The Rediscovery of George "Nash" Walker: The Price of Black Stardom in Jim Crow America
Daniel E. Atkinson
SUNY Press
The Rediscovery of George "Nash" Walker is the first biography dedicated to the life and cultural contributions of this actor, writer, and producer who revolutionized Black American theatre during the early twentieth century.
In 1892, Walker left his hometown with a medicine show and quickly formed a partnership with comedian Bert Williams that would last nearly eighteen years. An activist at heart, Walker insisted that audiences receive carefully curated Black entertainment, told from a uniquely Afro-American perspective. Despite his landmark contributions, Walker's story has been largely forgotten.
Drawing on archival resources, newspaper accounts, memoirs, oral histories, and manifestos written by Walker, this book celebrates the accomplishments of the vanguard generation of Black artists who were active between the close of the Civil War and the start of World War I.