John A. Arneaux

John A. Arneaux
Sketch of Bust of Arneaux from 1887
Born	1855 Savannah, Georgia, U.S.
Alma mater	Beech Institute, Berlitz School of Languages, Academic Royal Des Inscriptions et Belles Letres et Morals et Politique, New York Grand Conservatory of Music and Elocution
Occupation	Actor, journalist
Political party	Republican

John A. Arneaux (born 1855) was a Shakespearean actor and journalist in New York City and in Paris, France. From 1884 to 1886 he was editor and owner of the New York Enterprise which had the largest circulation of any African American newspaper in the country at that time. As a journalist and a civil rights activist, he was widely respected. He was also an actor and leader of an African American theatre troupe, the Astor Place Tragedy company. Together with his friend Benjamin J. Ford, he was the leading black Shakespearean actor of his period.

John or Jean A. Arneaux was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1855. His father was from Paris, France and his mother was an African American of French descent. His mother died when he was twelve years old. He attended school starting in 1865, and then attended the Beech Institute for four years. He then moved to New York where he studied German and Latin, followed by a time in Providence, Rhode Island where he learned French at the Berlitz School of Languages. He then visited Paris and took two courses, one at the Academic Royal Des Inscriptions et Belles Letres et Morals et Politique. Later he entered and graduated from the New York Grand Conservatory of Music and Elocution.

Arneaux started in vaudeville, and his first appearance on a major stage was in 1876 when he played Tom Walcott, a Southern Planter, in John S. Ladue's "Under the Yoke, or Bond and Free" at the Third Avenue theatre in New York. He did not immediately pursue a career in acting, and in 1883 published a song, "Jumbo, the Elephant King!" In 1884 at the urge of a theatre manager, he took the role of Iago in Othello at the Brooklyn Atheneum, for which he received strong praise. This production was organized by Benjamin J. Ford, who had success at the New York City Lyric Theatre in 1878 as the lead of an all-black cast production of Richard III. Ford played the role of Othello, Alice Brooks played Desdemona, Marie Lavere as Emilia, B. C. Devreaux as Michael Cassio, and R. R. Cranvell as Brabantio. The group then formed what was perhaps the first Shakespearean troupe of black actors which became known as the Astor Place Tragedy company. The company was managed by Arneaux and presented plays throughout New York City; its most prominent stage was in November 1884 at the Academy of Music where it presented John Banim's Damon and Pythias, with Arneaux as Damon and Ford as Pythias. John Ladue, Henrietta Vinton Davis, and Belle Martin were also in the production.