Challenging Divine Justice in African-American Anti-Lynching Plays, 1916-1945

FAIN: FT-53951-06

Craig Prentiss
Rockhurst University (Kansas City, MO 64110-2508)

Of the 29 known anti-lynching plays written by African-Americans from 1916-1945, nearly half portrayed characters or situations that called the justice or existence of God into question. My article argues that these plays reflect significant theological debates among African-Americans engaged in contesting religion’s role in competing constructions of Black identity. The article will also be a chapter in a book on the larger topic of religion’s representation in plays written by African-Americans before 1945, and will be the first scholarly treatment of the topic. An NEH Summer Stipend will support two weeks of archival research and the completion of my article/chapter on anti-lynching plays.

Associated Products

Terrible Laughing God’: Challenging Divine Justice in African American Anti-Lynching Plays, 1916-1945 (Article)
Title: Terrible Laughing God’: Challenging Divine Justice in African American Anti-Lynching Plays, 1916-1945
Author: Craig Russell Prentiss
Abstract: This summer stipend resulted in the publication of “‘Terrible Laughing God’: Challenging Divine Justice in African American Anti-Lynching Plays, 1916-1945,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 18/2 (Summer 2008): 177-214. It was also reworked to serve as a chapter in my book, "Staging Faith: Religion and African American Theater from the Harlem Renaissance to World War II" (NYU Press 2014).
Year: 2008
Format: Other
Publisher: Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 18/2

---