The Mountaintop
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ARENA’S PAGE STUDY GUIDE ContentS The Play Meet the Playwright THE MOUNTAINTOP 1968 Sanitation Workers Strike in Memphis Now playing in the Kreeger March 29-May 12, 2013 Civil Rights, 1968 Written by Resident Playwright Katori Hall Civil Rights Movement Timeline Directed by Robert O’Hara The “Mountaintop” Speech A co-production with the Alley Theatre The Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “ Powerful the man that get more done dead than alive.” –Camae, The Mountaintop Three Big Questions The PlaY The year is 1968 and the Civil Rights Movement is splintering. African- American sanitation workers in Memphis are on strike. The last march that Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King, Jr. organized on their behalf took a violent turn. Now King is back in Memphis doggedly striving for a peace- ful outcome for the striking workers. It is the evening of April 3, the night before King’s assassination. He has just given his famous “Mountaintop” speech to a Memphis congregation. Weary and hoarse, he returns to the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis. During his last night on earth, King is visited by Camae, a beautiful Lorraine Motel maid who comes to deliver his coffee. As they get to know each other, discussing the state of civil rights and racial equality in America and smoking Pall Malls, we have an intimate introduc- tion to the very personal Martin Luther King, Jr. What is King like when he steps down from his pulpit as leader? What does it take for one man to lead such an important and trying movement? What happens when he has to face his mortal- ity before his mission is fulfilled? l Major support for this program is provided by the Paul M. Angell Family Foundation. The Mountaintop is supported by Funded in part by the D.C. Commission on the and an award from the Arts & Humanities, an agency supported in National Endowment for the Arts part by the National Endowment for the Arts. MEET THE 1968 SaNITATION WOrkERS STRIKE IN MEMPHIS PLAYwrIGHT: “I want people in the audience to be like, ‘If this man – who is so much a human being – can achieve such great things, then I, as this complicated human Katori Hall being, can create great things too.’” –Katori Hall rowing up in Memphis, GTennessee as the youngest of four siblings, Katori Hall began acting at a young age. She was an imaginative child, and said she had about 15 imaginary friends. She also had dreams of a life in New York City. Sanitation workers marched holding She went on to study acting at signs with the new slogan “I AM A Columbia University. At Columbia, MAN,” to honor Cole and Walker. she and her scene partner were sup- posed to research scenes for their type (the characters an actor is most anitation jobs Dr. Martin likely to play because of age, race, (like trash collec- Luther King, etc.). They could not find any scenes S tion) were low-paying, Jr. agreed to for two young African-American highly dangerous and support the women. Hall realized, “If I really almost entirely occupied by African- sanitation workers and to lead a large want to see myself in all my beauty American men. The Memphis sanita- march and work stoppage on March 28, and complexity staring back at me I tion workers wanted pay raises, union 1968. Almost 1,300 striking sanitation would have to do it myself.” recognition, safety equipment, leave for workers marched, many with their fami- inclement weather and health benefits. lies. A bomb threat delayed King’s flight After she graduated from Columbia, Tension between the sanitation workers and, by the time he arrived, violence Hall studied at the American and the city of Memphis was building had broken out. King made it away Repertory Theatre Institute for when two events triggered the strike. safely, but about 60 people were hurt. Advanced Theatre Training at One young man named Larry Payne Harvard University, and then at During a heavy rainstorm in February was killed. King was distraught. He the Juilliard School’s Lila Acheson of 1968, two Memphis sanitation work- negotiated with the disagreeing parties Wallace playwriting program. ers, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were and committed to a peaceful march Her plays include Hurt Village, crushed when the trash compactor of scheduled for April. Hoodoo Love, Remembrance and a truck was accidentally turned on. On WHADDABLOODCLOT!!!!. that same day, in the terrible weather, 21 King was assassinated before the black sewer workers were cut without march took place. His assassina- In 2010, at age 28, Hall became the pay while their white supervisors stayed tion intensified the strike. The fear of first black woman in history to win the on for the day with pay. As a result, 930 riot spread and still Loeb refused to Olivier Award, Britain’s equivalent to of the sanitation workers in Memphis make any compromises. On April 8, the Tony Award, for Best New Play for walked off the job. 1968, 42,000 people joined in a silent The Mountaintop. The play opened on march with King’s widow. Eight days Broadway in 2011 starring Samuel L. Immediately Mayor Loeb announced later, the union was recognized, wages Jackson and Angela Bassett. the strike was illegal. The City Council, were increased, and the strike ended. along with representatives from both l black and white civic groups, tried to resolve the conflict with Loeb, but to no civil disobedience - the refusal to obey Camae is named for Hall’s mother. avail. Local clergy and community lead- certain laws or governmental demands Carrie Mae was not allowed to ers began a campaign, including boy- in order to provoke changes in legisla- see King speak in 1968 because cotts and civil disobedience. With tion or government policy, character- her mother thought it was too arrests and violence, the strike became ized by nonviolent techniques like dangerous. Through Camae, Hall’s a major civil rights struggle with nation- marching, boycotting, picketing and mother finally gets to meet King. al attention. nonpayment of taxes. CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT TIMELINE artin Luther King, Jr. was an important leader of the Civil Rights CIVIL RIGHTS, MMovement, the struggle for African Americans to achieve equal rights. These included equal opportunity for and access to voting, housing, education, employment and public facilities. - Brown v. Board of Education decision is reached by 1954the Supreme Court, a major legal victory during the Civil Rights Movement in which racial segregation was legally outlawed in public schools. - Rosa Parks organizes a successful 381-day boycott of he Civil Rights Movement did not end 1955city buses in Montgomery, Alabama to protest segregated seating in 1955. Martin Luther King, Jr. joined and gained 1968with King’s assassination, but it was in recognition. T the midst of a major shift. The Civil Rights Movement began as a movement dedicated - King forms the Southern Christian Leadership 1957Conference (SCLC) and successfully draws on the power to African Americans gaining equal access of black churches as a part of the civil rights movement. to the basic rights of U.S. citizenship. It took place at the local and national level - Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) is with the most momentum during the 1950s 1960founded; lunch counter sit-ins begin. and 1960s. Civil rights activists pursued goals of equality through the legal process, negotiations amongst civic leaders, petitions, and nonviolent sit-ins, marches - SNCC organizes the Freedom Rides of 1961- Both black 1961and white Freedom Riders rode commercial buses from and boycotts. Washington, D.C. into the South to test the 1960 Supreme Court decision to outlaw segregation in interstate transportation terminals. In the mid-1960s, the movement was Riders are beaten, arrested, and have their bus burned. However, transitioning from an emphasis on racial this prompts the court to enforce the desegregation ruling. discrimination and voting rights to an - Eugene “Bull” Connor, Birmingham’s commissioner of public emphasis on dignity, self-sufficiency and 1963safety, ruthlessly uses police dogs, fire hoses, violence, and freedom from oppression. While many arrests against King’s nonviolent demonstrations. This brutality gets the attention of President John F. Kennedy’s administration. African-American activists continued to work through national organizations and King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech to a 250,000-person nonviolent demonstrations, young people march on Washington. in particular were frustrated with the slow - The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed by President progress and persisting racial injustice. 1964Lyndon B. Johnson. It bans racial discrimination in public Some were becoming more militant. Major areas including: hotels, restaurants, education, and other public organizations like the Student spaces and legally created equal job opportunities. Nonviolent Coordinating King receives the Nobel Peace Prize. Committee, led by Stokely Carmichael, - Malcolm X is assassinated. He was a proponent of began to call for 1965the black Muslim faith. He confronted the mainstream “Black Power” rather nonviolent civil rights movement by urging followers to defend themselves against white aggression “by any means necessary.” than racial integration. Malcolm X encouraged self-defense in the - Stokely Carmichael becomes chairman of the SNCC and face of attack. The 1966begins drawing the group away from nonviolence and calling for “Black Power.” The Black Panther Party Black Panther Party for Self-Defense is founded by Huey Newton and gained support, advocating community Bobby Seale, advocating self-defense among organization and service projects, but also minority communities against the U.S. government, and revolutionary socialism through mass armed resistance when necessary. organizing and community-based programs. Before his death, Martin Luther King, Jr. - King begins the Poor People’s Campaign, focusing on was working tirelessly to keep the peace 1967jobs and freedom for the poor of all races.