The Green Pastures

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There is also Green Pastures (Austin, Texas), an historic site in the U.S. state of Texas.

Ossie Davis in The Green Pastures, photographed by Carl Van Vechten, 1951

The Green Pastures is a play written in 1930 by Marc Connelly adapted from Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun (1928), a collection of folk tales written up by Roark Bradford.

The play portrays episodes from the Old Testament as seen through the eyes of an African-American child, who interprets The Bible in terms familiar to her. Many of the Biblical characters were played by African-American actors, even "de Lawd" (God) played by Black actor Richard B. Harrison (1864-1935), who was born in London, Ontario, Canada. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.

Connolly later collaborated with William Keighley in the direction of a Hollywood film adaptation of the play, which was made in 1936, starring Rex Ingram as "de Lawd". At the time the film caused some controversy. It was banned in Australia on the grounds that it was "blasphemous" to portray Biblical characters in this way. More recently the film has been criticised for its sentimental and sometimes stereotyped portrayals of African-Americans.

The play was adapted for television, and presented twice during the days of live TV, in 1957 and 1959. Both productions starred William Warfield as "de Lawd", in the largest dramatic acting role he ever had on television.