as one of the year’s ten most influential people in theater–the first person of color so awarded. 

Note: we previously featured Gilpin on the anniversary of The Emperor Jones’s debut, November 1, 1920.

I belong to two clubs of my own among kindred spirits. They are the Dressing Room Club and the C.V.B.A (Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association) and there I feel at home. I can't expect to go to the lambs or friars. They wouldn't want me and I would feel uneasy. At my clubs I can tell the jokes I know will go and I can express myself freely, but there I would be among strangers.

But I'm going to attend the dinner given by the Civic club … and I am mighty pleased be able to do this. 

(“Negro Star Actor Stays on Own Side of the Footlights,” The Evening World, 25 February, 1921, p.31. Chronicling America.

When Gilpin was first rumored to be in line for the Drama League Award, the looming question was whether he would be invited to the annual awards dinner– the “civic club” event he mentions, above. Various League members and awardees threatened to refuse to attend if he were there, and others if he were not. At first, the guild tried to wriggle its way out of the situation with a consolation prize: a congratulatory letter.

Over the following week, the League variously did not and then did invite him, and Gilpin did not and then did accept the invitation.

James Weldon Johnson (about whom we have written many times, starting with our post for January 3, 1920) penned an editorial criticizing the initial non-invitation.

There will, of course, be many who will feel that the Drama League was within its rights in declining to invite a colored actor to its dinner; that the dinner is wholly a social affair. But the Drama League was not within its rights in taking such a stand, and its dinner is not entirely a social affair. This dinner is supposed to be given in honor of the ten persons considered the most distinguished contributors to dramatic art during the preceding year. Since that is so, the matter of mere race has no place. If the Drama League wants to draw any such lines, it should cut out the consideration of art, and invite its guests accordingly as they may be congenial to its members.

(“The Gilpin Incident,” New York Age, 26 February 1921, p. 6.)

Johnson’s column ran in the Age after the decision was reversed.

The New York newspaper reports and headlines tell a rich story, including a list of actors who threatened to boycott the award dinner.

All through these weeks, Gilpin continued to perform his starring role in The Emperor Jones.

– Jonathan Goldman, February 25th, 2021

TAGS: African American history, theater, entertainment, awards, critics, actors, clubs