The Connecticut labor news., 1924-06-14
THE NEGRO AND OUR STAGE
By DR. w. E. B. DUBOIS.

ny DN. W. E. Q.
 We all know what the Negro, for the most part, has meant nithesto on the American stage. He has been lay fgure whose business 1t was usually to be funny and sometimes pathetic. He has never, with very few exceptions, been human or credible This of course. cannot last
 The most dramatic group of people in the history of the United States is the American Negro. It would be very easy for great artist so to interpret the history of the country as to make the plot turn entirely upon the black man. Thus two classes of dramatii sit nations of tremendous import arise-the inner life of this blaik group and the contact of black and white
 It IS going to be difficult to get at these facts for the drama and treat them sincerely and aristically, because they are covered by shell, or shall I say a series of concentrict shells? First comes | the shell of what most people think the Negro ought to be, and this makes every one self-appointed and pre-or- | dained judge to say without further thought or inquiry whether this is un- true or that is wrong. Then, secondly, there comes the great problem of the fture relations of groups and races not only in the Nnited States but through out the world. To some people this seems to be tremendous and Imminent problem, and, in their wild anxiety to settle it in the only way which seems to them the right way, they are deter mined to destroy art, religion and good common sense in an effort to make every thing that Is said or shown propaganda for their ideas.
 | These two protective shells most of us recognize; but there is third shell that we do not so often recognize and whose sudden presence fills us with as- the Negro world itself.
 This Negro world which is growing | III selfconsciusness, economic power and 1 literary expression is tremendously sem l sitive. It has sore toes, nerve filled | teeth, delicate eyes and quivering ears. | And 1t has these because during its l whole conscious life it has been malign- ed and caricatured and lied about to an extent inconceivab1e to those who do not know Any mention of Negro blood or | Negro life in America for a century has l been occasion for an ugly picture, dirty a1lusion, nasty comment or a pes simistic forecast The result is that the | Negro to-day fears any attempt of the artist to paint Negroes. He is not sat isfied unless everything is perfect and proper and beautiful and joyful and hope | full He is afraid to be painted as he | is, lest his human foibles and shortcom- ings be seized by his enemies for the pur- pose of the ancient and hateful propa- ganda.
 Happy is the artist that breaks through any of these shells, for his IS the king | dom of eternal beauty. He will come l through scared and perhaps little en1- bitted-certain1y astonisfed at the all most universal misinterpretation of his motives and aims. Eugeut O'Neill is bursting through. He has my sympa- thy, for his soul must be lame with the enthusiasm of the blows rained upon him. But it is work that must be done. No greater mine of dramatic material ever lay ready for the great artists hands than the situation of men of Ne oro hIood ;r, modern America