Set against the backdrop of transforming theater conventions in the early 1900s and U.S. entry into World War I in 1917, The First Black Actors on the Great White Way relates the stories of the actors, stage artists, critics, and many others -- black and white -- involved in the groundbreaking production of Three Plays for a Negro Theater. Curtis explores in great depth both the progress in race relations that led to this production and the multifaceted reasons for its quick demise. She also investigates the heightened national self-consciousness that followed the United States' entry into the war. By focusing on a single event at a critical moment in history, The First Black Actors on the Great White Way offers a unique glimpse into race relations in early twentieth-century American society.