Charles Sidney Gilpin, an actor, singer, and vaudevillian dancer, was the most successful African American stage performer in the early 20th Century.  He is best known for his portrayal of Brutus Jones in Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones. A Richmond, Virginia, native, Gilpin attended St. Francis School, a Catholic institution for colored children, until age 12, and served as a printer’s assistant at the Richmond Planet (c. 1890-1893). Gilpin married three times. His first wife was Florence Howard (married c. 1897). He met his second wife, Lillian Wood, when he was with the Lafayette Players. His third wife was Alma Benjamin Gilpin. Gilpin showed great promise early on as a singer appearing in amateur theatricals in Richmond. He went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the early 1890s, where he worked briefly for the Philadelphia Standard, but was let go after some employees complained about working with a Negro. Thereafter, he worked permanently as a performer, touring with several traveling minstrel and vaudeville shows between 1896 and 1904.  In 1903, for example, Gilpin joined Hamilton, Ontario’s Canadian Jubilee Singers.  He also performed with Gus Hill’s Smart Set for one season (1904-05), playing Remus Boreland, the mayoral candidate in The Black Politician.  In … Continue reading Charles Sidney Gilpin (1878-1930)