Fig. 1. Defiance (sometimes called The Fugitive), one of four wood block prints from Aaron Douglas’s Emperor Jones Series that appeared in Alain Locke’s Plays of Negro Life. Set of 4 Prints (series title), 1926 (printed 1972). Detroit Institute of Arts, Museum Purchase, General Art Purchase Fund.

Fig. 2. Poster for the all-Black Federal Theatre Project’s 1938 production of The Emperor Jones in Salem, Massachusetts. Library of Congress, Music Division, Federal Theatre Project Collection

Fig. 3. Charles Gilpin in the 1920 production of The Emperor Jones. A closer look reveals a belt buckle with the initials CSA (Confederate States of America), a performative citation of regimes of race. Eugene O’Neill Papers. The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University.

Fig. 4. Photograph of Paul Robeson in the title role of Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones, a play in eight scenes. White Keysheet from February 11, 1925. ©NYPL. Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, New York City.

Fig. 5. American actor Paul Robeson in the play The Emperor Jones (Eugene O’Neill). Berlin. German Art Theatre. About 1930. Photograph. Mary Evans/Imagno.

Fig. 6. Paul Robeson in the 1939 tour revival of The Emperor Jones retooled for Depression era audiences. Photo by Vandamm Studio. © Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Fig. 7. Paul Robeson dressed as a revolutionary. This could be a 1925 production of The Emperor Jones but is most likely a 1936 production of Toussaint Louverture. Photographer unknown. Museum of the City of New York. 51.116.146.

Fig. 8. Movie still from Song of Freedom (1936). Robeson’s costume looks very similar to the one worn for his stage roles of Brutus Jones and Toussaint Louverture. Courtesy The Stephen Bourne Collection/Mary Evans.

Fig. 9. Publicity photo of Habib Benglia, Black Algerian actor, while performing title role in The Emperor Jones at the Odéon, Paris, 1923. Photo by Underwood & Underwood. Randolph Linsly Simpson African-American Collection. James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection in the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Fig. 10. Design of the throne room by Walter René Fuerst for the 1923 Paris production of L’Empereur Jones. Eugene O’Neill Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Fig. 11. Albert Rudomine, “Habib Benglia, Folies Bergère,” 1921. Gelatin silver print, 29.9 × 19.9 cm (11 3/4 × 7 13/16 in.). J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Fig. 12. Habib Benglia wearing a costume that recalls the Congo Witch-Doctor role from L’Empereur Jones, 1931. Photo by Studio Henri Manuel. Screenshot by Katie N. Johnson.

Fig. 13. Habib Benglia holding a North African instrument while bending in a ballet first-position plié. Photo by Studio Henri Manuel. Screenshot by Katie N. Johnson.

Fig. 14. Le Train Bleu restaurant in the Gare de Lyon train station, Paris. Select patrons can dine in rooms named after former French colonies, including one called Salon Algerien. Habib Benglia named his Montparnasse club Le Train Bleu after this posh restaurant as well as after the opera-ballet of the same title. Photo by Katie N. Johnson.

Fig. 16. Robert Adams, left, in the British production of All God’s Chillun Got Wings, 1944. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Fig. 15. Frank Wilson as Joe and Paul Robeson as Jim Harris in the 1924 Provincetown Players’ production of O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Fig. 17. Paul Robeson and Mary Blair in the final scene from All God’s Chillun Got Wings, 1924. Billy Rose Theatre Division, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

Fig. 18. Screenshot from the silent film Body and Soul (directed by Oscar Micheaux, 1925) with Paul Robeson kneeling. The blocking recalls the final scene in O’Neill’s All God’s Chillun Got Wings, 1924. Screenshot by Katie N. Johnson.

Fig. 19. Lawrence Tibbett in blackface performing the title role in the operatic adaptation of The Emperor Jones in 1933. Photo: Carlo Edwards, Metropolitan Opera Archives.

Fig. 20. Final scene from the Metropolitan Opera’s production of The Emperor Jones in 1933, featuring Hemsley Winfield’s New Negro Art Theatre Dance Group. Photo: Carlo Edwards, Metropolitan Opera Archives.