Juneteenth celebrates a milestone in African American history. Do some, in and out of Washington, want to sweep that history under the rug?

Craig Ester, left, is Ira Aldridge and Marina DeYoe-Pedraza is Betty Lovell in Swine Palace's production of 'Red Velvet,' which continues its run at LSU's Shaver Theatre on campus.

The 19th-century African-American actor Ira Aldridge, depicted here in the title role, was the first black man to appear in a Shakespeare performance in Britain. Photograph by Hi-Story, Alamy ...

The Ira Aldridge Theater was named for a famed 19th-century African American actor, best known for his performances of Shakespeare. Designed by Hilyard Robinson and Paul R. Williams, the theater was ...

Midway through the second act of "Red Velvet" Thompson's character, Ira Aldridge, has a heated exchange with a theater manager about the upset caused by Aldridge's turn as Othello on the Covent ...

The past—and what we can learn from it—is a theme that runs throughout Lolita Chakrabarti’s 2012 script, which is based on the real life of American-born actor Ira Aldridge.

Ira Aldridge (1807?-1867) in the character of Othello, by James NorthcoteManchester Art Gallery In the 1850s, Aldridge performed in venues from Belgium to Russia, playing multiple Shakespearean roles.

Billy Waters aka "The King of Beggars"; Othello actor Frederick (Ira) Aldridge; and Ellen Craft and her husband William — a couple who freed themselves from slavery with an implausible plan ...

Left, Ira Aldridge, by Taras Shevchenko, 1858. Right, Taras Shevchenko, self-portrait, 1860. Imagine a legendary Afro-American actor in the middle of the nineteenth century fleeing slavery and meeting ...

Ira Aldridge (1807-1867) was not only the best-known Black actor of his time in Europe. He was also, according to his most recent biographer Bernth Lindfors, “the most visible Black man in ...