Inabraham's Bosom

   "The Biography of a Negro in Seven Scenes" by Paul Green opened on 30 December 1926 at Province-town Playhouse for a 277-performance run. Set in 1885 in the turpentine woods of North Carolina, the folk tragedy traces the difficulties of Abe, a black youth who aspires to education for himself and other blacks, but he seems to be thwarted at every turn, first by his white half-brother Lonnie and, 15 years later, by his own son Douglass, who does not share his ideals. Abe's mother and his wife Goldie (played by Rose McClendon) provide steadying influences, but Abe's frustration and temper get the best of him. In an expressionistic flashback, he tries to stop the ghosts of his black mother and white father from conceiving him. In the final scene, Abe is shot. The play won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927.

   See also African American theatre.