The Author: Dr. Anthony D. Hill earned his Ph.D. from New York University in the Department of Performance Studies in 1988. Currently he is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Vassar, Queens, and Bellevue Colleges. His work has concentrated extensively on marginalized theatre practices, African American and American History, and Performance theory/criticism. Among his publications are two articles each in Billboard Publications, African American Review (formerly Black American Literature Forum), and Elimu, in addition to a review in The Journal of the Southern Central Modern Language Association.

«As Black show business grew (during the 1920s), ‘Billboard’, the national show business tabloid, saw an opportunity to increase its circulation. Who better to report the burgeoning African American show business than James Albert Jackson, a former journalist, a conservative republican, and a railroad detective who knew the itinerant life. The logo on Jackson’s column read ‘J.A. Jackson’s Page in the interest of the Colored Actor, Showman, and Musician of America,’ and he did just that. Not only did Jackson review vaudeville, film, fairs, circuses, and legitimate drama, but he used his position at ‘Billboard’ to confront abuses...[to] campaign for family entertainment...[and to] demand that producers meet their obligations to performers, and in return, actors fulfill their contracts... In writing about Jackson’s Page (1920-25), Professor Hill provides insight into an amazing man, who wrote about a world and time that is now recognized as a seminal period of American performance history.» (James V. Hatch, Excerpt from the Foreword)«Anthony Hill has filled in some quite important blanks in the history and criticism of African American performance. Now we understand that the African American performing arts are where they are in a great part because of the expertise and dedication of James Albert ‘Billboard’ Jackson. We are greatly indebted to Professor Hill.» (Samuel A. Hay, Professor and Executive Director of Theatre, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University)«Antony Hill has rendered an important service to the historical and critical record on American theatre – and African American theatre in particular – by focusing upon an all but unknown chapter concerning Black journalist James Albert Jackson and his unique, five-year-long theatrical ‘Page’ in ‘Billboard’ during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Among other achievements, Jackson’s Page was instrumental in sparking the creation of the famous musical ‘Shuffle Along,’ which in turn generated some of the most important Black writers, composers, and performers of the period. I found it fascinating, highly informative, and substantially useful. Score one for Professor Hill’s stellar contribution.» (William B. Branch, Visiting Distinguished Professor, TheWilliam Peterson College of New Jersey)

The Author: Dr. Anthony D. Hill earned his Ph.D. from New York University in the Department of Performance Studies in 1988. Currently he is an assistant professor in the Department of Theatre at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. He has taught at the University of California at Santa Barbara, Vassar, Queens, and Bellevue Colleges. His work has concentrated extensively on marginalized theatre practices, African American and American History, and Performance theory/criticism. Among his publications are two articles each in Billboard Publications, African American Review (formerly Black American Literature Forum), and Elimu, in addition to a review in The Journal of the Southern Central Modern Language Association.

«As Black show business grew (during the 1920s), ‘Billboard’, the national show business tabloid, saw an opportunity to increase its circulation. Who better to report the burgeoning African American show business than James Albert Jackson, a former journalist, a conservative republican, and a railroad detective who knew the itinerant life. The logo on Jackson’s column read ‘J.A. Jackson’s Page in the interest of the Colored Actor, Showman, and Musician of America,’ and he did just that. Not only did Jackson review vaudeville, film, fairs, circuses, and legitimate drama, but he used his position at ‘Billboard’ to confront abuses...[to] campaign for family entertainment...[and to] demand that producers meet their obligations to performers, and in return, actors fulfill their contracts... In writing about Jackson’s Page (1920-25), Professor Hill provides insight into an amazing man, who wrote about a world and time that is now recognized as a seminal period of American performance history.» (James V. Hatch, Excerpt from the Foreword)«Anthony Hill has filled in some quite important blanks in the history and criticism of African American performance. Now we understand that the African American performing arts are where they are in a great part because of the expertise and dedication of James Albert ‘Billboard’ Jackson. We are greatly indebted to Professor Hill.» (Samuel A. Hay, Professor and Executive Director of Theatre, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University)«Antony Hill has rendered an important service to the historical and critical record on American theatre – and African American theatre in particular – by focusing upon an all but unknown chapter concerning Black journalist James Albert Jackson and his unique, five-year-long theatrical ‘Page’ in ‘Billboard’ during the height of the Harlem Renaissance. Among other achievements, Jackson’s Page was instrumental in sparking the creation of the famous musical ‘Shuffle Along,’ which in turn generated some of the most important Black writers, composers, and performers of the period. I found it fascinating, highly informative, and substantially useful. Score one for Professor Hill’s stellar contribution.» (William B. Branch, Visiting Distinguished Professor, TheWilliam Peterson College of New Jersey)