From the origins of the Negro spiritual and the birth of the Harlem Renaissance to the emergence of a national black theatre movement The Theatre of Black Americans offers a penetrating look at a black art form that has exploded into an American cultural institution. Among the essays: James Hatch a Some African Influences on the Afro-American Theatre; Shelby Steele a Notes on Ritual in the New Black Theatre; Sister M. Francesca Thompson OSF a The Lafayette Players; Ronald Ross a The Role of Blacks in the Federal Theatre.