S. Randolph Edmonds
S. Randolph Edmonds was an influential African American playwright, educator, and advocate for the arts, born on April 30, 1900, in Lawrenceville, Virginia. Raised in a family with a challenging background, Edmonds excelled academically despite early hardships, including the loss of his mother and struggles with racism and bullying. He graduated high school as valedictorian and went on to earn degrees from Oberlin College and Columbia University, focusing on English and Shakespearean drama.
Edmonds began his career as an instructor at Morgan State College, where he founded the Morgan Dramatic Club and the Negro Intercollegiate Drama Association, promoting African American participation in theater. He later established the speech and theater department at Dillard University, where he created the Southern Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts. His literary contributions include several collections of plays, such as "Shades and Shadows" and "Six Plays for a Negro Theater," which addressed social issues and aspirations for civil rights.
Throughout his career, Edmonds received numerous accolades, including a fellowship from Dublin University and a doctorate of letters from Bethune-Cookman College. He left a lasting legacy in the realm of African American theater and the arts before his passing on March 28, 1983.
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S. Randolph Edmonds
Writer
- Born: April 30, 1900
- Birthplace: Lawrenceville, Virginia
- Died: March 28, 1983
- Place of death:
Biography
S. Randolph Edmonds was born on April 30, 1900, in Lawrenceville, Virginia. His parents, George Washington and Frances Fisherman Edmonds, were born into slavery and were children during the emancipation. Edmonds had four brothers and four sisters. His mother died when he was twelve, leaving his father, a debtor and sharecropper, to raise the family. Edmonds was a weak child and was beaten regularly at school. Despite his humiliations, he excelled in school when he was able to attend; African American children were forced to work as field hands seasonally.
After graduating from high school, Edmonds attended Industrial School, now St. Paul’s College. He was valedictorian and won prizes in English and history. He also received a scholarship to Oberlin College, where he earned his B.A. in English in 1926 while working odd jobs to support himself. Edmonds continued his education at Columbia University, obtaining his M.A. in Shakespearean drama in 1931. That year, he married Irene Colbert, and the couple later had two children.
While attending Oberlin, Edmonds began writing plays after seeing his first production in New York, where he waited tables during the summers. He started the Dunbar Forum at Oberlin, a creative group dedicated to stage and spoken word productions.
In 1926, Edmonds became an English and drama instructor at Morgan State College in Baltimore, Maryland. While there, he organized the Morgan Dramatic Club and the Negro Intercollegiate Drama Association, which toured the East Coast participating in drama competitions.
Edmonds obtained a two-year sabbatical to study drama at Yale University from 1934 through 1935. Upon its completion, he was asked to organize a speech and theater department at Dillard University in New Orleans. During his twelve years at Dillard, Edmonds created the Southern Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts, later renamed the National Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts, and the Crescent Concerts Company. These organizations encouraged African Americans to participate in theatrical pursuits.
Edmonds’s first book, Shades and Shadows, contained a collection of his plays that were intended to be read aloud but not produced. The plays were imaginative and fanciful, combining African American superstitions with a strong literary style. The plays in his second collection, Six Plays for a Negro Theater, were intended to be produced and contained harsh themes that examined the treatment of African Americans in society and demanded equality and civil rights. His third collection, The Land of Cotton, and Other Plays, returned Edmonds to his love of fantasy playwriting. Many plays in the collection contain supernatural occurrences, which offer the audience and actors an escape from the difficult topics tackled in the dramas.
Among his honors, Edmonds received a fellowship from Dublin University in1938, was awarded a doctorate of letters from Bethune-Cookman College, was named a fellow of the American Educational Theatre Association, and received a special citation from the American Theatre Association. He died on March 28, 1983.