No Surrender! No Retreat! No Surrender! No Retreat! African American Pioneer Performers ofTw entieth~Century American Theater Glenda E. Gill Palgrave Macmillan NO SURRENDER! NO RETREAT! Copyright © 2000 Glenda E. Gill. All rights reserved. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2000 978-0-312-21757-0 No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. For information, address St. Martin's Press, Scholarly and Reference Division, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010. ISBN 978-1-349-62002-9 ISBN 978-1-137-05361-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-05361-9 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data to be found at the Library of Congress. Design by Letra Libre, Inc. First edition: April 2000 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 To the memory of my mother and father, Olivia Dunlop Gill and Melvin Leo Gill Sr. and to the memory of my maternal grandparents, Sanford Lee and Lu9' Tandy Dunlop Until the lions have their own historian, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. -Kenyan proverb Table of Contents Preface and Personal Memoir xi Foreword by Daniel Lamer XV Acknowledgements XlX Chapter I What Shall the Negro Dance About? 1 Chapter II Crucible and Community: The Vision of Rose McClendon 21 Chapter III The Silencing of Paul Robeson 35 Chapter IV Measure Her Right: The Tragedy of Ethel Waters 59 ChapterV Marian Anderson: A Serene Spirit 75 Chapter VI Five Interpreters of Porgy and Bess 91 Chapter VII Swifter than a Weaver's Shuttle: The Days of Canada Lee 107 Chapter VIII Pearl Bailey: The Black Dolly Gallagher Levi 137 Chapter IX Ossie and Ruby are One! 151 Chapter X James Earl Jones: "My Soul Looks Back , and Wonders How I Got Over 173 Chapter XI Morgan Freeman's Resistance and Non-Traditional Roles 193 Chapter XII Has Anything Changed? 205 Index 219