Jesse A. Shipp

Jesse Allison Shipp, Sr. (March 24, 1864 in Cincinnati, Ohio - June 1934) was an African-American actor, playwright, and theatrical director, who is best remembered as a pioneer African-American writer of musical theater in the United State, and as the author of the book upon which the landmark play In Dahomey was based. Shipp played an influential role in expanding black theater beyond its minstrel show origins and is recalled as perhaps the first African-American director of a Broadway performance.

Born in 1864 in Cincinnati, his father Thomas Shipp was born about 1821 in the slave state of South Carolina. His mother Ellen Shipp was of bi-racial heritage, and was born around 1830 in the slave state of Kentucky. Sometime prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War both had managed to leave the Southern United States to live in freedom in Ohio.

Shipp attended public school in Cincinnati, graduating from high school at the age of 16. Upon graduation he immediately entered the work force, working as a retail clerk and driving a laundry wagon. In his free time Shipp got together with three of his peers and formed a musical quartet, which sang evenings in the German section of Cincinnati.

Shipp joined a minstrel show based in Indianapolis, Indiana but left after three weeks. In 1887 he took his own quartet on the road, and they remained together for the next seven years, achieving success playing in conjunction with a variety of traveling minstrel companies.

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