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Creator
O'Neal, Frederick, 1905-1992
Call number
Sc MG 427
Physical description
22.2 linear feet (45 archival boxes)
Language
English
Preferred Citation
[Item], Frederick O'Neal papers, Sc MG 427, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, The New York Public Library
Repository
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
Access to materials
Request an in-person research appointment.

The Frederick O'Neal Papers document the theatrical, labor, and civic activities of this actor and labor leader, mostly from the 1940s through the 1990s. The collection consists primarily of personal papers, correspondence, speeches and addresses, writing, and information about the theatrical productions in which he appeared. There are also research materials about the 19th century African-American actor, Ira Aldridge, and files pertaining to the many organizations with which O'Neal was associated.

Biographical/historical information

Frederick O'Neal was an African-American actor and director in theater, motion pictures, radio, and television, as well as a labor leader in performing arts unions. Primarily a character actor, O'Neal began his career in St. Louis, where he organized the Aldridge Players. In 1936, after more than ten years of acting in road companies throughout the West and Midwest, O'Neal settled in New York City. In 1940, together with Abram Hill, he co-founded the American Negro Theatre (ANT) in Harlem. In 1944, he made his Broadway debut in the role of the comic bully in Anna Lucasta with Hilda Simms, which was originally produced by the ANT on its stage and later traveled to London.

By the mid-1960s, O'Neal had become active in the Actors' Equity Association (AEA). In 1964, after serving in a number of positions with the union, he was elected president, a post he held until 1973. As the first African-American president of the AEA, he worked with producers to end discrimination in the casting of its members. In 1969, he became a member of the AFL-CIO Council, and from 1970 until his retirement in 1988, he was president of the Associated Actors and Artists of America.

O'Neal was also a member of a number of organizations, including the Catholic Interracial Council, for which he served as treasurer; the Catholic Actors Guild (vice president); the Negro Actors Guild (president 1960-1964); the Afro-American Guild of Performing Artists (treasurer); and the American Committee for the First World Festival of Negro Arts, Dakar, (treasurer). He served on the board of a number of organizations including the African-American Labor Council, A. Philip Randolph Institute, and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

Scope and arrangement

The Frederick O'Neal Papers document the theatrical, labor, and civic activities of this actor and labor leader, mostly from the 1940s through the 1990s. The collection consists primarily of personal papers, correspondence, speeches and addresses, writing, and information about the theatrical productions in which he appeared. There are also research materials about the 19th century African-American actor, Ira Aldridge, and files pertaining to the many organizations with which O'Neal was associated. The personal papers series, 1914-2001, encompasses resumes, interviews, news clippings, and other printed material. Most of the correspondence is with the organizations in which he participated. Much of the general correspondence includes invitations to various conferences, panels, lectures, events, and gatherings held by politicians. The speeches and addresses series, 1960s-1990, contains the transcripts and research material O'Neal used to prepare the speeches. Most of the topics he dealt with concern African-American contributions to American theater, racial discrimination in American theater, and the progress of integration in the theater and trade unions. The writing series, 1930-1987, consists of published articles, along with drafts and research material, which O'Neal wrote about black actors in the United States, American labor unions and actors, labor unions in Israel, the role of the arts in American society, and integration in the theater. The theatrical career series, 1928-1991, includes productions in which O'Neal was involved, i.e. dramatic readings, films, plays, radio, sound recordings, and television. Notable items inclue correspondence and reviews for the film version of Anna Lucasta. Material for the many plays that O'Neal produced consists of play scripts, correspondence, programs, reviews, budgets, agreements, and for American Negro Theatre (ANT) productions, a scrapbook. There is a significant amount of information devoted to the ANT production of Anna Lucasta, as well as the productions in England and Scotland (1947-1948). This series also contains playbills and programs for a variety of productions in which O'Neal was featured, as well as for lectures that he gave nationwide, from 1928-1991. Scripts (1948-1969) primarily by such African-American playwrights as Owen Dodson, Gertrude Jeannette, George Norford, and Shauneille Perry, as well as white playwrights, form part of this series. The Ira Aldridge research material series, 1955-1992, pertains to research O'Neal and several scholars conducted that resulted in publications. The material includes correspondence between O'Neal and the scholars, printed matter, and a manuscript or the actual publication, when available. The organizations series, 1925-1991, contains files devoted to theater and arts organizations, including the Afro-American Guild of Performing Arts, the American Negro Theatre, the Catholic Actors Guild, the Founding Committee for the Establishment of the American Negro Theatre (1962-1967), the Harlem Cultural Council, and the Negro Actors Guild. Labor organizations with which he was intimately involved include the Actors' Equity Association. Equity files, 1946-1982, consist of materials related to integrating black actors in New York and Washington, D.C. productions and hotels, and the blacklisting of actors in the 1950s. Files include information on O'Neal's vice presidency of the AFL-CIO from 1969-1989 and his position as chairman of its Civil Rights Committee. O'Neal also maintained files for the African-American Labor Center; from 1950-1957, during the period when O'Neal was a board member, there are press releases and letters condemning AWARE, Inc., a group formed to combat communism in the entertainment world. Files document some of O'Neal's time as president of the Associated Actors and Artists of America (the 4A's), which was the primary association of trade unions for performing artists in the United States. The cultural and civic organizations material, 1952-1992, contains O'Neal's files for organizations that are neither theatrical nor labor-oriented, but for which he served as a board member or in some other capacity; many of the organizations pertain to Africa and African Americans.

The Frederick O'Neal papers are arranged in seven series:

Administrative information

Source of acquisition

Gift of Frederick and Charlotte O'Neal, 1991-2004.

Processing information

Processed by Janice Quinter on December 29, 2009.

Separated material

Transferred to the Art and Artifacts Division: framed poster commemorating the Buffalo Soldiers; limited edition of 4 serigraph studies of Frederick Douglass by Ben Shahn; 1 program, "Creativity of the Negro"; A.P. Randolph Achievement Award presented to Frederick O'Neal from the A. Philip Randolph Institute, May 1984; 2 sketches of Frederick O'Neal; 2 ink drawings; and reproductions of 6 drawings by Bob Ragland. Transferred to the General Research and Reference Division: .6 lin. ft. of printed material.

Transferred to the Moving Image and Recorded Sound Division: 12 cassette tapes, 2 videotapes, 6 reel to reel tapes, and 1 VHS tape.

Transferred to the Photographs and Prints Division: photographic stills of American Negro Theatre productions and black actors; portraits; shots of O'Neal; 1 photomechanical of O'Neal; and tray of slides.

Trasnferred to the Billy Rose Theatre Collection, Library of Performing Arts: prints of various white actors and .4 lin. ft. of printed material.

Transferred to the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building: 3 menus for the Frank E. Buttolph menu collection.

Related Material

Also in the Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division: American Negro Theatre records; American Negro Theatre scrapbook; Black Academy of Arts and Letters records; First World Festival of Negro Arts, United States Committee, press agent's files; Ira Aldridge Society records; Mildred Stock research collection; and Negro Actors Guild of America records.

Using the collection

Location

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division
515 Malcolm X Boulevard, New York, NY 10037-1801
Second Floor