McGuire Proscenium Stage / Oct 1 – Nov 6, 2016

by MIKE WILEY

STUDY GUIDE Inside

THE PLAY Synopsis and Characters • 3

THE AUTHOR About the Playwright and Form • 7

CULTURAL CONTEXT Timeline and Locations • 8 General Vocabulary • 10 Glossary/General Information • 12

THE GUTHRIE PRODUCTION Notes from the Creative Team • 18

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Bringing the Play into the Classroom • 20 For Further Understanding • 22

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DRAMATURG Jo Holcomb GRAPHIC DESIGNER Akemi Waldusky RESEARCH Jo Holcomb

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The Guthrie Theater, founded in 1963, is an American center for theater performance, The Guthrie Theater receives support from the National Endowment production, education and professional training. By presenting both classical literature and for the Arts. This activity is made possible in part by the Minnesota State Arts Board, through an appropriation by the Minnesota State new work from diverse cultures, the Guthrie illuminates the common humanity connecting Legislature. The Minnesota State Arts Board received additional funds to support this activity from the National Endowment for the Arts. Minnesota to the peoples of the world.

2 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE PLAY Synopsis

Members of the cast of The Parchman Hour PHOTO: LAUREN MUELLER

In 1961, thirteen riders – at Parchman Farm, and bring “act” (singing a song, telling a men and women, black and attention to their activism. The joke, reading from the Bible — the white – boarded a bus in , and the movement only book we were allowed) and in Washington, DC bound for to desegregate interstate travel, between acts we had ‘commercials’ New Orleans via Mississippi would not be deterred. for the products we lived with and Alabama. Their goal: Presented in the style of the every day, like the prison soap, to assert their legal right variety shows of yesteryear, the the black-and-white striped skirts, to cross state lines as a The Parchman Hour explores the awful food, etc. We did this unified, integrated group. three of the tensest months every evening, as I recall; it gave They barely made it out of of 1961. The play brings to the us something to do during the day, Alabama alive. stage powerful oral histories and thinking up our cell’s act for the conversations from the Freedom evening. Over the course of the next three Rides’ most iconic protagonists and months, approximately 300 other antagonists. — Mimi Real, Freedom Rider, 1961 riders took up the mantle and followed the path of those first Did you know that at Parchman, brave few. Mobs brutally assaulted to pass the time and to keep our many. Others were arrested and, spirits up, we ‘invented’ a radio instead of posting bail, chose program? I don’t recall that we to serve sentences in one of the named it, but ‘The Parchman Hour’ most brutal prisons in the South, would have been a good name. the Mississippi State Penitentiary Each cell had to contribute a short

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 3 THE PLAY The Characters

JOHN LEWIS JAMES LEONARD FARMER, JR. JOAN TRUMPAUER MULHOLLAND

Student Nonviolent National Director, Congress of 19-year-old Duke University student, Coordinating Committee (CORE), Freedom Rider Freedom Rider (SNCC) leader, Freedom Rider

FREDERICK LEONARD MIRIAM FEINGOLD REAL (MIMI) CAROL RUTH SILVER

Tennessee State University student, Swarthmore College, 22 years old, Freedom Rider student, Freedom Rider Freedom Rider

STOKELY CARMICHAEL STEPHEN JOHN GREEN WILLIAM HOOKER SVANOE

19-year-old student, , student, Middlebury College, Freedom Rider graduate student, University of Minnesota, Freedom Rider Freedom Rider

LUCRETIA COLLINS JEAN THOMPSON

Freedom Rider Howard University student, CORE worker, Freedom Rider Freedom Rider

4 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PAULINE KNIGHT-OFOSU JIMMY MCDONALD

Tennessee State University student, CORE member, Freedom Rider Freedom Rider (pictured: Freedom Riders Jimmy McDonald (right) and (center) talk to reporter Bill Cook (left) upon their arrival in New Orleans.

MERYLE JOY REAGON JESSE HARRIS

Tennessee State University student, Freedom high school student – Jackson, MS resident student, American Baptist Theological Rider – arrested participating in bus station Seminary, Freedom Rider integration action

DORIS CASTLE

17 years old, Freedom Rider

JIM ZWERG student, Beloit College, Freedom Rider (Freedom Riders, including Jim Zwerg (far left) and Lucretia Collins (looking at camera), wait to board a bus in Alabama)

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 5 THE PLAY

DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. ROBERT FRANCIS KENNEDY (1925-1968)

Civil Rights activist and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Attorney General (pictured: Martin Luther King, Jr. encourages Freedom Riders as they board a bus for Jackson, Miss., 1961. (Paul SchutzerTime & Life Pictures/Getty Image)

EUGENE “BULL” CONNOR JOHN PATTERSON

Birmingham, Alabama public safety commissioner 44th Governor of Alabama (1959 – 1963)

DEPUTY TYSON

Officer in charge, Parchman Prison Farm

(pictured: Governor John Patterson confers with Attorney General Robert Kennedy.)

6 \ GUTHRIE THEATER THE AUTHOR

About the Playwright About the Form

DOCUMENTARY THEATER Currently, a new form of documentary theater has The Parchman Hour is a work of emerged, characterized by art that can be categorized as collaborative development docudrama. of the theater performance among directors, designers, Documentary performances playwrights, actors and their often emerge in response documentary subjects (living to social or political crises; and dead). Perhaps the most documentary playwrights offer notable example of the current their audiences a theatrical documentary theater moment Mike Wiley presentation of real events to is The Laramie Project (2000), a inspire critical questions about play about the murder of college Actor and playwright Mike Wiley history, memory and justice as student Matthew Shepard, has spent the last decade fulfilling well as provoke social action to created by Moisés Kaufman his mission to bring educational change the world outside the and members of the Tectonic theater to young audiences and theater walls. Theatre Project. In the first communities across the country. In eighteen months following the the early days of his career, Wiley In the history of American murder, the company traveled found few theatrical resources theater there have been several from New York to Laramie, to shine a light on key events important examples of the form. Wyoming to interview members and figures in African-American The first is the work produced of the community about the history. To bring these stories to under the auspices of the event, its aftermath, and their life, he started his own production Federal Theater Project (1935- attitudes and beliefs regarding company. 1939). Their “Living Newspapers” homosexuality. The company’s used a form borrowed from interview material became the Through his performances, Wiley propaganda of the times and centerpiece of a collaboratively has introduced countless students the workers’ theater popular built play that went through and communities to the legacies in early twentieth century an extensive workshop of , Henry “Box” Brown Europe and the Soviet Union. development. and more. His most recent works The second appears during the include a one-man play based on 1960s, with the social upheaval Tim Tyson’s memoir Blood Done surrounding the Civil Rights Sign My Name and The Parchman Movement and the Vietnam Hour. War. Emerging playwrights and theater used the documentary form as a way to explore new boundaries of theatrical form and space. Happenings and autobiographical solo performances found new life in this era.

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 7 CULTURAL CONTEXT Timeline and Locations Freedom Rides, 1961

The Freedom Riders set out THURSDAY, MAY 4, 1961 to challenge the status quo by riding various forms of public Washington D.C. transportation in the South to CORE (Congress of Racial challenge local laws or customs Equality) Freedom Ride leaves that enforced segregation. The from Washington D.C. Led by Freedom Rides, and the violent CORE Director James Farmer, 13 reactions they provoked, riders (seven black, six white) left bolstered the credibility of Washington, D.C. on Greyhound the American Civil Rights and Trailways buses. Their plan Movement and called national was to ride through , the attention to the violent Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and disregard for the law that was Mississippi, ending with a rally in Members of CORE prepare for their journey used to enforce segregation south in Washington, D.C. (Left to right) New Orleans, Louisiana. in the southern United States. Edward Blankenheim, James Farmer, Genevieve Hughes, the Reverend B. Elton Riders were arrested for Cox and Henry Thomas. MONDAY, MAY 8, 1961 trespassing, unlawful assembly and violating state and local Charlotte , along with Joseph Perkins is the first Freedom other alleged offenses. Rider to be arrested after sitting at

8 \ GUTHRIE THEATER a “whites only” shoe-shine stand in Charlotte, NC.

Rock Hill Later that same day, Freedom Rider is assaulted in the Greyhound bus terminal of Rock Hill, SC, after attempting to enter the white waiting room with fellow Freedom Rider Al Bigelow.

Winnsboro Other riders were arrested in Winnsboro.

FRIDAY, MAY 12, 1961 James Peck, seated on a hospital gurney in Birmingham, Alabama, following attack on a Freedom Riders bus. Atlanta The CORE Freedom Riders arrive bystanders alike with iron pipes, Freedom Riders getting in Paddy Wagon in Atlanta, GA, where Martin Luther chains and clubs. King, Jr. warns them of violence TUESDAY, MAY 23, 1961 ahead. FRIDAY, MAY 19, 1961 Jackson Amid bomb threats, jeers and other Montgomery Freedom Riders jailed. methods of intimidation, CORE Freedom Riders attacked. The Riders board buses from Freedom Riders travel to New The Freedom Riders arrive in Montgomery to Jackson, Miss. Orleans by plane. Montgomery, AL where a police under National Guard escort. They escort abandons them to an are jailed upon arrival under the angry mob. Freedom Rider Jim formal charges of incitement to Zwerg and Federal official John riot, breach of the peace and failure Seigenthaler are badly injured in an to obey a police officer. ensuing brawl. SUNDAY, JUNE 11, 1961

Parchman State Penitentiary Freedom Riders are transferred to Mississippi’s notorious Parchman State Prison Farm. Segregationist SUNDAY, MAY 14, 1961 authorities attempt to break their spirits by removing mattresses Anniston from the cells. New Freedom Riders

CORE Freedom Riders bus #1 John Lewis and Jim Zwerg after being will continue to arrive in Jackson, burned. attacked and beaten in Montgomery. Miss. and be jailed throughout the An angry mob of KKK members summer. and their supporters burn a Freedom Riders’ Greyhound bus near Anniston, AL.

Birmingham CORE Freedom Riders bus #2 attacked. A riot breaks out at the Trailways Bus Station in Birmingham, AL. A KKK mob savagely beats both The Freedom Riders arrive in Montgomery, AL where a police escort abandons them to Freedom Riders and innocent an angry mob.

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 9 CULTURAL CONTEXT

General Vocabulary Freedom Rides, 1961 (excerpted from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History)

Black Codes children. Following direction from Executive Order 9981 to end Any of the various state laws that legal counsel they attempted to segregation in the U.S. Military. regulated the activities of blacks in enroll their children in segregated The President establishes the the south after the Civil War, used white schools and all were President’s Committee on Equality generally to restrict the rights of denied. Topeka operated eighteen of Treatment and Opportunity in blacks by circumscribing their right neighborhood schools for white the Armed Services headed by to hold office and vote, forbidding children, while African American Charles Fahy. The Fahy Committee ownership of land or the bearing children had access to only four oversaw the integration of all the of arms, and curtailing other civil schools. In February of 1951 the branches of the Armed Forces. The rights. Topeka NAACP filed a case on Navy had begun integration at the their behalf. Although this was a end of the war, and a year after Boynton v. Virginia class action, it was named for one E.O. 9981 was signed, the Air Force This case interprets the idea that of the plaintiffs, Oliver Brown. The was ready to integrate. The other interstate facilities were for the case dismantled the legal basis branches were not so willing to use of all citizens regardless of for in schools accept the idea of integration. The race. In 1958, , a and other public facilities. The Army continued to have separate black student at Howard University laws and policies were products African American units in 1950, Law School, took a Trailways bus of the human tendencies to right before the Korean War. The from Washington to his home prejudge, discriminate against and breakdown of segregation in the in Montgomery, Alabama. On a stereotype other people by their Army occurred during the Korean 40-minute layover at the Trailways ethnic, religious, physical or cultural War when the large number of Bus Terminal in Richmond, Virginia, characteristics. African American recruits could not the passengers went inside to eat. be accommodated in the African Boynton entered the segregated Congress of Racial Equality American units. By 1953 the U.S. restaurant, sat in the white section (CORE) Army announced that 95% of its and ordered a sandwich A not-for-profit human rights African American soldiers were and tea. When asked to move to organization that seeks to bring serving in integrated units. the colored section, he refused and about equality for all people was arrested by local police. He regardless of race, creed, sex, was charged with trespassing, and age, disability, sexual orientation, A highly publicized campaign in fined $10. religion or ethnic background. the in 1964 that helped (http://www.coreonline.org/ blacks register to vote. Brown v. Board of Education Features/what-is-core.htm, 2010) In 1950, the Topeka NAACP, led Interstate Commerce Commission by McKinley Burnett, set out to Executive Order 9981 (ICC) organize a legal challenge to an July 27, 1948. Violence against An independent agency created 1879 state law that permitted African American members of the in reference to the Interstate racially segregated elementary U.S. Military during and following Commerce Act which regulates schools in certain cities, based World War II prompted President carriers engaged in transportation on population. For Kansas this Harry S. Truman to investigate the in interstate commerce and in would become the 12th case filed treatment of African Americans foreign commerce within the in the state focused on ending and their opportunities for United States. segregation in public schools. The advancement in the United States local NAACP assembled a group Armed Forces. Two and one- Journey of Reconciliation of 13 parents who agreed to be half years after the end of World In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court plaintiffs on behalf of their 20 War II, President Truman issues banned segregation in interstate

10 \ GUTHRIE THEATER bus travel. A year later the Plessy v. Ferguson Congress of Racial Equality This case upheld the idea of A policy of racial segregation (CORE) and the Fellowship the constitutionality of an 1890 between blacks and whites – of Reconciliation tested the Louisiana statute requiring white in education, employment or ruling by staging the Journey and “colored” persons to be transportation – that provided of Reconciliation, on which an furnished “separate but equal” ostensibly equal facilities for all. interracial group of activists rode accommodations on railway together on a bus through the passenger cars. Homer Adolph Student Non-violent Coordinating upper south; they were fearful of Plessy, who was seven-eighths Committee (SNCC) journeying to the Deep South. Caucasian and one-eighth African, An organization that was paid for a first-class seat on a established from the student sit-ins Morgan v. Virginia Louisiana railroad. He took a seat that occurred on February 1, 1960 This case consisted of Virginia’s in the coach that was reserved in Greensboro, North Carolina. law requiring racial segregation in for white passengers, but the (http://www.sncc50thanniversary. interstate public transportation. On conductor told him to leave org/sncc.html, 2010) July 16, 1944, twenty-seven-year-old the “white” car and go to the boarded a Greyhound “colored” coach under threat of Sovereignty Commission bus in Gloucester County, bound being expelled from the train and A secret state police force for Baltimore via Washington, D.C. arrested. When Plessy refused, that operated to suppress After standing on the bus for several he was ejected from the train and the and miles and sitting on the lap of an imprisoned. maintain segregation. (http:// accommodating young black female mississippisovereigntycommission. passenger, Morgan finally took a Sarah Keys v. blogspot.com/, 2010) seat three rows from the back of Carolina Coach Company the bus, in front of some white In August 1952, Private Sarah passengers. When the bus became Keys was granted a furlough to crowded as it reached Saluda, visit her parents in Washington, Virginia, the bus driver insisted that North Carolina, and purchased a Morgan yield her seat to a white bus ticket home. Traveling from passenger. After she refused and Ft. Dix, New Jersey, when the bus was forcibly removed from the reached Roanoke Rapids, North bus, Morgan was arrested, tried Carolina, Keys, who was seated at and convicted of violating a state the front of the bus, was asked by segregation ordinance and fined ten the bus driver to exchange seats dollars, which she refused to pay. In with a white Marine seated near the a seven to one ruling, the Court back. She refused, and the driver reversed the Virginia appellate court removed all passengers except and struck down the Virginia law Keys to another bus. Keys was not and, by extension, all similar laws in allowed to board the second bus, other states mandating Jim Crow and was arrested by force and practices on interstate conveyances. charged with disorderly conduct. In April 1947, sixteen interracial passengers — eight white, eight Southern Christian Leadership black, all members of the Congress Conference (SCLC) of Racial Equality (CORE) and An American organization, the Fellowship of Reconciliation consisting chiefly of southern (FOR) — engaged in a “Journey of churches, formed in 1957 to Reconciliation” to test adherence campaign for civil rights. to the decision and to help educate people about the Court’s decision. The journey was a precursor to the Freedom Rides that would pass through Virginia in May 1961.

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 11 CULTURAL CONTEXT

Glossary/General Information

1. THE PARCHMAN HOUR, For Dr. King, The Beloved As early as 1956, Dr. King spoke STAGE DIRECTION: Community was not a lofty utopian of The Beloved Community as the 12-year-old Janie Forsyth goal to be confused with the end goal of nonviolent boycotts. gallops In playing “Cowboys rapturous image of the Peaceable As he said in a speech at a victory and Indians” She’s a tomboy Kingdom, in which lions and lambs rally following the announcement dressed in overalls and a coexist in idyllic harmony. Rather, of a favorable U.S. Supreme Court cowboy hat The Beloved Community was for Decision desegregating the seats him a realistic, achievable goal that on Montgomery’s busses, “The Janie Forsyth was the daughter could be attained by a critical mass end is reconciliation; the end is of the owner of a grocery store of people committed to and trained redemption; the end is the creation near Anniston, Alabama where a in the philosophy and methods of of the Beloved Community. It is bus carrying Freedom Riders was . this type of spirit and this type of firebombed on May 14, 1961. She was love that can transform opponents moved to assist the injured Freedom An ardent student of the teachings into friends. It is this type of Riders, bringing them water. Her of Mohandas K. Gandhi, Dr. understanding and goodwill that action earned her the hostility of her King was much impressed with will transform the deep gloom of family and her community. the Mahatma’s befriending of the old age into the exuberant his adversaries, most of whom gladness of the new age. It is this Video – Janie recounts the day professed profound admiration love which will bring about miracles and her actions: for Gandhi’s courage and intellect. in the hearts of men.” http://www.pbslearningmedia. Dr. King believed that the age-old (excerpted from “The Beloved org/resource/fr11.soc.civil.tactics. tradition of hating one’s opponents Community,” The King Philosophy. frwitness/freedom-riders-the- was not only immoral, but bad The King Center, Atlanta, Georgia, young-witness/ strategy which perpetuated the 2016. cycle of revenge and retaliation. Only nonviolence, he believed, 3. Organized by C.O.R.E., the 2. THE PARCHMAN HOUR, had the power to break the Congress of Racial Equality, DIALOGUE: cycle of retributive violence and the rides would carry people on We took the sit-in movement create lasting peace through Greyhound buses all over the that was happening on college reconciliation. South and their purpose was to campuses out into the breakdown segregation at bus populace. We were committed Dr. King’s Beloved Community stations in the major cities. to this idea of the beloved was not devoid of interpersonal, –James Farmer community, the redeemed group or international conflict. America. Instead he recognized that conflict CORE was founded in 1942 by a –John Lewis was an inevitable part of human group of students on the Campus experience. But he believed of the University of . “The Beloved Community” is a that conflicts could be resolved Many of the founders of CORE term that was first coined in the peacefully and adversaries where followers of the Ghandian early days of the 20th Century by could be reconciled through a principles of non-violent civil the philosopher-theologian Josiah mutual, determined commitment disobedience and belonged to Royce, who founded the Fellowship to nonviolence. No conflict, he an organization called F.O.R. of Reconciliation. However, it was believed, need erupt in violence. (Fellowship of Reconciliation). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., also And all conflicts in The Beloved CORE was first known as the a member of the Fellowship of Community should end with Committee on Racial Equality. Reconciliation, who popularized the reconciliation of adversaries was one of the term and invested it with a deeper cooperating together in a spirit of original leaders of CORE. meaning. friendship and goodwill.

12 \ GUTHRIE THEATER CULTURAL CONTEXT

CORE’s 1st National Director, James Jack Paar Kefir is a tart-tasting drink Farmer, served as Under-Secretary Born in Canton, Ohio, on May 1, originally of the Caucasus, of Labor for President Richard 1918, Jack Harold Paar dropped out made from cow’s or sometimes Nixon. He later ran unsuccessfully of high school in the 10th grade to goat’s milk to which the bacteria for Congress as a Republican take a job as a radio announcer and Streptococcus and Lactobacillus in Brooklyn, NY against Shirley DJ. Later, as a comedian in a U.S. have been added. Although Chisolm. Army special services unit, Paar probably much too bitter for mixing entertained troops during World with coffee, as a milk product it , Andrew Goodman War II. After the war, he landed could be. However, in this play on and , the three roles in a handful of early 1950s words, Kaffir has a much different young civil rights workers who . In 1952, he made his first meaning. Technically, the word were murdered by the KKK in 1964 forays into , hosting game means “heathen”, derived from in Philadelphia, Mississippi were shows as well as variety programs. the Arabic term kafir (meaning members of CORE on assignment In 1957, Jack Paar replaced Steve “disbeliever”), which originally had to the Freedom Summer Voter Allen to become the second host the meaning “one without religion”. Registration project. of NBC’s . Not as But that’s not how the word has adept at sketch comedy, Paar more been used since the beginning 4. Mississippi. Cotton Country. often relied on his monologues and of the in South Africa. Stretched across one vast, discoveries, including Much like the “N” word, the word dusty plantation of fetid jails, and Bob Newhart, for laughs. His began as an overgeneralization cattle prods, black jacks, and eccentric guest list, including such and oversimplification of the Black midnight bombings of night varied personalities as Nobel Peace people by the white settlers in riding Klansmen! The Parchman Prize winner Albert Schweitzer and South Africa. Like many offensive Hour. This is the show that runs actor , complemented words, “kafir” got stripped of its from seven until nine, wherever Paar’s eccentric personality, and his true meaning of “non-believer” you may live be it central or format of variety skits, interviews, or “non-follower of god” as years standard time. I’m your host, witty conversation and monologues went by, and languages morphed blacker than Bob Hope, Prettier created what is now standard in the (Dutch, English and some other than Jack Paar, the sour in genre. languages turned into Afrikaans, Martha White’s Flour, The words changed meanings, etc.) Kaffir in Kennedy’s coffee. Martha White’s Flour When the white European settlers – The Martha White brand was stripped native South Africans of established as the premium brand their rights, homes and dignity, they Bob Hope of Nashville, Tennessee-based Royal used the “k-word”, and they used Born in 1903, Bob Hope was a Flour Mills in 1899. At that time, it a lot. They used it to tell people British-born American entertainer Nashville businessman Richard they were worthless, uneducated, and comic actor known for his Lindsey introduced a fine flour that undeserving of respect. The k-word rapid-fire delivery of jokes and he named for his daughter, Martha was a pernicious tool that provided one-liners, as well as his success in White Lindsey. The Martha White South African whites a show of virtually all entertainment media brand is probably most associated power over the natives. It was like and his decades of overseas tours with its long-term sponsorship a worse version of … Peasant, boor, to entertain American troops. In of the Grand Ole Opry, a radio churl, degenerate, ignoble. the 1960s, his popularity had a program featuring country music. resurgence because of his televised The relationship began in 1948, shows and specials. Hope received and has existed continuously numerous awards and honors for since then, making it one of the his work as an entertainer and longest continually running radio humanitarian. He died on July 27, show sponsorships known. A jingle 2003. for the flour, written by Nashville songwriter Pat Twitty in 1953, was first performed from the stage of the Grand Ole Opry by bluegrass music artists Flatt and Scruggs.

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 13 army into Havana and overthrew General Fulgencio Batista (1901- 1973), the nation’s American- backed president. For the next two years, officials at the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) attempted to push Castro from power. Finally, in April 1961, the CIA launched what its leaders believed would be the definitive strike: a full-scale invasion of Cuba by 1,400 American-trained Cubans who had fled their homes when Castro took over. However, the invasion did not go well: The invaders were badly outnumbered by Castro’s troops, and they surrendered after less than 24 hours of fighting.

5. THE PARCHMAN HOUR, STAGE DADDY, LET YOUR MIND ROLL DIRECTION: [PARCHMAN ON 8. I sent letters, and I had Simeon PRISON. A WHISTLE [Guitar continues to play] Booker, the Jet Magazine SHRIEKS. DEPUTY TYSON, On Screen: Bill Svanoe Mugshot reporter, call and remind him of THE HEAD PRISON GUARD the ride. ENTERS FOLLOWED BY “Walk Right In” is the title of a JAMES FARMER OTHER GUARDS CARRYING country blues song written by WEAPONS.] musician Gus Cannon and originally If journalists are the eyewitnesses recorded by Cannon’s Jug to history, then The Freedom Riders were Stompers in 1929. It was reissued stands as one of the most incarcerated in Unit 17, the in 1959 as a track on The Country significant witnesses to the maximum security building at Blues. A revised version of the song history of the civil rights struggle Parchman Prison. In 1961, Unit by The Rooftop Singers, with the in America. He was the first 17 was also the site of death writing credits allocated to group African American reporter for the row and the gas chamber, which members Erik Darling and Bill Washington Post and one of the was located in the rooms off the Svanoe, became an international last people to interview Martin main cell block to the right in the hit in 1963. Luther King, Jr. on television. diagram above. What’s most notable in his life, however, is his front-line reporting 6. SONG: 7. THE PARCHMAN HOUR, of the defining moments of the WALK RIGHT IN DIALOGUE: civil rights era. “I had a compelling WALK RIGHT IN, In Washington news —while ambition to fight segregation on SIT RIGHT DOWN attempting to high step his the front line,” Booker said upon DADDY, LET YOUR way out of the Bay of Pigs receiving the Fourth Estate Award MIND ROLL ON disaster, President Kennedy has in 1982. “I stayed on the road WALK RIGHT IN, plum stuck his foot up to the covering civil rights day and night. SIT RIGHT DOWN crack of this Freedom Rider … We ducked into funeral homes at DADDY, LET YOUR ridiculousness. An anonymous night to photograph the battered MIND ROLL ON source quoted Kennedy as bodies of civil rights victims. … The EVERYBODY’S TALKIN’ ’BOUT grumbling names, the places and the events A NEW WAY OF WALKIN’ HANK THOMAS became history.” DO YOU WANT TO LOSE YOUR MIND? On January 1, 1959, a young From covering the trial of the WALK RIGHT IN, Cuban nationalist named Fidel murderers of Emmett Till in SIT RIGHT DOWN Castro (1926-) drove his guerilla Mississippi in 1955 to being the

14 \ GUTHRIE THEATER only journalist to accompany the miscreants. He would often deliver Freedom Riders in their bold efforts his “judgments”, as well as express to desegregate bus terminals in frustration with the accused, the Deep South in 1961, Booker by leaning over the bench and documented these and other smacking the accused with an events with precision and passion. inflated bladder-balloon. In 1955, he joined the Johnson Publishing Company, the publishers of Jet and Ebony, and served as 10. And for how long? What you their Washington Bureau Chief for gonna do Harvard? When this more than four decades, initiating movement turns from and maintaining a prominent marching to madness, and position in the corridors of power. these southern colored folk stop being all “Jump Jim Crow” 9. Hear ye, hear ye, the Court of and get all “Nat Turner” up Swing is now about ready to do in here? Why are you even in its thing. Don’t want no tears, Mississippi, Stephen Green? don’t want no jive, Above all STOKELY CARMICHAEL things, don’t want no lies. [BEAT] Our judge is hip, his boots are tall, He’ll judge you jack, big or small. So fall in line, his stuff is sweet, Peace brothers, here’s Judge Pigmeat. STOKELY CARMICHAEL

Here come de Judge, here come de Judge! Here come de Judge, here come de Judge! FREEDOM RIDERS

Dewey “Pigmeat” Markham (April 18, 1904 – December 13, 1981) was an African American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer and actor. His nickname came from a stage routine, in which he declared himself to be “Sweet Poppa Pigmeat”. Starting in the 1950s, Pigmeat Markham began appearing on television, making multiple appearances on “.”

His boisterous, indecorous “heyeah (here) come da judge” routine, which made a mockery of formal courtroom etiquette, became his signature act. Markham would sit at an elevated judge’s bench (often in a black graduation cap-and- gown, to look more impressive) and deal with a series of comic

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 15 CULTURAL CONTEXT

A Brief History of Jim Crow

“I can ride in first-class cars on the feared losing their jobs to blacks. In Richmond, one could not live railroads and in the streets,” wrote Politicians abused blacks to win on a street unless most of the journalist T. McCants Stewart. “I the votes of poor white “crackers.” residents were people one could can stop in and drink a glass of Newspapers fed the bias of white marry. (One could not marry soda and be more politely waited readers by playing up (sometimes someone of a different race.) By upon than in some parts of New even making up) black crimes. 1914, had six entire towns in England.” Perhaps Stewart’s In 1890, in spite of its 16 black which blacks could not live. Mobile comments don’t seem newsworthy. members, the Louisiana General passed a Jim Crow curfew: Blacks Consider that he was reporting Assembly passed a law to prevent could not leave their homes after 10 from South Carolina in 1885 and he black and white people from riding p.m. Signs marked “Whites Only” or was black. together on railroads. Plessy v. “Colored” hung over doors, ticket Ferguson, a case challenging the windows, and drinking fountains. Stewart had decided to tour the law, reached the U.S. Supreme Georgia had black and white parks. South because he feared for Court in 1896. Upholding the law, Oklahoma had black and white freedmen’s liberties. In 1868, with the court said that public facilities phone booths. Amendment XIV, the Constitution for blacks and whites could had finally given black men full be “separate but equal.” Soon, Prisons, hospitals, and orphanages citizenship and promised them throughout the South, they had to were segregated as were schools equal protection under the law. be separate. and colleges. In North Carolina, Blacks voted, won elected office black and white students had to and served on juries. However, 10 Two years later, the court seemed use separate sets of textbooks. In years later, federal troops withdrew to seal the fate of black Americans Florida, the books couldn’t even be from the South, returning it to local when it upheld a Mississippi law stored together. Atlanta courts kept white rule. And the Republican designed to deny black men two Bibles: one for black witnesses Party, champion of Reconstruction the vote. Given the green light, and one for whites. and freedmen’s rights, had fallen Southern states began to limit the from national power. Would black voting right to those who owned Though seemingly rigid and people’s rights survive? property or could read well, to complete, Jim Crow laws did not those whose grandfathers had account for all of the After a few weeks on the road, been able to vote, to those with blacks suffered. Unwritten rules Stewart decided they would. “good characters,” to those who barred blacks from white jobs Stewart was wrong. Over the next paid poll taxes. In 1896, Louisiana in New York and kept them out 20 years, blacks would lose almost had 130,334 registered black of white stores in Los Angeles. all they had gained. Worse, denial voters. Eight years later, only 1,342, Humiliation was about the best of their rights and freedoms would 1 percent, could pass the state’s treatment blacks who broke such be made legal by a series of racist new rules. rules could hope for. Groups like statutes, the Jim Crow laws. the Ku Klux Klan, which revived in “Jim Crow” was a derisive slang Jim Crow laws touched every part 1915, used venom and violence to term for a black man. It came to of life. In South Carolina, black keep blacks “in their place.” mean any state law passed in the and white textile workers could More than 360,000 black men South that established different not work in the same room, enter served in World War I. The rules for blacks and whites. Jim through the same door or gaze country welcomed them home Crow laws were based on the out of the same window. Many with 25 major race riots, the most theory of white supremacy and industries wouldn’t hire blacks. serious in Chicago. White mobs were a reaction to Reconstruction. Many unions passed rules to lynched veterans in uniform. In the depression-racked 1890s, exclude them. Black Americans fought back. appealed to whites who The National Association for the

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Advancement of Colored People, schools, black parents in South assembly of slaves and stiffened founded in 1909, and the Urban Carolina and Virginia sued to get proslavery, anti-abolitionist League publicized abuses and their children into white schools. convictions that persisted in that worked for redress. Both times, federal courts upheld region until the American Civil War segregation. Both times, the (1861–65). Though they drew support from parents appealed. Meanwhile, in a both races, these groups barely similar case, Delaware’s Supreme Turner was born on the Virginia stemmed the tide. The 1920s and Court ordered a district to admit plantation of Benjamin Turner, who 30s produced new Jim Crow laws. black students to white schools allowed him to be instructed in By 1944, a Swede visiting the until adequate classrooms could be reading, writing and religion. Sold South pronounced segregation so provided for blacks. This time, the three times in his childhood and complete that whites did not see district appealed. hired out to John Travis (1820s), blacks except when being served he became a fiery preacher and by them. The Supreme Court agreed to leader of African-American slaves consider these three cases in on Benjamin Turner’s plantation But World War II changed combination with one other. In and in his Southampton County America, inside and out. The link Topeka, Kansas, where schools for neighborhood, claiming that he was between white supremacy and blacks and whites were equally chosen by God to lead them from Hitler’s “master race” could not be good, Oliver Brown wanted his bondage. ignored. Jim Crow shocked United 8-year-old daughter, Linda, to Nations delegates who reported attend a school close to home. Believing in signs and hearing home about the practice. “Racial State law, however, prevented the divine voices, Turner was convinced discrimination furnishes grist for white school from accepting Linda by an eclipse of the Sun (1831) the Communist propaganda mills,” because she was black. that the time to rise up had said a government spokesman. “It come, and he enlisted the help of raises doubt even among friendly On May 17, 1954, at the stroke four other slaves in the area. An nations as to the intensity of our of noon, the nine Supreme insurrection was planned, aborted devotion to the democratic faith.” Court Justices announced their and rescheduled for August 21, In 1948, President Harry Truman unanimous decision in the four 1831, when he and six other slaves took decisive action to promote cases, now grouped as Brown v. killed the Travis family, managed racial equality. He urged Congress Board of Education. They held to secure arms and horses and to abolish the poll tax, enforce that racial segregation of children enlisted about 75 other slaves in fair voting and hiring practices in public schools, even in schools a disorganized insurrection that and end Jim Crow transportation of equal quality, hurt minority resulted in the murder of 51 white between states. Four Southern children. “Separate educational people. states abandoned Truman’s facilities are inherently unequal.” Democratic Party in protest. Then, The practice violated the Afterwards, Turner hid nearby as commander in chief, Truman Constitution’s 14th amendment and successfully for six weeks until his ordered the complete integration must stop. To some, the judgment discovery, conviction and hanging of the armed forces. He did not seemed the fruitful end of a long at Jerusalem, Virginia, along with wipe out racism, but, trained to struggle. Actually, the struggle had 16 of his followers. The incident put obey commands, officers complied just begun. fear in the hearts of Southerners, as best they could. In Korea, during ended the organized emancipation the 1950s, integrated U.S. forces Nat Turner movement in that region, resulted fought their first war. Nathanial “Nat” Turner (1800-1831) in even harsher laws against slaves was a black American slave who and deepened the schism between Back at home, when the new led the only effective, sustained slave-holders and free-soilers (an Eisenhower administration slave rebellion (August 1831) in anti-slavery political party whose downplayed civil rights, federal U.S. history. Spreading terror slogan was ‘free soil, free speech, courts took the lead. In 1950, the throughout the white South, his free labor and free men’) that NAACP decided to challenge the actions set off a new wave of would culminate in the Civil War. concept of “separate but equal.” oppressive legislation prohibiting Fed up with poor, overcrowded the education, movement, and

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 17 BUILDINGBUILDING THETHE PRODUCTIONPRODUCTION

From the Director: Patricia McGregor

Patricia McGregor

(Edited from comments made to path?” You are quite right in calling half-truths to the unfettered realm the cast and staff on the first day for negotiation. Indeed, this is of creative analysis and objective of rehearsal.) the very purpose of . appraisal, so must we see the need Nonviolent direct action seeks for nonviolent gadflies to create the When I began to think about how to create such a crisis and foster kind of tension in society that will we stand up against injustice, such a tension that a community help men rise from the dark depths I started to think about when which has constantly refused to of prejudice and racism to the the first time was that the idea negotiate is forced to confront majestic heights of understanding of injustice even hit me. And I the issue. It seeks to so dramatize and brotherhood. The purpose of thought of my seventh grade social the issue that it can no longer be our direct action program is to studies classroom. My teacher, Mrs. ignored. My citing the creation create a situation so crisis-packed Samuels, guided us through our of tension as part of the work of that it will inevitably open the door very thin chapter on Civil Rights, the nonviolent resister may sound to negotiation. I therefore concur where we learned about a time rather shocking. But I must confess with you in your call for negotiation. two years after the events of The that I am not afraid of the word Too long has our beloved Southland Parchman Hour, in 1963, when Dr. “tension.” I have earnestly opposed been bogged down in a tragic Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote his violent tension, but there is a type effort to live in monologue rather “Letter from a Birmingham Jail”. In of constructive, nonviolent tension than dialogue. the middle of the letter, he says: which is necessary for growth. Just as Socrates felt that it was I’m so interested in Dr. King’s You may well ask: “Why direct necessary to create a tension in the use of “monologue” rather action? Why sit-ins, marches and mind so that individuals could rise than “dialogue.” I feel we get so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better from the bondage of myths and so caught up in monologues

18 \ GUTHRIE THEATER that just relentlessly look at one direction, rather than having a conversation. As we develop and present The Parchman Hour, what will hopefully happen on stage will be an opportunity for dialogue between the performers; between the performers and the audience; between everyone in this institution; and hopefully between the audience and the world.

How do we get up in the morning and fight what sometimes seems to be insurmountable — the injustices, the deeply held beliefs and complicated history? It’s hard to wake up and find the courage Patricia McGregor in rehearsal for The Parchman Hour PHOTO: LAUREN MUELLER to fight, but also, importantly, the courage to commune. To fight and to be brave enough to stand up father, who when we drove through and say, “I am willing to protest the South for the first time – and against injustice with my voice, he’s almost 90, a regal, wonderful with whatever I have, but I am also man – he ducked down in the car willing to remain in dialogue.” because, somehow, still in his body, in his young memories lived the Hopefully this brilliant play by Mike danger that was so present for Wiley will give us the opportunity him in that place – a danger that I not only to look at those historical fear is all too present now. So for trail blazers who fought for our the life that my father lived and for rights, but also to reflect on our the hope he has for his grandson, I own sense of resistance and dedicate the energy of this play. resilience. The Parchman Hour is theatrical gold that will keep people engaged and entertained while also focusing us on the question of how we fight for the community we all wish for.

On hard rehearsal days, I always ask: to whom am I dedicating this opportunity? I dedicate this first rehearsal to the future I hope for my son. And I also dedicate it to my mom and dad. My mom – a white, almost 80-year-old immigrant from England who moved to this country after having experienced a childhood in World War II in London – who wanted the opportunity to be in a country that had, to her mind, more opportunities for freedom, a future and equality. And also to my beautiful, elegant, Caribbean black

GUTHRIE THEATER \ 19 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Bringing the Play into the Classroom

LETTER HOME interviewee’s story and that is hatred, prejudice and violence The Freedom Riders left their delivered as if being related by through peaceful and non-violent families, friends and lives behind to the interviewee. Each student can tactics. In pairs, ask student to board those busses and stand for then practice and deliver their identify and research a historical equality. Ask students to imagine monologue in the character of the incident of non-violent protest. being a Freedom Rider and to person he or she interviewed, or From that research, instruct the imagine the person or people they could direct another student pairs to create and rehearse a who would come to say goodbye to deliver the monologue. performance where one person to them as they board the bus. plays the role of a news reporter Jumping forward, ask them to and the other plays the role of one imagine being incarcerated at the RECORD THAT INCIDENT of the activists from their research. Parchman State Penitentiary, and Docudramas provide the audience During this mock interview, the explain that prisoners are given with multiple perspectives of pair should be sure to describe one letter to write home. Each the same event or issue, creating what happened during that student will then write a letter to a rich tapestry of viewpoints episode in history, outline some that person, or group of people, to tell the story. Using a video of the rationale for the protest who was there when he or she that depicts a real-life event, and to include the other side’s left. These letters could describe assign each student in the class perspective. the current situation in Parchman, a different role as a specific on- the reasons for becoming a looker of this event (i.e. child, Freedom Riders and enduring police officer, parent, shop owner, WHAT DO YOU SEE? imprisonment, and/or their hopes etc.) As they watch the video, they Prior to the activity set up the and dreams for the future. can imagine themselves as their room’s chairs or desks side-by- assigned role, and after the video, side to mimic the interior of a instruct them to write down the bus. Explain that the bus will be DOCU-INTERVIEW answers to these questions from making a few stops, and at each The Parchman Hour belongs their character’s perspective: stop prepare a slide or picture of to a genre of theater called different locations from the 1960s “docudrama,” where the • What happened or what did that was, or might have been, playwright uses historical you see? visited by the Freedom Riders. resources, interviews and • How do you feel after Ask the students to “take a seat” documents to create a play. Often, watching the video? on the bus, ask them to imagine the actors represent real people • What would you do in the themselves as the Freedom and speak quotes or paraphrases same situation? Riders, and as the bus progresses of real-life people’s words. Ask southward, ask the students to each student to identify a friend, Ask the group to share their imagine what they see looking out family member or community answers, noting the similarities and the window. At each stop, ask the member to interview about a time differences in these observations group to discuss what they think when he or she stood up against of the same event. is happening at this “stop,” using injustice. If possible, ask the the picture as a reference. The students to audio or video record final stop could be Parchman State the interview for later reference, DRAWING THE ANALOGY Penitentiary. and, at minimum, ask them to take The Freedom Riders were activists strong notes, recording actual who peacefully stood up for what words or phrases. From that they believed. They are part of interview, each student creates a rich history of protest, where a monologue that tells his or her individuals or groups protest

20 \ GUTHRIE THEATER PARCHMAN SOUNDTRACK of their character’s journey The use of music in The Parchman throughout the play, highlighting Hour provides a wonderful and three points where the character informative backdrop for historical changes appearance. Passing out context, as well as insight into several blank costume design the thoughts and feelings of the templates, ask each group to create characters and their different a rough design for each of these perspectives. Following their three moments. Displaying these viewing of the performance, ask designs, ask each group to present each student to think of different their artistic choices and encourage moments in the play where music the class to ask questions of the was used or where music could design teams. have been used. Ask them to generate a list of five of these moments and to identify a song that could be used to make that moment more powerful.

DESIGNING THE SET The set design by Clint Ramos for the Guthrie’s production of The Parchman Hour uses both realistic and symbolic elements (i.e. the beam of light) to provide a backdrop and context for the story being told in the play. Ask students to recall what they remember or noticed about the set, asking them to also discuss why they believe the set designer chose to include those elements. Then, in small groups, ask the students to imagine where they would set the play. Providing art materials, ask the students to represent their imagined setting. When the groups have completed their designs, ask each to present their design to the class and discuss their artistic choices.

OUTSIDE/INSIDE According to The Parchman Hour director Patricia McGregor, the appearance and dress of the characters symbolize internal aspects of the characters and how the world is impacting them at specific moments of the play. Divide the class into small groups, and assign each group a character from the play. Provide them with contextual pictures of the time period and a brief description

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For Further Reading and Understanding

BOOKS and Diane McWhorter. Breach the Civil War and the Civil Rights of Peace: Portraits of the 1961 Movement. Armstrong, Thomas M., and Mississippi Freedom Riders. New Natalie R. Bell. Autobiography of a York: Atlas & Co., 2008. WEBSITES Freedom Rider: My Life as a Foot Soldier for Civil Rights. Deerfield Farmer, James. Lay Bare the Civil Rights in Beach: Health Communications, Heart: An Autobiography of the Mississippi Digital Archive. 2011. Civil Rights Movement. New York: http://digilib.usm.edu/crmda.php Arbor House, 1985. Arsenault, Raymond. Freedom Civil Rights Movement Veterans. Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Garrow, David J. Birmingham, www.crmvet.org Racial Justice. Oxford: Oxford Alabama, 1956-1963: The Black University Press, 2006. Struggle for Civil Rights. Brooklyn, Congress of Racial Equality. N.Y.: Carlson Pub., 1989. www.core-online.org Barnes, Catherine A. Journey from Jim Crow: The Desegregation Lewis, John, and Michael Orso. Freedom Riders: of Southern Transit. New York: Walking With the Wind: A Memoir the American Experience Columbia University Press, 1983. of the Movement. New York, NY: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ Simon & Schuster, 1998. americanexperience/ Bausum, Ann. Freedom Riders: freedomriders/ John Lewis and Jim Zwerg on Sharp, Anne Wallace. The Freedom the Front Lines of the Civil Rights Rides. Detroit: Lucent Books, 2012. 1961 Freedom Riders Movement. Washington, D.C.: 40th Anniversary. National Geographic, 2006. Silver, Carol Ruth. Freedom www.freedomridersfoundation.org Rider Diary: Smuggled Notes Branch, Taylor. Parting the Waters: from Parchman Prison. Oxford: You Don’t Have to Ride Jim Crow. America in the King Years, 1954- University Press of Mississippi, http://www.robinwashington.com/ 63. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2014. jimcrow/ 1988. & VIDEO Carmichael, Stokely, and Michael Thelwell. Ready for Revolution: , Parts 1 and 2, The Life and Struggles of Stokely by Blackside. Outstanding 14 hour Carmichael (Kwame Ture). New documentary on the Freedom York: Scribner, 2003. Movement, broadcast as part of PBS “American Experience.” Catsam, Derek. Freedom’s Main Line: The Journey of Reconciliation Freedom Riders, Stanley Nelson and the Freedom Rides. Lexington: ~ American Experience, 2010. University Press of Kentucky, Partially based on Ray Arsenalut’s 2009. Freedom Riders.

Curthoys, Ann. Freedom Ride: A The Rise and Fall of Jim Freedom Rider Remembers. Crows Crow, 4-part series offering a Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2002. comprehensive look at race Etheridge, Eric, Roger Wilkins, relations in America between

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