John O'Neal

John O'Neal co-founded the Free Southern Theater in 1963 as a cultural arm of the southern Civil Rights movement, and later founded Junebug Productions, a professional African-American arts organization in New Orleans.

For FST, O'Neal worked as a field director for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and worked as national field program director with the Committee for Racial Justice.

He has written eighteen plays, a musical comedy, poetry, and several essays, and has performed throughout the United States, Canada, France, and Scandinavia. He is the recipient of the Award of Merit from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters, the United States Artists Award, and a Ford Foundation Award.