Jesse A. Shipp

Jesse Allison Shipp, Sr. (March 24, 1864, in Cincinnati, Ohio – May 1, 1934, in Jamaica, Queens, New York) was an American actor, playwright, and theatrical director, who is best remembered as a pioneer African-American writer of musical theater in the United States, 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.

Biography Early years 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 biracial 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.

Around 1908 Shipp went to work for Robert T. Motts and his Pekin Stock Company of Chicago. Shipp was hired as the resident playwright for the non-touring company. Jesse Shipp took over the operation, renaming it the Jesse Shipp Stock Company, employing Sam Corker as permanent stage manager, and making use of many of the remaining Pekin players. Located at the Harlem Community House on 7th Avenue, the Dressing Room Club declared as its official goals the impressing of the world with "the dignity and economic value of the Negro element of the profession" and preservation of the history of the Negro in theatricals. Debuting June 6, 1925, nine performances were staged on Broadway at the Colonial Theatre, with Shipp playing the key supervisory role of stage manager.

Shipp has been lauded as a pioneer in moving black theatre beyond its minstrel origins towards a more fully developed artistic form and is remembered as one of the first, if not the first, African-American director of a Broadway performance.

Shipp's son, Jesse A. Shipp, Jr. (1886-1922), followed his father's footsteps into the world of show business as the founder of the Shipp Association, a dramatic booking agency based in Harlem in New York City.

Footnotes

Selected plays Policy Players (1899) The Sons of Ham (1900) In Dahomey (1902) Abyssinia (1905) In Bandana Land (1907) No Place Like Home (1910) A Night in New York's Chinatown (1910) Dr. Herb's Prescription, or, It Happened in a Dream (1911)