For actor and native Washingtonian Robert Hooks, the arts have not only been a form of entertainment, but activism.
Inspired by artists of the Harlem Renaissance, legendary artivist (artist and activist) Paul Robeson, and civil rights icon the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Hooks — the 2025 Helen Hayes Tribute awardee — has dedicated his career to effecting change through theater, television, film and great vision.
“I was tremendously thrilled when Martin Luther King … came to see me in a play off Broadway called ‘The Blacks.’ And this is during the Civil Rights Movement, when the leaders would come into New York to raise money for their work down south,” he told The Informer, adding that he, King, and his wife Coretta Scott King went to dinner afterwards.
That dinner at the Arcadia in New York turned out to be more than an average post-theater debrief, it was a life-changing moment.
“I was kind of nervous, needless to say … and I said, ‘I don’t know what my feelings are like, Martin, because we’re up here on stage doing theater and things, and you’re down south, walking and protesting and demonstrating and things like that,’” Hooks told The Informer. “[King] said, ‘Hold on. … What we saw tonight, what you all are doing on the stage is just as important, because it’s for the community. It’s to influence and to keep the community aware of Black stories and Black characters.’”
King’s words ignited an everlasting flame of artivism for Hooks.
“He encouraged me to keep doing what we were doing,” Hooks, 88, said, “and that was just all the inspiration I needed.”
Hooks, a groundbreaking artist and founder of New York’s Negro Ensmeble Company and DC Black Repertory Company, has spent his entire career working to expose African Americans to the power of theater in the District and nationwide.
“Robert Hooks is the touchstone for Black theater in D.C.,” said Bonnie Nelson Schwartz, founder of the Helen Hayes Awards, in a statement.
From beginning Group Theater Workshop with young neighborhood kids in New York City who were interested in dabbling into acting, to his efforts to make theater more accessible, all the while starring in roles across stage, television and film, Hooks has unapologetically pushed for equity, justice and a better nation and world throughout his celebrated career.
Even when starting DC Black Repertory at the old site of The Last Colony, a former movie theater located in Northwest D.C. on Georgia Avenue and Farragut Street, he turned down the opportunity to hold performances in some of the city’s most premier locations. For the native Washingtonian, bringing the arts to the Black community as a form of empowerment has always been the major goal.
“An old movie house, and we made it something special for the Black community,” Hooks declared. “And I remember Zelda Fichhandler offering me a space at the Arena Stage down in Southwest, and at the time, Sammy Davis Jr. had one of the theaters over in downtown Washington, but I didn’t want to do that. I wanted our location to be in the community, and I think all of that served to help.”
Barrier-Breaking Artivist: From the Stage to the Set to the Streets
As Hooks’ celebrity continued to rise, so did the momentum in the fight for civil rights.
While he didn’t get to chat with King personally at the 1963 March on Washington, he was proudly present and worked to use his career to fight for justice.
By the time King was killed in April 1968, Hooks had already started Negro Ensemble Company in New York and become the first Black man to star in a television drama with “N.Y.P.D.”
Despite being famous and working in New York City, Hooks got a call from famed WOL radio host Petey Green asking him to come home after the news of King’s assassination broke.
“There were riots all over the country. There are 100-plus riots all over the country … and I got a call from Petey, because people were in the streets. They were burning the city down,” said Hooks.
Green then passed the phone to then Mayor-Commissioner Walter Washington, who became the first African American mayor of a major city in 1975, and D.C.’s first popularly elected mayor since 1871.
“He said, ‘Mr. Hooks, they’re burning your city to the ground. Could you just come and walk the streets with us?’ Well, the next day, I got my ‘N.Y.P.D.’ producers to just write around me. I got on the train and I went down to Washington, and I did not believe my eyes,” he told The Informer. “And yes, I walked the streets. I even walked in my old neighborhood, and did see some of my old friends, and we just tried to get people to go back and just get off the streets.”
Going back home after the 1968 riots was another turning point for the artist.
“I was just tremendously emotional about the experience of going there and doing that,” Hooks said. “And then the next morning, I had to go back to New York to work, and as I’m on the train, I’m thinking, ‘What can I do to heal my city?’”
He realized how successful Negro Ensemble Company had been in New York City and wanted to bring that theatrical fervor to District communities.
“Black folks that had never been to the theater in their lives became regular patrons of our plays, and I saw how the Negro Ensemble Company experience brought people together— folks that had never seen a play, but then folks that had seen plays, this all happened in the St Mark’s Playhouse under one roof,” he explained. “And I said, something like that can happen in Washington, D.C.”
Hooks asked his co-founders to take some time off to bring a Black theater company to the nation’s capital. Soon DC Black Repertory Company was born.
“I was just so moved with being able to go back and do something important to heal this riot-torn city of mine that I love dearly,” he said, “and that was the reason I came back to D.C., and the rest is history.”
Significance of Helen Hayes Award
Held at The Anthem on The Wharf on May 19, the 41st Helen Hayes Awards will celebrate the work of more than 200 theater-makers, the District’s robust and diverse theater industry, and the thought-provoking, inspiring and unifying nature of the arts.
Particularly in this era of division in the nation, Helen Hayes — one of Theatre Washington’s core programs— honors how theater brings people together and can promote peace and positive progress.
“The arts bring us together; they are a vehicle for shared experience, understanding and empathy, and the evening recognizes D.C. theater’s impact on our community,” said Amy Austin, president and CEO of Theatre Washington, which collaborates with local organizations to support the awards and other District professional theater efforts. “Now, more than ever, we need to celebrate theater-makers and acknowledge diverse voices and contributions.”
As a career-long artivist and founder of DC Black Repertory, Hooks’ decades of work is closely aligned with the mission of the Helen Hayes Awards.
“With the DC Black Repertory Theatre, he created the beginnings of a Black community of theater artists, musicians, designers and educators and opened its doors to all races,” Nelson Schwartz, founder of the annual awards, emphasized. “Bobby’s dream has taken root and lives on in our vibrant and diverse theater community.”
As the 2025 Helen Hayes Tribute awardee, Hooks is not only humbled to be recognized for his contributions in the arts, but to come back home. The entire moment will be full circle for the octogenarian.
“I’m truly honored and thrilled that they’ve given me this award. Helen Hayes is one of my favorite people…. She’s one of the greats,” Hooks said. “I’m pleased to be able to be there and accept it and it’s just thrilling because it’s all happening in my hometown.”
For Hooks, who now lives in Los Angeles, returning to D.C. will also be a moment to take in how the city has changed, such as checking out the awards venue, located in a neighborhood that he used to frequent.
“When I was a kid, I used to go to the wharf, and we used to go get baskets of crabs and bring them back, and we’d go back and eat crabs,” he told The Informer. “We spent weekends at the wharf, but it’s not the wharf that I used to know.”
Hooks Offers Call to Action
At 88, Hooks is happy with all he’s accomplished in his long career, including an NAACP Image Award and this recent Helen Hayes honor.
Now, he’s looking to the next generation of theater-makers to take the charge in using the arts to effect change.
“I’ve done what I’ve done,” he told The Informer. “I won’t be starting any theater companies, that’s for sure.“
While he’s not interested in creating or running a new theater, he does look to other artists to one day help one of his major goals become a reality.
”My dream is to see, in every major city in the United States, a Black theater,” he said.
