‘A Raisin in the Sun’ made history in 1959

Hughes’ ‘Harlem’ inspired Lorraine Hansberry’s ‘A Raisin in the Sun’

Hughes' 11-line poem from “Montage of a Dream Deferred” is one of the most recognizable verses in American literature. Part of that is due to its legacy as the inspiration for the title of Lorraine Hansberry’s landmark 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun,” the first show written by a Black woman to appear on Broadway.

August Wilson’s ‘Fences’ swept the 1987 awards season

The play about a Black family in Pittsburgh won a Pulitzer Prize, a Tony Award, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for best play of the year.

The Martha Graham Dance Company was the first integrated Broadway dance company

In 1951, Graham hired Mary Hinkson and Mattie Tierney, two Black dancers who started in the company's dance corps and eventually took on lead roles in productions. The move broke color barriers that were the norm for the time.

'Shuffle Along,' a 1921 Broadway musical, brought jazz to American musical theater and helped pave the way for Black culture in the 20th century.

Hughes' 'Black Nativity' reworked the Christmas story through jazz improvisation

Although he’s primarily known as a poet, Langston Hughes was also a popular playwright. One of his most inventive works is the 1961 stage show “Black Nativity,” which told the story of Christ’s birth with an all-Black cast. Hughes’ original script encourages improvisation, calling on his love of jazz, and includes 27 songs.

Langston Hughes wrote several children's books

Later in his career, the “Poet Laureate of Harlem” branched out into children’s literature, releasing a series of “First Book” titles (“The First Book of Rhythms,” “The First Book of Jazz”) as well as some that helped young Black children cope with racism, like 1969’s “Black Misery.”

Jackie "Moms" Mabley was the first woman to headline solo at the Apollo Theater

The comic's act was based on a classic archetype: the fed-up mother who was going to tell it to you straight. She perfected her craft on the Chitlin Circuit, where she became a cultural icon in the Black community, and then had significant mainstream success starting in the 1960s.

Zora Neale Hurston's 'Spunk' spent decades languishing in the Library of Congress

The author, known for her masterwork "Their Eyes Were Watching God," wrote the play in 1935, but it was mostly unknown. In 1997, it was re-discovered in the Library of Congress' drama collection, a repository for plays that were not copyrighted because they were never staged.

In 1956, Althea Gibson became the first Black Grand Slam champion

From 1944 to 1956, Althea Gibson dominated the American Tennis Association circuit, all while Jim Crow laws denied her entry into tournaments or even a hotel room like her fellow white competitors. This Wimbledon video shows her experience becoming the first Black woman to play the tournament in 1951, and meeting Queen Elizabeth II in 1957 when she won.

The Harlem Globetrotters played their first game in 1927

Black players were not permitted on the existing professional basketball teams, but Abe Saperstein—the team's original coach, owner, manager, and sometimes player—leaned into the team's all-Black roster, nodding to New York's historically Black neighborhood even though the team didn't play there until the late 1960s.

The best Broadway oral histories

What do you get when you combine elite performers, spectacular sets, and tons of rehearsal time? Maybe an award-winning show, but definitely drama. This list of Broadway-based oral histories spans from RENT’s groundbreaking depiction of the AIDS crisis to the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on live theater. There’s even a retelling of how TikTok helped bring a musical version of Ratatouille to the stage for a one-night-only streaming exclusive.

Roosevelt resigned from a prominent women's organization after it barred a Black singer from performing

When the Daughters of the American Revolution refused to allow Marian Anderson to perform at their Washington hall in 1939 because she was Black, Roosevelt publicly cut ties with the group. She worked to arrange an alternative outdoor concert for Anderson at the Lincoln Memorial, which drew a crowd of 75,000.

Eugene O'Neill is the lone American playwright to win the Nobel Prize

The writer was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1936, with the prize committee noting "the power, honesty, and deep-felt emotions of his dramatic works, which embody an original concept of tragedy."

Augusta Savage's masterpiece was destroyed after a limited exhibition

"Life Every Voice and Sing," sometimes called "The Harp," debuted at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Based on the James Weldon Johnson poem (and eventual unofficial Black national anthem) of the same name, the massive, 16-foot-tall sculpture depicted a kneeling Black man holding a bar of music in front of 12 chorus singers. After the fair ended in 1940, Savage was unable to pay to preserve it, so it was destroyed.

Minnelli's acting career began as a toddler

Her first film appearance was at age three in 1949's "In the Good Old Summertime," which starred her mother, Judy Garland. Minnelli's stage debut came not long after, at the age of 10. At age 19, she'd made her Broadway debut in "Flora, the Red Menace," and landed a Tony Award for the performance.

Alice Walker admired Flannery O’Connor for her honest portrayal of the South

Walker wrote “The Color Purple,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making her the first Black woman to win the award. In her essay “A South Without Myths,” she calls O’Connor “the first great modern writer from the South,” particularly because her work abandoned nostalgia for the antebellum world.

Read 'The New Negro,' the influential collection that helped define the Harlem Renaissance.

Watch Billie Holiday's screen debut in 1935's 'Symphony in Black'

The singer appeared alongside Duke Ellington in Paramount's "Symphony in Black," a musical short released by Paramount Pictures in September 1935, when Holiday was just 20 years old.

'The Negro Speaks of Rivers’ introduced a teenage Hughes to the literary world

While traveling to Mexico to visit his father, Hughes began scrawling “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” as he crossed the Mississippi River, using the river as a metaphor for the Black experience. The poem was published in 1921 in the Crisis, an NAACP magazine edited by WEB DuBois, kickstarting Hughes’ literary career.

Brooks' Broadway adaptation of 'The Producers' was a massive hit when it debuted in 2001, and broke a record for most Tony wins.

The poem behind 'Strange Fruit'

"Bitter Fruit" was written by Abel Meeropol, a teacher, under the pseudonym Lewis Allen, after seeing a photograph of a lynching. Eventually, he set the words to music, and the song was then performed by his wife and other singers. In 1938, he played it for Holiday, who began performing it at the New York's Cafe Society. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

Aaron Douglas' art defined the visual aesthetic of the Harlem Renaissance

Douglas learned about Harlem's cultural scene while teaching high school in Kansas City and was eventually recruited to New York by Charles S. Johnson, the editor of the National Urban League's periodical. Soon, Douglas was illustrating periodicals and books affiliated with the movement. In 1934, the Works Progress Administration commissioned him to paint the "Aspects of Negro Life" murals. One of those murals, "Song of the Towers," pictured below, portrays Black life during the Harlem Renaissance.

The history behind the country's first Black-owned bookstore

In 1834, the first Black-owned book store was opened in New York City by abolitionist David Ruggles. Ruggles founded an antislavery newspaper and was an organizer for what eventually became the Underground Railroad. His bookstore was dedicated to abolitionist literature but was also a meeting place and lending library for Black people, including those who had escaped slavery.

Alain Locke's 'The New Negro' anthology helped define the Harlem Renaissance

The 1925 collection of poetry, drama, short fiction, lyrics, and essays by Black writers was intended to document what Locke, a Harvard-trained philosopher and the first Black Rhodes Scholar, believed was a burgeoning Black consciousness that was "vibrant with a new psychology." The book is now considered one of the major impetuses for the Harlem Renaissance.

Langston Hughes wrote a foundational text for the Harlem Renaissance

Although the 1920s artistic movement lacked formal leaders, Hughes' 1926 essay "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain" established him as one of its figureheads. Hughes' piece argues that Black artists should not be ashamed of their race; instead, they should embrace it, while simultaneously pursuing their own individual artistic visions.

Irna Phillips is the ‘the queen of the soaps’

She was responsible for “Painted Dreams,” the first radio soap, as well as “These Are My Children,” the first to appear on television. Later, she launched the shows “Guiding Light,” “As the World Turns,” and “Another World.”

Simone de Beauvoir's lone play has mostly been overlooked

Although primarily known as a philosopher, Beauvoir wrote the play "The Useless Mouths," which debuted in Paris in November 1945. The work is about a government allowing "useless" citizens—women, children, the elderly—to starve during a food shortage. While it's not widely staged, some Beauvoir scholars believe it's a significant text that explores many of the existential themes she explores in her other work.

'Over the Rainbow' became a widely covered standard

Judy Garland’s original 1939 version won the Academy Award for best original song, though it never appeared on the Billboard pop singles chart (which didn’t appear until 1940). Twenty different versions of the song by other artists—including Willie Nelson, Patti LaBelle, and Israel "Iz" Kamakawiwo'ole—have appeared on numerous Billboard charts.

Paul Robeson was the Harlem Renaissance's chief renaissance man

Robeson played many roles throughout his life: He was an All-American football player who was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, earned a law degree while playing in the NFL, starred in numerous films and Broadway shows, and became an outspoken advocate for labor and civil rights. His vocal criticism of US involvement in the Korean War led to his passport being voided and a protracted struggle with the US government.

Toni Morrison's novels were popular postmodern texts

Toni Morrison’s novels broke new ground in American fiction by using bold structures and colloquial voices to reckon with the country’s past, developing her approach through classic early novels like “The Bluest Eye” and “Beloved,” all the way to later works like “Home.” Morrison once said, “The meaning of a novel is in its structure.”

The first nationally broadcast soap opera was 'Clara, Lu, 'n Em'

The show first aired in Chicago in 1930, but was then picked up by NBC and broadcast across the country in 1931. The show followed three women who lived in the same duplex. Listen to a 1934 episode below, including the preshow's soap-centric advertising.

Watch a 1934 short film starring Cab Calloway

Singer and bandleader Cab Calloway was a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene. He was also one of the biggest names in jazz's swing era and would go on to be the first Black American to have a nationally syndicated radio show and the first to sell a million copies of a record. In this 1934 short film, "Cab Calloway's Hi-De-Ho," he reenacts his upbeat performances at Harlem's Cotton Club.

Mel Brooks got his first big break in 1950 as a writer on Sid Caesar's 'Your Show of Shows,' a pioneering TV variety show.

Broadway's songwriters began experimenting in the 1920s

Broadway’s early decades were heavily influenced by opera and vaudeville, but songwriters in the 1920s began exploring more narrative-based songwriting and psychologically complex characters. That trend would continue in the following decades, though it would evolve in even more nuanced ways.

Sojourner Truth's 'Aint I a Woman?' speech addressed the disparity between the treatment of white and black women in America

Truth, a former slave, delivered the address acknowledging both abolition and the treatment of women at a Women's Convention in 1851. She is believed to have spoken with little to no preparation beforehand. Different versions of the speech exist, as there is no officially published version.

Musician Gladys Bentley defied gender norms during the Harlem Renaissance and was openly gay, even though homosexuality was still widely considered taboo.

Hughes wrote for and about everyday Black Americans

Early in his career, Hughes was often disregarded by prominent white literary critics and criticized by Black intellectuals for his sometimes negative portrayal of Black life. Hughes, though, was unconcerned, saying that he wrote for the “workers, roustabouts, and singers, and job hunters” of New York, Washington, Chicago, and other Black hubs.

Soaps launched the careers of countless Hollywood A-listers

Soap operas may not be considered high culture, but many actors who would go on to win television and film’s highest honors got their start with soaps. That includes Julianne Moore (“As the World Turns”), Morgan Freeman (“Another World”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“Santa Barbara”), and Michael B. Jordan (“All My Children”).

The 'Problem We All Live With' was based on Ruby Bridges

The 1964 painting was based on Ruby Bridges, the first Black student to integrate an all-white school in Louisiana. Rockwell used Anita Gunn, the granddaughter of one of his friends, as the model, offering to pay for her violin lessons for her assistance.

Read Langston Hughes’ most famous poems

The writer is considered one of the most important voices in American verse, noted for his use of authentic vernacular, vivid imagery, and jazz-inspired rhythm in poems such as “Harlem,” “I, Too,” and “The Weary Blues.

'The Wiz' reimagined Baum's story for Black America

The 1978 film, produced in part by Motown Productions, starred several popular stars: Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Richard Pryor, Nipsey Russell and Lena Horne. The music—composed by Charlie Smalls and Luther Vandross, and overseen by Quincy Jones—mirrored songs from the 1939 film.

Ann Meyers Drysdale was the first female athlete to receive a full sports scholarship

In 1974, Ann Meyers Drysdale earned a full ride to play basketball at UCLA. It was historic, but only the beginning of her pioneering life, which included a Silver Medal at the 1976 Summer Games and a contract with an NBA team in 1979.

Billboard's early music charts were racially segregated

In 1942, the publication introduced the Harlem Hit Parade chart, listing the top 10 records sold at select record stores in the majority-Black borough of New York. In 1945, it changed the chart’s name to Most Played Juke Box Race Records, using the music industry term (“race record”) that identified recordings by Black artists, even if they played music markedly similar to the white artists on the other charts.

Regional theaters help develop shows for Broadway

Theaters like the La Jolla Playhouse often act as testing grounds for Broadway, allowing audiences to witness groundbreaking world premieres before they hit the Great White Way.

Sylvia Robinson is considered ‘the Godmother of Hip-Hop’

While hip-hop was soundtracking countless parties in the early ‘70s, Robinson saw the music’s potential. She began writing, producing, and releasing some of the music’s earliest singles through her Sugar Hill Records label and helped build a place in the music industry for the young music. Robinson’s groundbreaking work led to a 2022 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Eleanor Roosevelt's 1941 flight with a Black pilot helped legitimize the Tuskegee Airmen program

During a 1941 visit to the Tuskegee Institute, Roosevelt ignored protests from her Secret Service detail and flew for an hour over Alabama with chief instructor Charles Alfred Anderson. Photos of the flight were shared nationwide and helped advance the case for Black pilots in combat.

Although not known for horror, a young Tennessee Williams wrote a gothic radio play

The "Streetcar Named Desire" author wrote "The Strangers," a short script, while a student at the University of Iowa in the 1930s. Andrew Gulli, managing editor for the literary magazine that published the unearthed piece, said that it blends classic '30s radio horror with themes Williams would revisit in later, more famous work.

Some Harlem Renaissance figures criticized Zora Neale Hurston's most famous novel when it was released

Zora Neale Hurston's "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is now considered one of the masterpieces of the Harlem Renaissance, though some in the movement criticized it when it was released in 1937. Both Alain Locke and the writer Richard Wright felt that Hurston's novel lacked depth. Wright was particularly harsh, writing that "her novel carries no theme, no message, no thought. In the main, her novel is not addressed to the Negro, but to a white audience whose chauvinistic tastes she knows how to satisfy."

Black women played a central but often overlooked role in the suffrage movement

Although the women's suffrage movement is often portrayed as a white story, Black women like Truth, Ida B. Wells, and Mary Church Terrell fought for voting rights—frequently facing racism within the movement itself.

Watch Diana Ross star in 'Lady Sings the Blues,' a biopic about Billie Holiday produced by Motown.