From the origins of the Negro spiritual and the birth of the Harlem Renaissance to the emergence of a national black theatre movement, The Theatre of Black Americans offers a penetrating look at a black art form that has exploded into an American cultural institution. Among the essays: James Hatch – Some African Influences on the Afro-American Theatre; Shelby Steele – Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre; Sister M. Francesca Thompson OSF – The Lafayette Players; Ronald Ross – The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre.