American Negro Theater

The American Negro Theater (ANT) was formed in Harlem on June 5, 1940, by writer Abram Hill and actor Frederick O'Neal. The group was founded by the influence of the purposes of the Negro Unit of the Federal Theatre Project in Harlem. It produced 19 plays before closing in 1949. Designed as a community theater group, performances were held in Harlem's Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. In 1942, ANT began its Studio Theatre training program for beginning actors. Graduates include Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

Hill and O'Neal started the ANT by assembling several of their own theatre friends: Howard Augusta, James Jackson, Virgil Richardson, Claire Leyba, Jefferson D. Davis, Vivian Hall, Austin Briggs-Hall, Stanley Green, Fanny McConnell, and Kenneth Manigault. Collectively, they started the group with just 11 cents. In the beginning, Hill spent his time mailing out postcards to invite as many people as he could to meetings and within just a few weeks, the group grew to thirty people.

Hill approached librarians at the public library on 135th Street in Harlem, the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library, to start producing his plays. The librarians granted Hill and the ANT permission to use their basement stage. The basement theatre held 150 seats and Hill charged 49 cents a seat. The first show they produced, "Hits, Bits, and Skits," opened on July 17, 1940. The first major play that the ANT put into rehearsal was "On Strivers' Row" which Hill put into rehearsal after it had done so well with the Rose McClendon Players who also held performances in Harlem. "On Strivers' Row" ran for five months and in March 1941, Hill moved it to the Apollo Theatre as a musical with the lyrics of Don Burley, the music of J.P. Johnson, and the choreography of Leonard Harper. It ran at the Apollo Theatre for one week.

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