such as the free Uptown Shakespeare performances at Marcus Garvey Park" among its most important legacies. The assessment of the curators of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at New York Public Library, which hosted ANT's 75th Anniversary in 2016 explained the ANT's importance by pointing out that ANT "sought to push the boundaries of black theatre ... experimenting with modernist theatrical tropes, and producing ambitious, original works by Black playwrights. Ultimately, the American Negro Theatre became one of the most influential black theater organizations of the 1940s," while also cultivating a generation of professional Black actors, directors and other artists in the performing arts who continue to influence the culture today. History Hill and O'Neal quickly garnered support for the American Negro Theatre, which they dubbed the ANT to reinforce the idea of a hard-working interdependent community, by assembling several of their theatre friends, including: Howard Augusta, James Jackson, Virgil Richardson, Claire Leyba, Jefferson D. Davis, Vivian Hall, Austin Briggs-Hall, Stanley Green, Fanny McConnell, and Kenneth Manigault. Together, they organized ANT "as a cooperative, and all members shared in the expenses and profits. The theatre's business model was parallel to its artistic policy of ensemble acting in lieu of individual leading roles." Hill approached librarians at the public library on 135th Street in Harlem, the Harlem Branch of the New York Public Library, to start producing his plays. The librarians granted Hill and the ANT permission to use their 150-seat Little Library Theatre basement stage. The first show they produced Hits, Bits, and Skits opened on July 17, 1940. The first major play that the ANT put into rehearsal was On Strivers' Row, which Hill put into rehearsal after it had done so well with the Rose McClendon Players, who also held performances in Harlem. On Strivers' Row ran for five months and, in March 1941, Hill moved it to the Apollo Theater, where it ran for a week, as a musical with the lyrics of Don Burley, the music of J. P. Johnson, and the choreography of Leonard Harper. In 1944, the ANT submitted a proposal to the General Education Board of Rockefeller Center, explaining that their objectives were to develop (1) an Art, (2) a Vital Theatre and (3) Pride and Honor, and requesting funding for the salaries of the company's officers. The proposal resulted in a $22,000 grant-in-aid. These objectives were also printed on