From the 1920s through 1940s, Lichtman controlled 20 to 30 African American theatres at any given time. The last of these was the curvaceous modern Langston. It was built in Washington D.C. in 1946, the year Lichtman retired from theatre operation. Lichtman was a major figure in the lives of many of his employees, so much that his farewell speech was transmitted to the auditoriums of all Lichtman theatres so that the workers could hear his final farewell.

Lichtman was not loved simply because he owned theatres that were open to African Americans. His hiring practices and philanthropic works showed him to be a a quiet civil rights activist, or at the very least a true supporter of the community his theatres catered to. 

The top advertisement, from a 1943 issue of The Crisis, a popular African American magazine, has a small listing of theatres in the upper left hand corner, but most of the space is dedicated to Lichtman Theatre’s work in the community- from sponsoring D.C.’s first Black basketball team, to purchasing medical equipment for the Freedman’s Hospital. The second image is of a brochure for Camp Lichtman, a camp founded in response to the Virginia YMCA’s refusal to admit African American children into their summer programs.

The National Parks Service has a gallery of photos from Camp Lichtman in the summer of 1948 here.

(credit: American Theatre Architecture Archive, Theatre Historical Society of America)