Introduction

As a part of Federal Project Number One, the Federal Theater Project was born to support and revive a crashed 1930s economy.  One of the most important aspects of the Works Progress Administration was that it declared that artists needed to be employed as much as manual laborers. Not so surprisingly, it was made up of many artists of color whose perspectives were ones that the American public had not seen so clearly as before. Though we know differently now, this could have been one of the aspects of the FTP that made it arguably the worst received facet of Federal One upon its creation. However, as time went on, people of color in the arts and more specifically, in theatre, became more accepted and the FTP laid the groundwork for equality in theatre and made great strides in equality for African Americans in America. So, through text analysis, a timeline, and mapping, we will understand how the Federal Theatre Project used people of color to liberate Americans that refused their perspectives everywhere else through the historical question: How did the involvement of people of color in theatre shape the progression of equality in America during the 1930s?