Fool’s ErrandEulalie Spence(1927)
A one-act play by EULALIE SPENCE that the
KRIGWAPLAYERS, a drama troupe founded in 1926
by W. E. B. DUBOIS, performed in their first show.
Artist AARONDOUGLAShelped to design the sets
used for the performances. In 1927 the play won
second prize in the National Little Theatre Tourna-
ment held at the Frolic Theatre in NEWYORKCITY
and first prize in the drama category.
The play, commissioned in part by DuBois, was
a comedy that tackled community assumptions and
social anxieties. Faced with the possible pregnancy of
an unmarried girl, church women insist that the girl
and her boyfriend marry. By the play’s end, it is re-
vealed that it is the mother of the railroaded bride-
to-be who is in fact pregnant. The message about
true love, honor, and devotion is illuminated by the
innocent young man’s decision to marry his sweet-
heart.
Bibliography
Giles, Freda Scott. “Willis Richardson and Eulalie
Spence: Dramatic Voices of the Harlem Renais-
sance.” American Drama5, no. 2 (1996): 1–22.
Perkins, Kathy A. Black Female Playwrights: An Anthology
of Plays before 1950.Bloomington: Indiana Univer-
sity Press, 1989.
Roses, Lorraine Elena, and Ruth Elizabeth Randolph.
Harlem Renaissance and Beyond: Literary Biographies
of 100 Black Women Writers, 1900–1945.Boston: G.
K. Hall & Co., 1990.
Foreign MailEulalie Spence(1926)
A prize-winning play by EULALIESPENCE, writer,
teacher, and drama critic for OPPORTUNITY. It
was one of numerous dramas penned by the
Brooklyn, New York, drama teacher, who taught
Joseph Papp, a future influential theater pro-
ducer. In 1926 the script won second prize in a
contest sponsored by the KRIGWAPLAYERSand
THECRISIS.One year later, in 1927, the play won
a $200 first prize for best unpublished manuscript
in the contest sponsored by the publisher and
was soon published by the press. Unfortunately,
to date, no extant copies of the work have been
located.
Bibliography
Giles, Freda Scott. “Willis Richardson and Eulalie
Spence: Dramatic Voices of the Harlem Renais-
sance.” American Drama5, no. 2 (1996): 1–22.Fortune, Timothy Thomas(1856–1928)
A veteran journalist whose accomplishments in-
cluded founding NEWYORKAGE,the newspaper for
which antilynching activist IDAB. WELLS-BARNETT
began writing after threats of mob violence forced
her to abandon her own newspaper, Free Speech,in
Memphis, Tennessee. Fortune, the son of Emanuel
and Sarah Jane Fortune, was born into slavery in
Marianna, Florida, and witnessed his own father’s
rise in postbellum Florida politics. The threat of
LYNCHINGprompted the Fortunes to relocate to
Jacksonville, Florida. He later attended HOWARD
UNIVERSITYbut had to leave school because of fi-
nancial constraints.
Fortune worked closely with BOOKER T.
WASHINGTON and served as ghostwriter for the
TUSKEGEE INSTITUTE president. Fortune’s own
publications included the late-19th-century works
Black and White: Land, Labor, and Politics in the
South(1884) and The Negro in Politics(1885). His-
torians suggest that Fortune’s agitation on civil
rights and labor practices, coupled with his found-
ing of the Afro-American League, laid the ground-
work for important organizations such as the
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCE-
MENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE.
Fortune’s role in the Harlem Renaissance
peaked in 1923 when he became editor of NEGRO
WORLD,the official publication of MARCUSGAR-
VEY’s UNIVERSALNEGROIMPROVEMENTASSOCIA-
TION. He maintained this post until his death of
nervous collapse and heart disease in 1928.Bibliography
Allman, Jean, and David Roediger, “The Early Editorial
Career of Timothy Thomas Fortune: Class, Nation-
alism and Consciousness of Africa.” Afro-Americans
in New York Life and History6, no. 2 (1982): 39–52.
Thornbrough, Emma Lou. T. Thomas Fortune: Militant
Journalist.Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1972.
Wolseley, Roland, “T. Thomas Fortune: Dean of Black
Journalists.” Crisis83, no. 3 (1976): 285–287.Fortune, Timothy Thomas 171