Edwin Washington Project

Background

The Cavalcade of Negroana, 1941. A Play in Two Acts.

The play was first performed at American Negro Exposition at the Chicago Coliseum 4 July - 2 Sept 1940. In the play, produced by the Illinois Writers' Project of the WPA, performers demonstrate to Frederick Douglass, who has risen from the dead, accomplishments by their race and culture. An original copy of the play can be found in the Research Center of the Edwin Washington Society at the Douglass High School Building in Leesburg.

The play was redone in 1941 at the Ashburn Colored School (see below for script). We don't have an exact date, but we assume the play must have been performed out of doors because the schoolhouse would not have been big enough. Students participated from Purcellville, Lincoln, Waterford, Marble Quarry, Round Hill, Rock Hill, Leesburg, Garnes, Hillsboro, Hughesville, Leesburg, Saint Louis, and Ashburn. We don’t know anything yet about Garnes. Perhaps this was a segregated area of Loudoun in 1941 that has been forgotten. If you know what Garnes was, please let the Edwin Washington Project know.