The Federal Theater Project (FTP) was established in the late 1930s by the United States government. Although it existed for only four years, at its peak the FTP employed an average of 10,000 workers, operated 185 production units in 28 states, and entertained a weekly audience of nearly half a million people. One of the most important, though until recently little-studied, legacies of the program were its "Negro Units," which were dedicated to producing plays on African American subjects for primarily African American audiences. Hundreds of actors, directors, designers, technicians, and playwrights were employed by as many as eighteen of these units in cities spread throughout the United States. Defying the external forces of racism and bureaucracy, and overcoming internal artistic and personal differences, the people working in these units arguably came closer than any other group of African American theater artists had come before to founding a truly national black theater.

The creation of the FTP came on the heels of the Harlem Renaissance, a period of intense creativity and innovation within the African American arts community. Thus, by the time the FTP was founded, a diverse body of thought concerning the social function of art already existed within the African American community. The question of what kinds of plays the Negro Units should produce gave rise to vigorous, sometimes heated, debates: some producers favored folk dramas exploring rural roots and culture; others preferred urban realistic dramas depicting contemporary dilemmas for African Americans; and still others advocated adapting dramas written by white playwrights for performance by African American acting troupes. These debates were motivated in part by larger debates over whether black theater should attempt to blend into mainstream culture or capitalize on its difference from the cultural mainstream; whether it should aim for the African American or the white part of its audience; and whether it should endeavor to instruct or be content simply to entertain. These disagreements resulted in a wide range of productions reflecting the diverse views and interests of the African American community. Among them was The Swing Mikado, a musical that inverted the minstrel tradition by casting African American performers in an ironic adaptation of a white classic. Calling attention to the artifice of the performers' roles, this play challenged its audience to think about what it means to assume black roles both on and beyond the stage.

Although it did not have a long history, the FTP provided a lifeline for the theater during the Great Depression, a time when the performing arts in the United States faced an uncertain fate. This allowed the Negro Units to produce dramatic art that reflected the genuine diversity of African American artists and their audiences nationwide.