Richardson, Willis (1889–1977)
A talented and pioneering playwright who became
the first African-American dramatist to see his
work performed on BROADWAY. A native of Wilm-
ington, North Carolina, he was the son of Willis
and Agnes Harper Richardson. The family left
North Carolina following the violent Wilmington
Riots in 1898. In 1906 Richardson began attending
the M STREETHIGHSCHOOLin WASHINGTON,
D.C. There, he excelled in academics and in sports.
In addition to being a champion marksman among
students at segregated African-American schools
and the captain of the football team, he also
demonstrated his gifts as a writer. Playwright MARY
BURRILL, his English teacher, and ANGELINA
GRIMKÉ, also on the faculty, thought that his work
was promising and worthy of publication, and they
encouraged him to continue developing his talents.
Richardson earned a scholarship to HOWARD
UNIVERSITYbut was unable to accept it because of
his family’s financial needs. He began working imme-
diately following high school in order to supplement
his family’s income, securing jobs in the Library of
Congress and at the Bureau of Engraving and Print-
ing. In 1916, while working full time, he began two
years of correspondence courses in poetry and drama
with the Springfield, Massachusetts–based Home
Correspondence School. In 1914 Richardson mar-
ried Mary Jones of Washington, D.C., whom he met
when they both were working at the Bureau of En-
graving and Printing. The couple had two daughters,
Jean and Shirley, and one son, Noel.
Richardson, whose teachers wholeheartedly ex-
horted him to write, was inspired to immerse himself
in the world of drama when he witnessed the 1916
Washington, D.C., debut of RACHEL, Angelina
Grimké’s powerful antilynching play. He was an ac-
tive member of the literary salon that poet and play-
wright GEORGIADOUGLASJOHNSONhosted in her
Washington, D.C., home. During his successful ca-
reer, Richardson would become a nationally known
playwright and respected essayist. In 1920 and 1921
he published his first plays in THE BROWNIE’S
BOOK, the groundbreaking monthly magazine for
children of color that JESSIEFAUSETand W. E. B.
DUBOISproduced under the auspices of THECRISIS
and the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THEAD-
VANCEMENT OFCOLOREDPEOPLE. The works were
both accessible to young readers and were histori-
cally grounded and politically forthright about the
hardships brought on by poverty and enslavement.
The King’s Dilemma(1920), his first Brownie’s Book
play, was staged some six years later in Washington,
D.C. Additional plays for children included The
Children’s Treasure,a work in which children band
together to raise money enough to save an elderly
lady from eviction. Richardson’s plays appeared in
THECRISIS,THEMESSENGER,and OPPORTUNITY,
and they were performed by such talented troupes
as the ETHIOPIANARTPLAYERS, the Gilpin Players,
and the HOWARDUNIVERSITYPLAYERS. For exam-
ple, his first play for adult audiences, THEDEACON’s
AWAKENING,was published in the November 1920
issue of The Crisisand was promptly prepared for
the stage by the St. Paul Players based in Minnesota.
In 1923, Richardson made history when his
play THECHIP WOMAN’s FORTUNEopened on
Broadway. One week after opening first at the
LAFAYETTETHEATREin HARLEM, the play opened
at the Frazee Theatre on Broadway in May 1923. It
was the first nonmusical drama by an African-
American to be featured on Broadway. Richardson’s
works contributed much to the growing African-
American theater movement and provided good
material to up-and-coming troupes such as the
KRIGWAPLAYERSand the Howard University Play-
ers. In 1924 Richardson became the first African-
American playwright to see his work performed at
Howard University by the Howard University Play-
ers. The respected school troupe that drama profes-
sor THOMASMONTGOMERYGREGORYfounded in
1919 staged Richardson’s play MORTGAGED,a com-
pelling play about two brothers and their different
perspectives on material and professional success.
Six years later, Richardson’s play won fourth place
in a drama competition when it was performed by
the Dunbar Dramatic Club of Plainfield, New Jer-
sey (Perry, 239). In 1925 ALAINLOCKEselected
Mortgagedfor inclusion in THENEWNEGRO,his
landmark anthology of writings by and about
African Americans.
Richardson developed a reputation for his in-
sightful domestic dramas, plays that examined rec-
ognizable everyday families of color. His characters
ranged from middle-class northerners, who worked
to preserve their domestic stability and grappled
with their desires to advance, to southern families
persecuted by 19th-century enslavement and by450 Richardson, Willis