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dramatist A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, years_active = , era = , known_for = , notable_works = , title = , spouse = , partner = , children = , parents = , mother = , father = , relatives = , family = Thomas Montgomery Gregory (August 31, 1887 – November 21, 1971) was a dramatist, educator, social philosopher and activist, historian and a leading figure in the National Negro Theatre Movement. Montgomery Gregory, a native of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, was key in cultivating and nurturing the concept of a National Negro Theatre Movement during the early decades of the 20th century against the backdrop of an 80-year-old minstrel tradition and the popularity of Black-themed dramatic works by white writers, underscored by the commercially fledgling efforts of Black playwrights in America.

The Howard Players

Howard University Howard University (Howard) is a private, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity" and accredited by the Middle States Commissi ...

, Gregory founded the acclaimed college theater troupe, The Howard Players. Formerly, the University’s theatre interests were served by the College Dramatic Club, developed in 1909 by English instructor Ernest Just and a group of students. Gregory was the organizer of the Howard University Department of Dramatic Art and Public Speaking in 1921 and co-creator with

Alain Locke Alain LeRoy Locke (September 13, 1885 – June 9, 1954) was an American writer, philosopher, educator, and patron of the arts. Distinguished in 1907 as the first African-American Rhodes Scholar, Locke became known as the philosophical architect ...

of The Stylus literary club. Gregory was appointed the first director of the drama department and was joined in his efforts by acting coach Marie Moore Forrest, and stage designer

Cleon Throckmorton Cleon Francis "Throck" Throckmorton (October 8, 1897 – October 23, 1965) was an American painter, theatrical designer, producer, and architect. During the early 1920s, Throckmorton resided in Washington, D.C., where he created sets for stage pro ...

of the

Provincetown Players The Provincetown Players was a collective of artists, writers, intellectuals, and amateur theater enthusiasts. Under the leadership of the husband and wife team of George Cram Cook, George Cram “Jig” Cook and Susan Glaspell from Iowa, the Play ...

. The department’s course in Pageantry and Drama was the first of its kind in the U.S. to be offered for credit. Through his work at Howard, Gregory generated national interest in legitimate Black drama, collaborating with important playwrights such as

Willis Richardson Willis Richardson (November 5, 1889 – November 7, 1977) was an American playwright. Biography Willis Richardson was born on November 5, 1889 in Wilmington, North Carolina, a son of Willis Wilder and Agnes Ann (Harper) Richardson. His fami ...

, Paul Green, and

Eugene O'Neill Eugene Gladstone O'Neill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into the U.S. the drama techniques of realism, earlier ...

, and creating, via The Howard Players, a critically acclaimed forum for student-written plays and performances.

George Pierce Baker George Pierce Baker (April 4, 1866 – January 6, 1935) was a professor of English at Harvard and Yale and author of ''Dramatic Technique'', a codification of the principles of drama. Biography Baker graduated in the Harvard College class of 1887 ...

of the 47 Workshop at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

cited The Howard Players as one of the two most creative college theatre companies in the United States, with The Carolina Playmakers of the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

being the other.

Early life

Gregory was educated at

Williston Seminary Williston Northampton School (simply referred to as Williston) is a private, co-educational, day and boarding college-preparatory school in Easthampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was established in 1841. History Williston Seminary was ...

(1902-1906), then

, graduating in the celebrated Class of 1910 which included T. S. Eliot,

Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the te ...

and John Reed. His father,

James Monroe Gregory James Monroe Gregory (January 23, 1849 – December 17, 1915) was a Professor of Latin and Dean at Howard University. During the American Civil War, he worked in Cleveland for the education and aid of escaped slaves. He initially attended Oberlin ...

, who transferred from

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...

in 1868 to become the first student enrolled in Howard University’s College Department, was in the university’s first graduating class of three men, and stayed on as a member of the faculty. His mother, Fannie Emma Hagan, a former Howard student of Madagascan descent, was an independent-minded woman, who, while a Howard faculty spouse, mentored young students and devoted much of her life to the up-liftment of “colored women.” The family’s home on the Howard campus stood on the present site of the Ira Aldridge Theatre. The elder Gregory was instrumental in acquiring the first significant Congressional endowment for Howard. In 1897, the James Monroe Gregory family left

for

Bordentown, New Jersey Bordentown is a city in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population was 3,924.Bordentown Industrial and Manual Training School. In 1910, after completing his studies at Harvard University, Montgomery Gregory was appointed English Instructor at Howard, rising quickly to Professor and, in 1919, Head of department. In 1918, he married Hugh Ella Hancock of

Austin, Texas Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the county seat, seat and largest city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and Williamson County, Texas, Williamson co ...

. Their offspring were writer/poet Yvonne (deceased), Thomas Montgomery, Jr. (deceased), Hugh Hancock (deceased), Eugene Chandler (deceased), Mignon (deceased), and writer/former television producer Sheila Gregory Thomas, who resides in Washington, D.C. In 1919, Gregory organized The Howard Players, and in 1921 became the first director of the newly organized division of Dramatic Art and Public Speaking. "During the period from 1919 to 1925, drama at the university reached a peak both financially and technically."2 It was during those years that Gregory began orchestrating his dream of a National Negro Theatre.

Early career

Early in Gregory's career, he began to formulate the notion that the Black race could, and should necessarily, use the arts as a means for social change. He articulated his "empowerment through artistic achievement" framework in "Race in Art," an article for The Citizen, a Boston-based magazine, published in 1915 by Charles F. Lane, with Gregory, George W. Ellis, and

William Stanley Braithwaite William Stanley Beaumont Braithwaite (December 6, 1878 – June 8, 1962) was an African-American writer, poet, literary critic, anthologist, and publisher. His work as a critic and anthologist was widely praised and important in the development of ...

serving as editorial board members. "If art is self-expression, it is necessarily race expression," wrote Gregory. Not only had the Black race in America suffered from the perception of intellectual and artistic inferiority, Gregory argues in this lengthy treatise, but Black leaders of the period, he wrote, undermined Black ascendancy by advancing a negative "race attitude," while encouraging Black people to mimic the tone and texture of Euro-Americanism: In March 1921, after successful runs of works by

Lord Dunsany Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957, usually Lord Dunsany) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. Over 90 volumes of fiction, essays, poems and plays appeared in his lifetime.Lanham, M ...

(“The Lost Silk Hat”) and

Booth Tarkington Newton Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his novels ''The Magnificent Ambersons'' (1918) and '' Alice Adams'' (1921). He is one of only four novelists to win the Pulitze ...

(“Beauty and the Jacobean”), as well as other productions, Gregory aroused the interest of national theater critics with a performance of Eugene O’Neill’s "

The Emperor Jones ''The Emperor Jones'' is a 1920 tragic play by American dramatist Eugene O'Neill that tells the tale of Brutus Jones, a resourceful, self-assured African American and a former Pullman porter, who kills another black man in a dice game, is jailed, ...

" before a non-segregated audience at the Shubert-Belasco Theatre in Washington, D.C. Most extraordinary was the presence of Charles Gilpin, America’s most celebrated Negro actor of the period, recreating the title role for which he, that same year, had been named one of the ten best actors for his performance in O'Neill's New York production of the play. The Howard Players performed as the supporting cast before "an audience that was far less in numbers than merited. …" Although "Jones" was the product of a white playwright’s vision of a tragic Black figure, Gregory saw the work as an important vehicle toward a sustained, legitimate Negro-centered theater. "...for the histrionic ability of Charles Gilpin has been as effective as the dramatic genius of Eugene O'Neill – the serious play of Negro life broke through to public favor and critical recognition." With the notion of introducing the evolving artistry of the Negro to the world stage, in 1921 Gregory also organized a performance of

Ridgely Torrence Frederic Ridgely Torrence (November 27, 1874 – December 25, 1950) was an American poet, and editor. He received the Shelley Memorial Award in 1942 and the List of winners of the Academy of American Poets' Fellowship, Academy of American Poets' ...

's “Simon, the Cyrenian” by the Howard Players for the delegates to the

World Disarmament Conference The Conference for the Reduction and Limitation of Armaments, generally known as the Geneva Conference or World Disarmament Conference, was an international conference of states held in Geneva, Switzerland, between February 1932 and November 1934 ...

. The meritorious events, however, were but steps toward Gregory's National Negro Theatre, for which he groomed young Negro dramatists to provide plays in which Black actors could present Black themes largely for the benefit of Blacks, however, played outside "established theaters in the Negro districts, for that would tend to prevent the white community from seeing their art…"

Influence on Social Change

Gregory's contradictions between his "race attitude" dissertation and his efforts to market Black theatre to white audiences in an attempt to create social change, are immutable considerations. On this score, his steady promotion of Black-authored plays of Negro life gives pause for discussion. Consider Gregory's review of

Jessie Fauset Jessie Redmon Fauset (April 27, 1882 – April 30, 1961) was an African-American editor, poet, essayist, novelist, and educator. Her literary work helped sculpt African-American literature in the 1920s as she focused on portraying a true image ...

’s novel, There is Confusion (1924). Here he appears, exclusively, to advocate — at least on the consumer end — Black art, primarily, for Black audiences: "If our poets, novelists, and dramatists are to succeed we must form a large reading public for the products of their pens. Let the slogan be: Read the works of our own writers first!”7 The range of Gregory’s ideas and influences were also evident in his work with Howard's student dramatists. " t Howard Universityan attempt is being made to build a structure of native Negro drama, to be interpreted by people of that race," wrote Leonard Hall, a Washington D.C. theater critic, citing the works of then-student Helen Webb (“Genefrede”), and Howard alumna De Reath Irene Byrd Beausey (“The Yellow Tree”), as cornerstones of an emerging "native Negro drama."Poet, playwright, anthologist, and educator

May Miller May Miller (January 26, 1899 – February 8, 1995) was an American poet, playwright and educator. Miller, who was African-American, became known as the most widely published female playwright of the Harlem Renaissance and had seven volumes of po ...

, daughter of Kelly Miller, a Howard University scholar and administrator, also enjoyed relative success under Gregory’s tutelage with a Players production of “Within the Shadow” in 1920. Writer/choreographer Lottie Beatrice Graham (Ottie B. Graham), another member of the drama program and Gregory’s student, wrote at least two of her one-act plays while in his class, “The King’s Carpenters” (1921), which appeared in The Stylus, and “Holiday,” later published in Crisis.

The Negro in Drama

In 1927, Gregory contributed “The Negro in Drama” to the 14th edition of the

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

. In late winter, Gregory and Locke’s Plays of Negro Life was published. The collection of twenty-two works by well-and lesser-known playwrights includes Howard drama student Thelma Myrtle Duncan's "The Death Dance" and works by

Georgia Douglas Johnson Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson, better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson (September 10, 1880 – May 15, 1966), was a poet. She was one of the earliest female African-American playwrights, and an important figure of the Harlem Renaissance. ...

Jean Toomer Jean Toomer (born Nathan Pinchback Toomer; December 26, 1894 – March 30, 1967) was an American poet and novelist commonly associated with the Harlem Renaissance, though he actively resisted the association, and with modernism. His reputatio ...

Eulalie Spence Eulalie Spence (June 11, 1894 – March 7, 1981) was a writer, teacher, director, actress and playwright from the British West Indies. She was an influential member of the Harlem Renaissance, writing fourteen plays, at least five of which were pu ...

, Richard Bruce, John Matheus, Ernest H. Culbertson, Paul Green, and

, with illustrations by artist Aaron Douglas. Both Gregory and Locke refer to themselves in Plays as "formally Professor of …," an ironic gesture since both men had, at some point in their careers, been "encouraged" or forced to leave the university.

Later life

Gregory’s resignation was tendered in 1912 after an anonymous letter to the University's president accused the 23-year-old professor of a drunken display at a Washington D.C. bar. A "who's who" army of Gregory defenders, which included longtime friend William A. Sinclair and

Booker T. Washington Booker Taliaferro Washington (April 5, 1856November 14, 1915) was an American educator, author, orator, and adviser to several presidents of the United States. Between 1890 and 1915, Washington was the dominant leader in the African-American c ...

, gracefully negotiated on the young professor's behalf. Gregory was reinstated the following year. A second and final resignation came eleven years later, in August 1924, when Gregory opted for a position as Supervisor of Negro Schools, and later Principal, in

Atlantic City, New Jersey Atlantic City, often known by its initials A.C., is a coastal resort city in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. The city is known for its casinos, boardwalk, and beaches. In 2020, the city had a population of 38,497.

, which offered "a broader field of service and a very considerable increase of salary."10 Locke exited the university the following year, returning at a later time. In New Jersey, Gregory continued to promote Negro drama. In 1929 he undertook a tour of the South lecturing at eight State summer schools on educational and community drama. In 1956, he retired, and in 1960 returned to Washington. Gregory died after a long battle with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

, in Washington's Sibley Hospital, November 21, 1971. Gregory was the maternal great-grandfather of actress and comedian

Aisha Tyler Aisha Nilaja Tyler (born September 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, director, and talk show host. She is known for playing Andrea Marino in the first season of ''Ghost Whisperer'', Tara Lewis (Criminal Minds), Dr. Tara Lewis in ''Crimi ...

. His wife Hugh Ella was the granddaughter of U.S. congressman

John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor of the ...

.Stated on '' Who Do You Think You Are?'', April 3, 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Thomas Montgomery 1887 births 1971 deaths African-American dramatists and playwrights People from Washington, D.C. Harvard University alumni 20th-century American dramatists and playwrights 20th-century African-American writers