In 1821, forty years before Lincoln ended slavery, and fifty years before black Americans earned the right to vote, the first black theatrical group in the country, the African Company/African Grove Theater, was putting on plays in a downtown Manhattan theatre to which both black and white audiences flocked. Founded by William Henry Brown, a free Black American, they were known for their satires of white high society and debunking the sacred status of the English classics, which critics said were beyond the scope and skills of black actors. Shakespeare becomes the cultural battleground when Uptown producer Stephen Price challenges the company’s acclaimed production of Richard III with his own-next door. The Company survives with its integrity intact! That strength and the resulting power to exist launches an equally progressive new chapter in the American theatre: They go on to produce the first black plays written by black Americans of their day.