Neyland, James

James Neyland was born in Centerville, Texas, on December 4, 1939. He was an art student at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) during the late 1950s and 1960s. While at UT, Neyland was active in the Student Government and the Christian non-violent civil rights movement. He served on the council of the student groups, YMCA-YWCA, the Christian Faith and Life Community, and the Students for Direct Action. He also organized stand-ins to protest the whites-only policy of the cinemas on Guadalupe and read-ins to protest the exclusion of black students from campus dorms.

After graduating from the University in 1963, Neyland moved to New York City. He began his career as an assistant art director and later worked his way up to editorial positions at Prentice Hall, T. Y. Crowell, MacMillan, and Hawthorn New York Publishing companies. Neyland was also a part of the Greenwich Village artist scene and the “Off-Off” Broadway theatre scene as a playwright from 1961 through 1972. Among his most noticeable productions was The Assassination of Guiteau.

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