Charles Sidney Gilpin (November 20, 1878 - May 6, 1930) worked as an apprentice in the Richmond Planet print shop before finding his career in theater and becoming one of the most highly regarded actors of the 1920s. He first came on stage as a singer at the age of twelve. In 1896, Gilpin joined a minstrel show, leaving Richmond and beginning a life on the road for many years. While not on stage in theaters, restaurants, and fairs he worked odd jobs as a printer, barber, boxing trainer, and railroad porter. In 1903, Gilpin joined Hamilton, Ontario’s Canadian Jubilee Singers. November 20 is the 324th day of the year (325th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1878 (MDCCCLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ... Year 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... Ercole de Roberti: Concert, c. ... Detail from cover of The Celebrated Negro Melodies, as Sung by the Virginia Minstrels, 1843 The minstrel show, or minstrelsy, was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface or, especially after the American Civil War, African Americans in blackface. ... Nickname: The River City Motto: Sic Itur Ad Astra (Thus do we reach the stars) Location in the Commonwealth of Virginia Coordinates: Country United States State Virginia County Independent City Mayor L. Douglas Wilder (D) Area    - City 62. ... The word printer is used to describe a company that provides commercial printing services, involving typesetting, printing and book-binding. ... A boy visiting a barber A barber (from the Latin barba, beard) is someone whose occupation is to cut any type of hair, give shaves, and trim beards. ... Look up Porter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Nickname: Ambitious City, Steeltown, The Hammer Motto: Together Aspire - Together Achieve Location in the province of Ontario, Canada Coordinates: Country  Province Canada  Ontario Incorporated June 9, 1846 [1] Mayor Fred Eisenberger City Council Hamilton City Council Representatives MPs and MPPs Area    - City 1,138. ... The Fisk Jubilee Singers were a group of African American singers in the 1870s. ...

Two years later he performed with the red cross and the candy shop of america traveling musical troupes. He also played his first dramatic roles and honed his character acting while he appeared with Robert Mott’s Pekin Theater in Chicago for four years, until 1911. Soon after, he toured the United States with the Pan-American Octetts and spent some time with Rogers and Creamer’s Old Man’s Boy Company in New York. In 1915, Gilpin joined the Anita Bush Players as it moved from the Lincoln Theater in Harlem to the Lafayette Theater, a time when many famous black theatrical careers were launched. Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, The City of Big Shoulders, The 312, The City that Works Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook & DuPage Incorporated March 4, 1837  - Mayor... For other uses, see Harlem (disambiguation). ...

In 1916, he made a memorable appearance in whiteface as Jacob McCloskey, a slave owner and villain of Don Bouciault’s The Octoroon. Though he left Bush’s Company over salary, his reputation while there allowed him to get the role of Rev. William Curtis in the 1919 premier of John Drinkwater’s Abraham Lincoln. Gilpins' Broadway debut moved him next into Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, a role he played to great critical acclaim. His work with this production allowed the Drama League of New York to name Gilpin as one of the ten people who had done the most for American theater in 1920, the first Black American so honored. John Drinkwater (June 1, 1882 - March 25, 1937) was an English poet and dramatist. ... Broadway theatre[1] is often considered the highest professional form of theatre in the United States. ... Eugene Gladstone ONeill (October 16, 1888 – November 27, 1953) was a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright. ... The Emperor Jones is a play by Eugene ONeill which tells the tale of an African-American man who kills a man, goes to prison, escapes to a Caribbean island, and sets himself up as its dictator and emperor. ...

His invitation to the league’s presentation dinner, however, created a public controversy that ended with his attendance. Following the Drama League’s refusal to rescind the invitation and Gilpin’s refusal to decline it, he was given a standing ovation of unusual length on accepting the award. A 1921 Spingarn Medal recipient from the NAACP, Gilpin was also honored in the White House of president Warren G. Harding. A year later the Dumas Dramatic Club (now the Karamu Players) of Cleveland renamed itself the Gilpin Players in his Honor. Charles Gilpin died in 1930 in Eldridge Park, New Jersey, his career somewhat damaged by his alcoholism. The Spingarn Medal is awarded annually by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for outstanding achievement by a Black American. ... The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), is one of the oldest and most influential hate organizations in the United States. ... Warren Gamaliel Harding (November 2, 1865 - August 2, 1923) was an American politician and the 29th President of the United States, from 1921 to 1923, when he became the sixth president to die in office. ... Karamu Theater in Cleveland, Ohio is the oldest African-American theater in the United States. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ...

References

• Henry T. Sampson The Ghost Walks: A Chronological History of Blacks in Show Business 1865-1910

Scarecrow Press (Metuchen, NJ, 1988), p.321.

• "Charles Sidney Gilpin." Dictionary of American Biography Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936.