Dallas Theater Center the Studyguide 2016 Season Civil Rights from I Am a Man! Dr

Home , The Mountaintop

“Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate From I am a Man! the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the to Black Lives Matter end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a Personhood as Resistance society that can live with its conscience. And that (continued) will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”

“Our God Is Marching On” horrible things that were being done to them. To treat a human that way would March 25, 1965 Selma, Alabama be unforgivable. But if someone was not human, or was subhuman, it wouldn’t by KATORI HALL • directed by AKIN BABATUNDE matter as much, right? Onstage thru November 11 Wyly Theatre / Studio Theatre is an African American playwright, journalist, AT&T Performing Arts Center Slaves in America were taken from their homes, were separated from their Katori and actress from Memphis, Tennessee. Her play families, were sold to owners and were treated as their property. They were Hall Mountaintop was first produced in London in June denied so many things that we associate with being human – homes, families, of 2009 and won the Olivier Award for Best New often even names – that many slaves began to believe and accept that there was Play in 2010. Her other plays include Hurt Village, Hoodoo Love, Remembrance, Saturday Night/Sunday no way out. However, many refused to accept this attempt at dehumanization. Morning, and The Hope Well. Hall has won numerous awards including the Oral histories and storytelling became vital in enslaved communities as a 2005 Lorraine Hansberry Playwriting Award, 2006 New York Foundation of the reminder of their humanity – their past and hopeful future. Spirituals calling Arts Fellowship in Playwriting and Screenwriting and the 2007 Fellowship of upon God and acknowledging the existence of their souls were sung out in Southern Writers Bryan Family Award in Drama. the fields to help people persevere through hard labor. Any small word or This riveting play by American playwright Katori action that reinforced their humanity became an act of resistance. For another “Are my words enough for the revolution?” Hall takes place on April 3, 1968–the eve of Dr. I didn’t know what revolution I wanted example of the preservation of humanity as resistance, we could also look at Martin Luther King Jr.’s death at the Lorraine Motel to be part of, but I asked myself the prisoners living in concentration camps during the Holocaust. They were in Memphis, Tennessee. The play itself is a fictional this nonetheless. I’m not very set of events between King and a mysterious stripped of their names and given numbers, they were stripped of their clothes religious but I think of the hotel maid named Camae after the delivery of his theatre as a church: it’s my and given uniforms – all of their identifying features were taken away from memorable speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” salvation in the way that I can them. But, as Holocaust survivor and author Primo Levi recalls, even in such a during the sanitation worker’s strike. Throughout move people to tears dire situation, prisoners found small ways to reclaim their humanity. He writes: the play King is forced to reconcile with his own or to laughter. fears, temptations and conviction, and the impact of That’s the first “We are slaves, deprived of every right, exposed to every insult, condemned step towards these on the future of his people. to certain death, but we still possess one power, and we must defend it with social change: when we see all our strength for it is the last - the power to refuse our consent. So we must one another in certainly wash our faces without soap in dirty water and dry ourselves on our our darkness and Well, I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve jackets. We must polish our shoes, not because the regulation states it, but for our light.” got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t dignity and propriety. We must walk erect, without dragging our feet, not in -Katori Hall, 2011 katorihall.com Xanthe Elbrick matter with me now. Because I’ve been to the homage to Prussian discipline but to remain alive, not to begin to die.” mountaintop. And I don’t mind. Like any man, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just Asserting your own humanity, your own personhood, has therefore always want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go been an act of resistance against an oppressive system. To claim your own up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve individuality is to refuse to consent to the deprivation of your rights. Even seen the promised land. I may not get there with today, we hear echoes of “I am a man!” in a newly popular slogan, “Black lives you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land.” matter!” The wording is different, and the means of spreading the message – Pier 1 Imports Neiman Marcus Ernst & Young LLP ExxonMobil National Corporate from engraved coins in the 1700s to hashtags in the 2000s – have certainly Theatre Fund t. howard + associates Theodore & Beulah Beasley Foundation “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” April 3, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee evolved, but across centuries, continents, and causes, the message is universal: Hassan El-Amin Photo: Karen Almond I am a person. I have dignity. I have a life that is equal to yours, and it matters. 2015 Dallas Theater Center the StudyGuide 2016 Season Civil Rights From I am a Man! Dr. Martin Luther to King, Jr., Timeline Black Lives Matter born Michael King, Jr. on January 15, 1929, was a 1965 by Laura Colleluori revolutionary Baptist minister and social activist in the Personhood as Resistance movement toward Civil Rights in America. Renamed Martin February 21 Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem, New York at the Luther King, Jr. after his by his father Martin Luther King Audubon Ballroom. In the last years of his life, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began to broaden the focus of his crusade for civil rights. He sought not only racial justice, Sr. in honor of German protestant religious leader Martin Luther. Raised in the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, March 8 In Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a march but economic justice. He campaigned against war and against poverty. He stood up for the rights of women, laborers, and the LGBT community. And as Georgia, King followed suit of his grandfather and father’s across the Pettus Bridge to Montgomery in support of voting rights and he expanded his reach, he began to lose mainstream support. Many of even his staunchest supporters felt that he should stay focused on civil rights, is met with a police blockade in Selma. tenure of pastorship for the Ebenezer Baptist Church. As and that his support for other causes was weakening the movement. But King continued, because he understood something that few others did. He a student King grew up in segregated schools in Georgia, AUGUST 6 The Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon B. Johnson which understood that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He understood that “all men are created equal” truly did mean “all.” He understood yet despite the odds King graduated from high school, illegalizes discriminatory voting requirements. earning a B.A. in 1948 from Morehouse College and Ph.D the interrelatedness of all human struggles, and this could not have been more perfectly illustrated than it was at the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike. in systematic Theology. It was during this time that he met 1966 Because, as King marched in solidarity with the sanitation workers in what would become the last political action of his life, the people carried signs that his wife Coretta Scott. Throughout his time as pastor and read, simply, “I am a man.” activist, King molded a movement through his activism October 15 Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seales found the Black in race relations organizing black boycotts of segregated Panther Party in Oakland, California to improve housing, educational and employment conditions for African Americans. bus lines in Montgomery, Alabama from 1955-56 and “I am a man.” A very simple, seemingly obvious declaration. organizing civil rights organizations such as the Southern 1968 But the meaning it carries, both political and historical, Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. King led with the philosophy of nonviolent resistance which led to aPrIL 4 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of is immense. Historically, the roots of “I am a man” as a his arrest on various occasions throughout the 1950s and his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. rallying cry came with the abolitionist movement in the ‘60s. One of his greatest feats was the successful 1963 aPrIL 11 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act or Fair Housing United States and South Africa in the late 1700s. In that March on Washington, which brought together more Act which prohibits discrimination by sellers or renters of property. than 200,000 people. It was there that King gave his time period, men of color and slaves were referred to monumental “I Have a Dream” speech. King continued his 1988 as “boy,” a pejorative meant to demean and insult their crusade for civil rights until 1968 when he was met with a social status. In response, prominent abolitionist Josiah fatal assassination at the Lorraine Hotel after delivering his Congress passes Civil Rights Restoration Act expanding the reach of Wedgwood began producing small medallions depicting iconic speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” in favor of the non-discrimination laws. Poor People’s Campaign and sanitation worker’s strike in 1992 a black man in chains, encircled by the words, “Am I not Memphis, Tennessee. a man and a brother?” The question, “Am I not a man?” protestors at the memphis april 29-may 4 Race riots erupt in Los Angeles, California after sanitation strike, 1968. four white police officers on trial for the beating of Rodney King are became a popular refrain in the anti-slavery, and later acquitted by a jury in court. anti-discrimination movements, playing a popular role in 2012 the infamous Dred Scott decision – the now unanimously I am somebody. denounced Supreme Court ruling from 1857 that African founding fathers only two decades after they declared february 26 Trayvon Martin, age 17, is killed in Sanford, Florida I am a person. by neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman. Americans, enslaved or free, could not be American that “all men are created equal,” slaves are described citizens. Decades later, as the Civil Rights Movement I am a man with as being worth “three fifths of all other persons.” This Patrisse Cullors reposts a Facebook message with the hashtag article offers explicit, quantifiable dehumanization #blacklivesmatter after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer began to pick up steam, “Am I not a man?” evolved into “I dignity and honor. George Zimmerman, sparking a movement of protests around the US. am a man!” It was no longer time, it seemed, to wait for I have a rich and – it declares in no uncertain terms that a slave is 2014 answer – it was time to provide the answer that should noble history, only sixty percent human. Of course, this article of the have been obvious all along. Constitution was eventually repealed as slavery was august 9 Mike Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, is killed by officer however painful a made illegal, but the social and societal precedent Darren Wilson after being pulled over and assaulted for “jaywalking.” But what made “I am a man!” such a powerful, revolutionary nd exploited that had been set. And when you consider the atrocities 2015 statement? Because to oppress a people, to deny them history has been. that African Americans faced during and after slavery, aPRIL 12 In Baltimore, Maryland Freddy Gray, age 25, is stopped, their fundamental rights, is – according to Dr. King, as well it’s easy to understand why America would want to assaulted and arrested by the police. He dies one week after his arrest. as many scholars before and since – dehumanization. In “Where Do We Go From Here?” think of brown-skinned people as less than human: Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference aPRIL 18-23 Citizens of Baltimore begin to protest the mistreatment fact, in the United States’ own Constitution, written by the August 16, 1967 because there was simply no other way to justify the of Freddy Gray. Civil Rights From I am a Man! Dr. Martin Luther to King, Jr., Timeline Black Lives Matter born Michael King, Jr. on January 15, 1929, was a 1965 by Laura Colleluori revolutionary Baptist minister and social activist in the Personhood as Resistance movement toward Civil Rights in America. Renamed Martin February 21 Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem, New York at the Luther King, Jr. after his by his father Martin Luther King Audubon Ballroom. In the last years of his life, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. began to broaden the focus of his crusade for civil rights. He sought not only racial justice, Sr. in honor of German protestant religious leader Martin Luther. Raised in the Ebenezer Baptist church in Atlanta, March 8 In Alabama, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. leads a march but economic justice. He campaigned against war and against poverty. He stood up for the rights of women, laborers, and the LGBT community. And as Georgia, King followed suit of his grandfather and father’s across the Pettus Bridge to Montgomery in support of voting rights and he expanded his reach, he began to lose mainstream support. Many of even his staunchest supporters felt that he should stay focused on civil rights, is met with a police blockade in Selma. tenure of pastorship for the Ebenezer Baptist Church. As and that his support for other causes was weakening the movement. But King continued, because he understood something that few others did. He a student King grew up in segregated schools in Georgia, AUGUST 6 The Voting Rights Act signed by Lyndon B. Johnson which understood that “injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” He understood that “all men are created equal” truly did mean “all.” He understood yet despite the odds King graduated from high school, illegalizes discriminatory voting requirements. earning a B.A. in 1948 from Morehouse College and Ph.D the interrelatedness of all human struggles, and this could not have been more perfectly illustrated than it was at the Memphis Sanitation Workers’ Strike. in systematic Theology. It was during this time that he met 1966 Because, as King marched in solidarity with the sanitation workers in what would become the last political action of his life, the people carried signs that his wife Coretta Scott. Throughout his time as pastor and read, simply, “I am a man.” activist, King molded a movement through his activism October 15 Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seales found the Black in race relations organizing black boycotts of segregated Panther Party in Oakland, California to improve housing, educational and employment conditions for African Americans. bus lines in Montgomery, Alabama from 1955-56 and “I am a man.” A very simple, seemingly obvious declaration. organizing civil rights organizations such as the Southern 1968 But the meaning it carries, both political and historical, Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. King led with the philosophy of nonviolent resistance which led to aPrIL 4 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of is immense. Historically, the roots of “I am a man” as a his arrest on various occasions throughout the 1950s and his hotel room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. rallying cry came with the abolitionist movement in the ‘60s. One of his greatest feats was the successful 1963 aPrIL 11 President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act or Fair Housing United States and South Africa in the late 1700s. In that March on Washington, which brought together more Act which prohibits discrimination by sellers or renters of property. than 200,000 people. It was there that King gave his time period, men of color and slaves were referred to monumental “I Have a Dream” speech. King continued his 1988 as “boy,” a pejorative meant to demean and insult their crusade for civil rights until 1968 when he was met with a social status. In response, prominent abolitionist Josiah fatal assassination at the Lorraine Hotel after delivering his Congress passes Civil Rights Restoration Act expanding the reach of Wedgwood began producing small medallions depicting iconic speech “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” in favor of the non-discrimination laws. Poor People’s Campaign and sanitation worker’s strike in 1992 a black man in chains, encircled by the words, “Am I not Memphis, Tennessee. a man and a brother?” The question, “Am I not a man?” protestors at the memphis april 29-may 4 Race riots erupt in Los Angeles, California after sanitation strike, 1968. four white police officers on trial for the beating of Rodney King are became a popular refrain in the anti-slavery, and later acquitted by a jury in court. anti-discrimination movements, playing a popular role in 2012 the infamous Dred Scott decision – the now unanimously I am somebody. denounced Supreme Court ruling from 1857 that African founding fathers only two decades after they declared february 26 Trayvon Martin, age 17, is killed in Sanford, Florida I am a person. by neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman. Americans, enslaved or free, could not be American that “all men are created equal,” slaves are described citizens. Decades later, as the Civil Rights Movement I am a man with as being worth “three fifths of all other persons.” This Patrisse Cullors reposts a Facebook message with the hashtag article offers explicit, quantifiable dehumanization #blacklivesmatter after the acquittal of Trayvon Martin’s murderer began to pick up steam, “Am I not a man?” evolved into “I dignity and honor. George Zimmerman, sparking a movement of protests around the US. am a man!” It was no longer time, it seemed, to wait for I have a rich and – it declares in no uncertain terms that a slave is 2014 answer – it was time to provide the answer that should noble history, only sixty percent human. Of course, this article of the have been obvious all along. Constitution was eventually repealed as slavery was august 9 Mike Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, is killed by officer however painful made illegal, but the social and societal precedent Darren Wilson after being pulled over and assaulted for “jaywalking.” But what made “I am a man!” such a powerful, revolutionary and exploited that had been set. And when you consider the atrocities 2015 statement? Because to oppress a people, to deny them history has been. that African Americans faced during and after slavery, aPRIL 12 In Baltimore, Maryland Freddy Gray, age 25, is stopped, their fundamental rights, is – according to Dr. King, as well it’s easy to understand why America would want to assaulted and arrested by the police. He dies one week after his arrest. as many scholars before and since – dehumanization. In “Where Do We Go From Here?” think of brown-skinned people as less than human: Address to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference aPRIL 18-23 Citizens of Baltimore begin to protest the mistreatment fact, in the United States’ own Constitution, written by the August 16, 1967 because there was simply no other way to justify the of Freddy Gray. “Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate From I am a Man! the white man, but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the to Black Lives Matter end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a Personhood as Resistance society that can live with its conscience. And that (continued) will be a day not of the white man, not of the black man. That will be the day of man as man.”