After Robeson returned to the United States at the outbreak of the Second World War, Adams became Britain's leading black actor, and would continue acting on television in the 1940s and 1950s. In the late 1940s, he founded the Negro Repertory Arts Theatre, whose productions included O'Neill's "All God's Chillun Got Wings", at Colchester in 1944. He also appeared in the Unity Theatre's 1946 production of the play and a BBC television production in 1946. In 1948 he played Bigger Thomas in the play based on Richard Wright's novel "Native Son", staged at the Bolton's Theatre Club.