Charles Dumas is a teacher, writer, and lifetime political activist. He is professor emeritus in the School of Theatre at Pennsylvania State University, where he was the first African American to receive tenure, become a full professor, and be appointed emeritus. He directed the first play written by an African American on the PSU mainstage. He co-produced the first and only festival and seminar that showcased all of August Wilson’s Decade Series during his lifetime. He was a Fulbright Fellow at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Dumas writes a weekly column, “Under the Baobab,” which appears in the local newspaper, the Centre Daily Times. He has had thirty plays professionally produced and was a recipient of the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowship for his screenplay, SURFACING. He has published three books: NONTRADITIONAL CASTING, UNDER THE BAOBAB, and I, TOO, AM AN AFRICAN. He and his wife of fifty years are presently working on a memoir about their life together in the Movement.
In 1964, he was the SNCC project director in Leland during the Mississippi Freedom Summer. In 2012 he was the Democratic Party’s Congressional Candidate for the 5th District of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Writers Guild, the Dramatist Guild, AEA, and SAG/AFTRA. He has a juris doctorate from Yale Law School and was a Hendler Fellow in screenwriting at the American Film Institute.