"...The Emperor Jones is a high, imaginative, even a profound piece of work, nourishing the conscience and the intellect with the same food with which it lures and banquets the imagination."

--December, 1920, Weekly Review

"The work of art that perhaps galvanised the Harlem Renaissance's fascination with black nationhood (and black leadership) was Eugene O'Neill's 1920 play The Emperor Jones."

--Haiti and Images of Black Nationhood

"A classic piece of American repertory theater, The Emperor Jones will place you at the mercy of your own subconscious. Brutus Jones, an African-Amerian Pullman porter, is hired by a White slave trader to help control the West Indian people on a little-known island. After arriving on the island, he proclaims himself Emperor and begins to rule the people. When the scam is uncovered, the West Indian people have their own form of revenge."

--poster (right) plot summary

"An avalanche of applause accurately describes the reaction to The Emperor Jones on opening night."

--O'Neill, The definitive biography by Arthur and Barbara Gelb, p.235.