Teacher Dorothy Randolph Peterson was active in promoting the Harlem Renaissance and preserving African American art and culture. Photo credit: Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
Often, fine educators dedicate their considerable energy and passion to serving the interests of art and culture. One of these was Dorothy Randolph Parker, a New York City teacher who actively promoted the Harlem Renaissance and worked to preserve African American art and culture.
Dorothy was born in Brooklyn, New York, on June 21, 1897. She was the daughter of diplomat Jerome Bowers Peterson, who worked as the US Consul in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela for one year, and Deputy Collector for the Internal Revenue Service, including several years in San Juan, Puerto Rico. During her childhood, Dorothy lived in Venezuela from July, 1904, to July, 1905, and in Puerto Rico from July, 1913, to July, 1920.
After her graduation from a Puerto Rican high school, she completed some classes at a university on the island. In the 1920s she relocated to Harlem, where she taught Spanish and attended New York University. In Harlem, Dorothy hosted literary salons, which were in vogue in those days. She also served as an early patron of Fire!!, a quarterly journal which promoted young Black artists.
With friend and librarian Regina Anderson, Dorothy co-founded the Negro Experimental Theater, also known as the Harlem Experimental Theater, in 1929. Even writer and historian WEB DuBois was involved in the enterprise. The group performed plays written by young Black authors. At least one of these plays was written by Regina Anderson herself. The theater’s largest and most successful performance was “Wade in the Water,” in 1929. The play starred Dorothy alongside prominent Harlem Renaissance actress Laura Bowman. The Harlem Experimental Theater became an inspiration to similar theater groups all over the country, and an encouragement to Black playwrights.
Later Dorothy worked to preserve African American art and culture. To achieve this goal, she founded the James Weldon Johnson Memorial Collection of Negro Arts and Letters at Yale University and the Jerome Bowers Peterson Collection of Photographs of Celebrated Heroes at Wadleigh High School in Harlem.
Dorothy passed away on November 4, 1978,
