Sylvester Russell

Biography

Sylvester Russell (1860s – October 11, 1930) was a performer who became a newspaper columnist. He was the "first Black arts critic to gain national recognition in the U.S.," in his turn-of-the-century column in the Indianapolis Freeman. In a 30-year career that spanned three cities: his early days in Indianapolis, time at the Chicago Defender and, finally, New York City where he founded and published a newspaper called the Star, and famously developed a system of ranking Black performance qualitatively from "low comedy/minstrelsy" at the bottom to the "classics" at the top, which reflected his:...

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