In 1931 they revisited the theme CLIMBING
JACOB’SLADDER(1931), a riveting antilynching
drama by Regina Andrews. The troupe later pro-
duced Andrews’s historical drama Underground
(1932), based on the Underground Railroad.
The Krigwa Players enjoyed an especially suc-
cessful relationship with Willis Richardson, the tal-
ented dramatist and the first African American to
see his work performed on Broadway. Author of
the Broadway hit THECHIPWOMAN’SFORTUNE,
Richardson supported the efforts of the Krigwa
Players and hosted rehearsals in his WASHINGTON,
D.C., home. His wife, Mary Ellen Jones Richard-
son, was the secretary for the Washington, D.C.–
based Krigwa Theatre troupe from 1926 through
- In addition to their debut performances of
Richardson’s play Compromise,they performed THE
BROKEN BANJOin May 1926, THEHOUSE OF
SHAMin February 1927, MORTGAGEDand FLIGHT
OF THENATIVESin May 1927, and the Nude Siren
and The Chasmin December 1928.
The Krigwa Players often staged their produc-
tions in accessible venues. In Washington, D.C.,
these included the renowned DUNBAR HIGH
SCHOOL, the Phillis Wheatley YWCA, and the
Dunbar Community Center.
The troupe ceased to be known as the Krigwa
Players in 1928. It continued its vital contri-
butions to American drama as the NEGROEX-
PERIMENTAL THEATRE and as the HARLEM
EXPERIMENTALTHEATRE.
Bibliography
Gray, Christine Rauchfuss. Willis Richardson, Forgotten Pi-
oneer of African-American Drama.Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 1999.
Krasner, David. A Beautiful Pageant: African American
Theatre, Drama, and Performance in the Harlem Re-
naissance, 1910–1927.New York: Palgrave Macmil-
lan, 2002.
Ku Klux Klan
An organization dedicated to white supremacy that
was organized first in May 1866. Its founder was
Nathan Bedford Forrest, a former Confederate army
general. Members, known as Klansmen, covered
their faces and bodies with white sheets, participated
in ritual cross-burnings, promoted white supremacist
ideology, and brutalized people of color throughout
America. The organization, also known by its ini-
tials, KKK, supported racial violence such as LYNCH-
INGS and bombings and terrorized African
Americans.
The Ku Klux Klan was extremely visible in the
years after the Civil War. Their protest of African-
American suffrage, as well as economic and intel-
lectual advancement, prompted deadly attacks
against and lynchings of African-American individ-
uals, families, communities, and their supporters.
The Ku Klux Klan also advocated the oppression of
and violence toward Jews, Native Americans,
Asians, and other peoples of color.
The organization was revitalized in 1915, on
the eve of the Harlem Renaissance. Members were
inspired by the controversial novel and film Birth of
a Nationby D. W. Griffith. Following World War I,
the group also targeted socialists and communists,
as well as Roman Catholics. National membership
reached nearly 4 million in 1925. Klansmen were
elected to public office throughout the states and
often used their power to uphold the racist and ex-
clusionary principles of the organization.
The NATIONALASSOCIATION FOR THEAD-
VANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE(NAACP) mar-
shaled the most direct and effective institutional
challenge to the Ku Klux Klan. In 1920 the organi-
zation held its annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia,
a hotbed of Klan activity. The NAACP was able to
provide invaluable and damning firsthand cover-
age of Klan activities. One of its most intrepid re-
porters was WALTERWHITE, who worked as an
undercover reporter for THECRISIS, the official
NAACP publication. Between 1918 and 1930
White investigated some 41 lynchings and eight
race riots. His light skin and blue eyes suggested
whiteness, and he used the misperception to
gather evidence of horrific lynchings and racial vi-
olence for the NAACP.
The NAACP blasted MARCUSGARVEY for
consorting with the Klan and used the details of
the UNIVERSALNEGROIMPROVEMENTASSOCIA-
TIONleader’s appearance at a Klan rally to fuel
Garvey’s political demise. The NAACP also ac-
tively championed Robert Russa Moton’s resis-
tance to Klan aggression in Tuskegee, Alabama.
The organization still exists today. It has been
linked to historic acts of violence such as the Civil300 Ku Klux Klan