The Star of Ethiopia

[2] Experiencing critical and artistic success, The Star of Ethiopia opening performance held in New York City on October 22, 1913, was deemed "an impressive spectacle…both from a historical point of view and as a forecast.

"[4] DuBois would write in The Crisis that the Philadelphia (1916) performance was "technically the best", with a writer from the Public Ledger stating "The intelligent interpretation which the thousand actors in the pageant gave of the authors thought was proof in itself that the Negros not the mentally torpid individual that prejudiced white folks persist in considering him.

Du Bois wrote and composed all musical selections with the assistance of J. Rosamond Johnson except two, which were from Giuseppe Verdi's Aida that were interspersed among the episodes.

The American pageant Association has been silent…within my own race the usual petty but hurting insinuations of personal greed and selfishness…"[4] In total only four productions (New York in 1913, Washington, DC, in 1915, Philadelphia in 1916, and Los Angeles in 1925) were ever mounted of The Star of Ethiopia, all of which were directed by Charles Burroughs for whom he publicly expressed his gratitude.

Prior to the 1925 production in Los Angeles, Lucien B. Watkins would pen a poem published in The Crisis in 1918, dedicated to the pageant also titled "The Star of Ethiopia".