NOW LET ME FLY
The Struggle toward Brown v. Board
by
Marcia Cebulska
(Readers Theatre Version Y – 1/05 Revision)
COPYRIGHT 2005 by Marcia Cebulska
Now Let Me Fly was commissioned for the national celebration of the 50th
anniversary of the U. S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education of
Topeka, by The Brown Foundation with generous funding from Washburn
University.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version) – p. ii
Conditions of Use
Thank you for your interest in Now Let Me Fly.
Please read these conditions of use. If you are unwilling or unable to comply
with any of the conditions outlined below please destroy any copies you
have.
The playwright, Marcia Cebulska, has graciously made Now Let Me Fly
available on a royalty-free basis for all live performances or uses for which
there is no admission charge and for which performers or students have
received no payment. Any other productions or use are subject to
royalties and must receive permission from the playwright.
Now Let Me Fly is the original work and sole property of playwright Marcia
Cebulska and is protected by copyright in ALL forms and manifestations. As
such, no changes may be made to the script, including any changes to the
dialog. You may NOT make the script available to others via the internet, an
intranet or by any other electronic means. Please encourage others who
would like the script to request it individually.
You may print the files sent to you as e-mail attachments in sufficient
quantity to provide each of the participants with a copy for their own use.
Please stress, however, that the script may not be recopied and/or
redistributed.
REGISTERING YOUR USE: You are REQUIRED to register your use so we
have an accurate record of the success of this project. You may register at:
http://nowletmefly.com/signup/
TEACHERS, PLEASE NOTE: Use of Now Let Me Fly in any fashion including
classroom readings qualifies as a use, requiring completion of the registration
form; please be sure to complete the form.
Should you have any questions, please feel free to send them via e-mail to
[email protected].
THANK YOU!!!
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version) – p. iii
Now Let Me Fly
(Traditional Spiritual)
I heard a rumbling in the sky
I thought the Lord was passing by
It was the good old chariot drawing nigh
Oh well, it shook the earth, swept the sky
Now let me fly
Oh, Lord, Lord . . .
Now let me fly
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version) – p. iv
NOTES ON PERFORMANCE
Right version for your audience?
This version of NOW LET ME FLY is best suited for a middle or high
school audience.
If you are performing for younger children or using middle or high
school actors, do consider the EY version of NOW LET ME FLY. The EY
version is shorter and easier to understand. Consider doing the
shorter version with a Q and A period afterward for an elementary
school student performance.
How to make it entertaining?
NOW LET ME FLY is an educational play with some highly entertaining
options to make it appealing to young audiences, even for a reading.
There are several opportunities to include music in the script. You
don’t need to learn any new songs or follow sheet music to include
some songs. Talk with your performers about which spirituals and
gospel songs they might know and include something they are
comfortable singing. Almost everyone knows “This Little Light of
Mine,” for example. It is perfect for the Farmville, Virginia scene in
which the Barbara Johns character can lead the other actors in song.
In the South Carolina scene, the minister can lead the other actors in a
song of his choosing. Don’t be surprised if your audience joins in on
the chorus.
NOW LET ME FLY was written with a strong visual metaphor in mind.
The idea of many hands helping to create wings appears repeatedly.
We strongly encourage you to incorporate some means of using
handprints or thumbprints in your reading or production. We have
seen a high school performance in which they used a simple easel with
a large pad of paper for their visuals. One page had a large
thumbprint on it. Another, a squiggle for the top of the wings. At the
end of the play, all the actors came forward and put their thumbs to
one of several colored ink pads. Each actor then placed his/her
thumbprint on the paper, making the feathers for the wings. Another
example comes from a fifth-grade teacher who reports having had
students make outlines of their hands and decorating them, then using
the overlapping hands to create wings during the course of the play.
You might try overhead projection, slides or digital images. Be
creative. Try out an idea or two in rehearsal. Doing something visual
helps keep the interest of your audience and re-enforces the text.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version) – p. v
Now Let Me Fly
Time:
The present and 1948-54, the period leading up to the Brown v. Board decision.
Setting:
The office of the Legal Defense Fund, NAACP, and
A barbershop in Washington DC
A school auditorium in Farmville VA
A church office in Hockessin DE
A burned-down church in Somerton SC
A railroad yard in Topeka KS
Story:
Thurgood Marshall is exuberant in his enthusiasm to fly in the face of
tradition and overthrow the Supreme Court ruling on segregation. But when the
ghost of his mentor, Charles Houston, visits him, he is stricken with doubt.
Houston takes Marshall on a journey, looking in on the lives and losses of the
men and women working in the grassroots struggle against the legally enforced
separation of the races. They collect the thumbprints of the ordinary people who
became activists in all five of the cases that went to the Supreme Court.
Together, the thumbprints form a picture of determination, dignity and success.
Now Let Me Fly is the story of the unsung heroes and heroines behind the
struggle to end legalized segregation in America.
Images:
In a fully realized production of Now Let Me Fly, there would be costumes,
set pieces and also images shown by slides or PowerPoint projection. Some of
the stage directions for these images have been included in this reading version
of the script. The reader of stage directions should read these aloud so that your
audience will be able to imagine these important visual elements of the play.
Language:
This play makes use of the language of the period it depicts. It
occasionally uses non-standard English as well. There is no sexually explicit
language in the text.
Length:
A reading should run approximately 45 minutes.
Characters
You’ll need to cast 8 or more people. Two main characters run throughout the
play. The other parts, many of which only have 2 or 3 lines, can be distributed
among 5 or more other actors. Plus, you will need one more person to read
stage directions.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version) – p. vi
Note: This list may look long but don’t worry! You really can do this play reading
with AS FEW AS 8 PEOPLE! We’ll help you figure out how to distribute roles -see Casting Plans below. * Indicates actual names of people involved at the
time.
The Biggest Roles (legal strategists present throughout the play):
Charles Houston*: African-American male, 50s. Law professor. Dean of the
Howard University Law School (a historically black university). Mentor to
Thurgood Marshall. Moses of the Civil Rights Movement. Known to his students
as “Cement Pants” because he was formal, upright and strict. In the play, he
appears as a ghost.
Thurgood Marshall*: African-American male, 40s. Lawyer. Head of the Legal
Defense Fund of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP). Lead lawyer arguing the Brown case before the Supreme
Court. He is wisecracking, has a grand sense of humor, is easy-going and
smart.
Good-sized Roles at the Heart of the Play:
Cissy Suyat*: Filipino-Hawaiian female, 20s.
Gardner “Bish” Bishop*: African-American male, 35. Barber.
Woody: African-American male, 30. WWII vet, customer at barber shop.
Eleanor: White female, 16. Student.
Barbara Johns*: African-American female, 16. Student.
Mrs. Gates: White female, any age. Secretary.
Mrs. Sarah Bulah*: African-American female, 40. Mother, egg seller.
Rev. Kilson*: African-American male, 45. Preacher.
Rev. J.A. DeLaine*: African-American male, 40. Preacher.
White Man with Gas Can: White male, any age.
McKinley Burnett*: African-American male, 50. Railroad carpenter.
Charles Scott*: African-American male, 30. Lawyer.
The Smallest Roles (0-5 lines; may be cameo appearances or double-cast)
Reporter 1: Any ethnicity, sex or age.
Reporter 2: Any ethnicity, sex or age.
Reporter 3: White Male Southerner.
Eleanor’s Father: white male, 40. Father.
Congregation Member 1: African-American, sex or age.
Congregation Member 2: African-American female, 30. Mother.
Lucinda Todd* (and other female Topeka plaintiffs): African-American female,
any age. Mother.
Oliver Brown*: African-American male, early 30s. Railroad welder.
Matthew Whitehead*: African-American male, 30s. Professor.
Frederic Wertham*: white Jewish male, 50s. Psychologist.
Louisa Holt*: white female, 30s. Psychologist.
Kenneth Clark*: African-American male, 40. Sociologist.
Silas Fleming*: African-American male, 30s. Father.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version) – p. vii
James Nabrit*: African-American male, 30s. Lawyer.
Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren*: White male, 60s. Judge.
NAACP Staff 1: any ethnicity, sex or age.
NAACP Staff 2: any ethnicity, sex or age.
NAACP Staff 3: any ethnicity, sex or age.
Voice/Voices: unseen; single voice is male; chorus of voices can be mixed.
CASTING PLAN #1. Here’s an example of how, in a small group reading, one
actor can play more than one role. This casting plan uses 8 actors:
Actor 1: Charles Houston
Actor 2: Thurgood Marshall
Actor 3: Stage Directions
Actor 4: Reporter 1, Gardner Bishop, Rev. Kilson, Congregation Member 1,
McKinley Burnett, Matthew Whitehead, Silas Fleming, and NAACP Staff 1
Actor 5: Woody, Rev. DeLaine, Charles Scott, Oliver Brown, Kenneth Clark,
James Nabrit, and NAACP Staff 2
Actor 6: Cissy Suyat, Eleanor, Mrs. Gates, and Louisa Holt, Voices
Actor 7: Reporter 3, Eleanor’s Father, Voice, White Man with Gas Can, Voices,
Frederic Wertham, and Supreme Court Justice Warren
Actor 8: Reporter 2, Barbara Johns, Mrs. Sarah Bulah, Congregation Member
2, Lucinda Todd, and NAACP Staff 3
CASTING PLAN #2. Here is a casting plan using 12 actors:
Actor 1: Charles Houston
Actor 2: Thurgood Marshall
Actor 3: Stage Directions
Actor 4: Gardner Bishop, Rev. Kilson, McKinley Burnett, Matthew Whitehead,
and James Nabrit
Actor 5: Woody, Rev. DeLaine, Charles Scott, Oliver Brown, Kenneth Clark,
and NAACP Staff 2
Actor 6: Cissy Suyat and Eleanor
Actor 7: Reporter 3, White Man with Gas Can, Voice, and Frederic Wertham
Actor 8: Reporter 2, Barbara Johns, and NAACP Staff 3
Actor 9: Mrs. Sarah Bulah, Congregation Member 2, and Lucinda Todd
Actor 10: Mrs. Gates and Louisa Holt
Actor 11: Reporter 1, Congregation Member 1, Silas Fleming, and NAACP Staff
1
Actor 12: Eleanor’s Father, Voices, and Supreme Court Justice Warren
CASTING PLAN #3. Cast one person per role! Of course, these casting plans
are just suggestions. You are free to combine roles differently. Get creative with
your casting.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--1
NOW LET ME FLY by Marcia Cebulska
Scene 1
[An African-American gentleman in a fine suit
addresses the audience.]
HOUSTON
They say I have my thumbprints all over it. Me, Charles Hamilton Houston.
As if I started the whole thing.
[A large thumbprint is seen on paper or screen.]
Look at that thumbprint. Is that mine? Full of spirals and loops, a pattern
so wild it looks like the map of a bumblebee’s flight. Probably belongs to
Thurgood Marshall.
[More thumbprints and also handprints on page or screen.]
Thumbprints. Handprints. Why even look at them? I will tell you why.
Humans have been claiming and blaming with them since they lived in
caves. Behind each and every one there’s someone with a story: “I did it,”
“I mattered.”
[A few actors hold up their thumbs. Thumbprints are
seen on a page or screen.]
Unique. No two alike. Like people. Quite simple then, isn’t it? We need to
go back and find the other thumbprints.
[HE holds his thumb up. A blank page or screen.]
You didn’t expect a ghost to make a mark, did you?
[CHARLES HOUSTON makes hitchhiking gesture with his thumb.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--2
Scene 2
[New York, 1950. THURGOOD MARSHALL is at a
press conference with his secretary at his side.]
MARSHALL
I promise you the end of segregation in 5 years and the end of racism in 10!
The wall will come down! Questions?
REPORTERS
Mr. Marshall! Mr. Marshall!
[MARSHALL nods to one.]
REPORTER 1
Mr. Marshall, you’ve made some pretty bold statements for someone who
just lost a case.
MARSHALL
The current law states that Negro children are not fit to go to school with
white children. Jim Crow must go! I will usher him out the door myself, no
matter how many cases it takes.
REPORTER 2
Are you planning to appeal?
MARSHALL
We are considering an appeal and will announce our intention in the
morning.
REPORTER 1
The Supreme Court clearly established “separate but equal.” Isn’t it your
job to obey that law?
MARSHALL
“Separate but equal?” Show me the equal! Thank you. Thank you.
[REPORTERS exit.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--3
Scene 3
[MARSHALL is left in his office with secretary, CISSY SUYAT,
who straightens the office.]
SUYAT
You had to lose that case, you know. Now, you can appeal. There’ll be a
new Supreme Court decision and you’ll put your thumbprint right smack on
it.
MARSHALL
That right?
SUYAT
People will be tearing down those ramshackle old colored schools left and
right. You should be celebrating!
MARSHALL
You want a party, we’ll have a party. We’ll need a little music...
[MARSHALL sings a little.]
Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho!
I went to high school with Cab Calloway, did you know that?
Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho
Maybe we can turn it into a slogan.
Hi-de-hi-de-hi-de-ho, No more Jim Crow!
[HE twirls her around in a little dance. Then, pause.]
SUYAT
I should be leaving.
[SHE gets her hat and puts it on. He notices it.]
MARSHALL
Crushed velvet. Egret feathers. Point 2 rhinestones.
SUYAT
Pardon me?
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--4
MARSHALL
You can tell a lot about a woman by her hat.
SUYAT
That right?
MARSHALL
Velvet--a warm personality. Egret feathers--a sense of style. Rhinestones-not afraid to be noticed but not too flashy neither.
SUYAT
Where did you get all that?
MARSHALL
I worked for a hat store in Baltimore. I was 15. I delivered hats. Changed
the course of my life.
SUYAT
That right?
MARSHALL
One day I had a stack of hatboxes this high. I was trying to get on the
streetcar, not looking where I was going and, well, I bumped into a white
man. He got mad and started calling me names.
SUYAT
What happened to the hats?
MARSHALL
Hey, I got into a scuffle! Don’t you care what happened to me?
SUYAT
You’re here to tell the tale. The poor innocent hats, on the other hand...
MARSHALL
I dropped the darn hats. Right in the middle of the street. Feathers flying,
fists flying. Some people thought I was a bad boy.
SUYAT
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--5
I can’t believe that, sir.
MARSHALL
When I acted up in school, they sent me down to the basement with a copy
of the U.S. Constitution. Had the whole thing memorized by the time I was
12.
SUYAT
So something good came out of something bad. Just like this case.
MARSHALL
I was just forgetting about the darn case!
SUYAT
Sorry...I should go.
[SHE hesitates.]
MARSHALL
Something wrong? You got something on your mind?
SUYAT
If I were you, I’d take a look at this mail!
[SHE picks up a piece of mail, reads]
“Dear Mr. Marshall, you are the Number One Negro of All Time. Thank you
for trying to make our lives a little bit better. We know you’re going to do
right by us.” There’s hundreds of them, Mr. Marshall. Porters, teachers,
garage mechanics. They are all counting on you...
MARSHALL
Do you know what that feels like? When I am out there on the road,
speaking in some church basement and I see those hungry faces looking up
at me, I wonder what if...
SUYAT
What if...?
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--6
MARSHALL
What if I get all the way up to the Supreme Court and fall flat on my face?
What if I can’t...
SUYAT
Make the world spin the other way?
MARSHALL
Is that what I’m trying to do?
SUYAT
Oh, yes. And please, please don’t you stop trying.
[CISSY moves to leave, he waves.]
Good-night, Mr. Marshall.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--7
Scene 4
[MARSHALL, left alone, paces. HE calls out.]
MARSHALL
Charlie Houston! “Old Iron Shoes!” Wherever you are, you old ghost, you
listen here! I’m gonna win the next one. In the Supreme Court. Wahoo!!
Do ya hear? WAHOO!!
HOUSTON [enters]
What is all this “wahooing” about?
MARSHALL
Why, Charlie Houston! Aren’t you supposed to be sitting on a cloud playing
a harp?
HOUSTON
Should I say “Boo?” You are looking at a ghost, Mr. Marshall, aren’t you
afraid? Just a little?
MARSHALL
Nope.
HOUSTON
Good. Now what is all this wahooing? You could have called quietly.
MARSHALL
I know why you’re here--you don’t trust me.
HOUSTON
I left you in charge, made you the boss man, isn’t that trust?
MARSHALL
I know what you want me to do--stick with the local cases, go for gradual
change. Well, that was your plan. I have mine.
HOUSTON
I have come for thumbprints.
MARSHALL
Thumbprints? Thumbprints?
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--8
HOUSTON
In 15th Century Persia, it was against the law to draw images. So people
made pictures with thumbprints.
MARSHALL
I’ve got the most important decision of my life to make and you’re talking
about thumbprints!
[HOUSTON gets his briefcase, seemingly out of thin air.]
HOUSTON
Change the schools and you will change the world. We had dreams, didn’t
we, son?
MARSHALL
I still have dreams. I’m going to win the appeal.
HOUSTON
I hear doubt.
MARSHALL
I’ll take this one all the way...
HOUSTON
To the Supreme Court?
MARSHALL
You betcha.
HOUSTON
You want to change the law of the land. Upend the Supreme Court ruling.
Reverse gravity.
MARSHALL
You don’t think I can do it.
HOUSTON
You don’t think you can do it. You’re worried even if you don’t admit it.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--9
MARSHALL
You’re supposed to be cheering me on to victory, inspiring me with bits of
wisdom.
HOUSTON
I am?
MARSHALL
You really don’t think I can do it?
HOUSTON
For heaven’s sake, straighten your shoulders and hold your chin up.
MARSHALL
You didn’t do it in your life time so you don’t want me to do it either?
HOUSTON
Do you think I am that selfish? I want what is best for our people.
MARSHALL
I’m just starting to fly and you want to clip my wings.
HOUSTON
Do not fly too near the sun.
MARSHALL
Who do you think I am, Icarus?
HOUSTON
Ah, yes, Icarus. Icarus had a father, Daedalus...
MARSHALL
Dead-less, like you...
HOUSTON
An inventor...
MARSHALL
I know the story. Daedalus and Icarus were imprisoned behind gigantic
walls. They could not climb over or dig under them.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--10
HOUSTON
So Daedalus made them-MARSHALL
Wings. Big beautiful wings for himself and his boy Icarus.
HOUSTON
Wings made of feathers and wax and string. They put on those wings...
MARSHALL
And flappity-fly, they took off. Right over those prison walls.
HOUSTON
Daedalus warned Icarus: “Do not fly too near the sun...”
MARSHALL
But Icarus, he was soaring so high, having the time of his life, so proud and
happy, gliding and soaring, soaring and gliding...Feeling so
good...SOARRRING!!
HOUSTON
Until he flew too near the sun. The wax in his wings melted and he fell into
the sea.
MARSHALL
You sure know how to ruin a party.
HOUSTON
Mr. Marshall, you have been flapping your wings and you have been flying
high. Now you had better take pause...
MARSHALL
And do what?
HOUSTON
Do what I taught you. Know every case. Know the people who brought
them. Their lives are in your hands. Thank every bird whose feathers are in
your wings.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--11
MARSHALL
I hereby thank you for having the brilliant idea of de-segregating the
schools. If we bring up our children together, it will be the end of racism
and...
HOUSTON
And what about the people?
MARSHALL
What, you want me keeping in mind every dishwasher who sent a dime to
the NAACP? I’m a lawyer. If I get stuck in the stories of every soldier in the
struggle, I can’t do my job.
HOUSTON
Is that right?
MARSHALL
I’m designing a new society. I don’t have time to write thank-you notes to
every mama who made fried chicken for the cause.
HOUSTON
If you are changing more than the law, if you are changing society, if you
are ending racism, you need every mama who made fried chicken for the
cause. Now stop flapping.
MARSHALL
If you weren’t such an old man...
HOUSTON
Supernatural being. Ghost. Are you afraid of me yet? Just a touch of the
heebie-jeebies?
MARSHALL
Yes! Happy?
HOUSTON
Good.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--12
MARSHALL
What now?
HOUSTON
A good lawyer listens to the stories. Goes back to the beginnings. Gathers
thumbprints. Come with me, Mr. Marshall.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--13
Scene 5
HOUSTON
Washington, D.C., U Street...the barbershop of Mr. Gardner Bishop.
[HOUSTON turns on the radio. The blues are playing. MARSHALL
and HOUSTON watch from the sidelines.
WOODY, a veteran wearing an army uniform, sits down to get
his hair trimmed. BISH shakes out a towel, ready to cut hair.]
BISH
What can I do for our war hero today?
WOODY
You can start by turning that radio around. I don’t like them blues rubbing
off on me.
[BISH goes to move radio]
BISH
“Unsung hero,” that’s what you are. Hitler was mowing down everybody
who didn’t have blond hair and blue eyes, and you...
[BISH stops short, looks out the window.]
WOODY
You gonna cut my hair or stare out the window?
BISH
Look at that sign across the street. On that new Capital Cafe.
[WOODY rises to look. He reads.]
WOODY
“White gentlemen and ladies only...” They’re not going to get much
business on U Street. Only colored over here.
[BISH continues reading sign.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--14
BISH
It goes on: “Dogs belonging to the appropriate persons also welcome, if
on a leash.” Look at that. They let you in the war to get shot at. Now you
can’t go in a restaurant they let a rat terrier in.
WOODY
I came here to relax and you’re getting me all riled up!
[WOODY picks up a newspaper with a purposeful snap.
BISH clips a bit.]
BISH
It’s right in that paper how that the brand new white school is only half full.
WOODY
I don’t look at that kinda news. It gives me the blues.
BISH
Meanwhile ours is busting at the seams. Your boy and my girl, they’re going
to school only 3 hours a day.
WOODY
You can’t fight City Hall.
BISH [drops a bomb]
I went to the school board meeting last night.
WOODY
What? Are you nuts? You are lucky you don’t work for anybody because
your black self would be fired quick as that.
[WOODY snaps his finger and then picks up newspaper again.]
BISH
I figure there’s barber shops all over the country where there’s guys saying
“You can’t fight City Hall.”
WOODY
That’s right.
BISH
Meanwhile, there’s more signs going up about dogs going where we can’t.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--15
WOODY
City Hall wall. Can’t get over it, can’t get around it.
BISH
Y’know, they can turn me away from the movies and the cafes but when it
comes to my little girl...when it comes to my Judine and her education...
WOODY
You’re not goin’ back to that school board!
BISH
What you do for a livin’, Mr. Woody?
WOODY
Taxi dispatcher and you know it.
BISH
What if every Negro taxi dispatcher in the whole U.S. sent out all the taxis
taking our colored kids to the white schools. They couldn’t stop us. If we all
did it.
WOODY
Where you getting these wild ideas?
BISH
Nowhere. Okay, I went to a meeting and this lawyer, Mr. Houston...I told
this lawyer how hopping mad I was. And he said to me...
WOODY
He said?
BISH
A little less “mad” and a little more “do.”
WOODY
I already risked myself for so-called “freedom.” I’m not fighting any more
white folks, you hear?
[Enter ELEANOR, teenaged white girl looking for all the world as
if she’s playing hide-and-seek and just found her hiding place.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--16
WOODY & BISH stop short.]
ELEANOR
Oh...good morning, Mister, Sir...Sirs.
BISH
You lost, Miss?
ELEANOR
Not at all, Sir, thank you. Just...
[SHE notices where she is]
...wanting a haircut.
[WOODY rises to let her sit, shaving cream still on his face]
WOODY
Here you go, Missy. I can just stand right up. Do me good. Yes’m.
ELEANOR
Thank you kindly. I’ll wait my turn. Sir.
[SHE paces. BISH pretends to continue working on WOODY.]
WOODY
Now when my wife get her hair done, she go down to the beauty shop.
Maybe your mama’s thinking you’re over at the white woman’s beauty shop.
`
ELEANOR
They don’t play the blues in the white beauty shop.
WOODY
Them blues?
[WOODY points to radio]
ELEANOR
I want to learn to sing like Bessie Smith--wear a red spangly dress and sing
like I know something about the world.
BISH
Our Bessie Smith?
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--17
ELEANOR
At John Philip Sousa High, we’ve got teachers for Physics and French but not
one to teach me how to sing the blues.
WOODY
I know your school. I been there for a basketball game. And I peeked in
the science section...
BISH
Woody’s son’s got a special interest in science.
ELEANOR
We got more microscopes and butterfly collections than we got kids. If he
likes that kinda thing, you ought to send him to my school.
[ELEANOR’S FATHER enters]
ELEANOR’S FATHER
Eleanor Tompkins, I told you: when I’m out here collecting my rents, you
wait in the car!
ELEANOR
But, Daddy, I just wanted to listen!
ELEANOR’S FATHER [to men]
She just doesn’t have any sense.
WOODY
We just giving her directions is all, yessir, uh-huh.
ELEANOR’S FATHER [to men]
My daughter does not need your directions. I own the cafe right across the
street. And when I find out who your landlord is, I plan to own this building
too, understand?
ELEANOR
Daddy, please!
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--18
ELEANOR’S FATHER
White people built this country and we are gonna take it back if we have to
do it block by block.
BISH
Not this particular block because I own this barbershop and I own this
building. And I not about to sell.
ELEANOR’S FATHER
Well, Mr. Uppity Negro, let me tell you: white people are in charge and, by
gum, we’re staying in charge.
[HE pulls ELEANOR outside the shop]
ELEANOR’S FATHER [to ELEANOR]
What were you thinking? You start hanging around with colored, your own
people will start looking down on you.
[HE pulls HER off-stage. Inside, BISH bangs things around.]
WOODY
You hating that girl for walking in here like that?
BISH
No, I’m hating you for shuffling like you some Step’n’Fetchit.
WOODY
Never seen anything like it. White girl walking in here like she got the
right...
BISH
She got the right.
WOODY
And her daddy! Whew!
BISH
How you expect to be treated any different when you’re shuffling and
bowing.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--19
WOODY
And you think you’re helping by going off to the school board and creating a
big fuss?
BISH
Schools are where we’re gonna change everything.
WOODY
Well, let me tell you about their schools. They got microscopes, lab tables,
charts, scales...you think they gonna give that up?
BISH
And what kinda science equipment they got over at the colored school? [no
answer] It’s not your shame, so speak up!
WOODY
A Bunsen burner and a bowl of goldfish.
BISH
Excuse me?
WOODY
That’s all what they got in the whole colored high school. One Bunsen
burner and a bowl of goldfish.
BISH
What our kids gonna learn from watching them goldfish swimming around?
The law of the land is “Separate but equal!” Show me the equal! Show me
the equal!
WOODY
Simmer down, Bish. A little less “mad” and a little more “do.”
BISH
I don’t care what that NAACP lawyer said.
WOODY
But he’s right. Where’s the “do”? What we gonna do?
BISH
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--20
I’ll give you “do.” I’m gonna organize, proselytize, and deputize. We’ll drive
in a parade of taxi cabs to the white school! We’ll have a strike, like they do
in the unions!
WOODY
You’re gonna need a whole lot of customers to carry that off.
[BISH takes down a sign with prices. HE grabs a pen.]
BISH
Give me your good back, Woody.
[HE writes on the back of the sign]
We’re gonna have us a meeting. And I’m giving a speech.
WOODY
You?
BISH
I said I’m giving a speech!
[BISH holds up sign: MEETING HERE TONIGHT 7 PM.
WOODY goes toward radio.]
BISH
What you doing, Woody?
WOODY
Turning off the blues.
[BISH gives a thumbs-up sign.
HOUSTON waves his hand and thumbprint appears projected on
screen. Lights out on BISH & WOODY.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--21
Scene 6
[Return to HOUSTON/MARSHALL.]
HOUSTON
Thumbprints, Mr. Marshall. People once used them to sign contracts.
MARSHALL
And I thought you brought me here for a haircut.
HOUSTON
Barbers, cab drivers, and teachers all over the country meeting in cafes,
truck stops, church basements...
MARSHALL
All the talk does not change the law.
HOUSTON
The law protects us. You throw away the law and what do you have?
MARSHALL
I’m not throwing away the law, I’m changing it. Don’t worry, we’ll survive.
HOUSTON
Will we? You have to know if your solution will work and if it is worth the
risk.
MARSHALL
I’ll give you five minutes. You want me to hear this speech...
HOUSTON
Farmville, Virginia. The R. R. Moton High School auditorium.
MARSHALL
What?
[HOUSTON puts his thumb out.]
HOUSTON
It is Spring of 1951 and a young woman, Barbara Johns, age 16, is about to
speak. Listen to the people, Mr. Marshall.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--22
Scene 7
[BARBARA JOHNS addresses school assembly.]
BARBARA
Every morning I get on a bus thrown away by the white high school. I sit on
a torn seat and look out a broken window. And when my bus passes the
shiny new bus that the white high schoolers have, I hide my face because
I’m embarrassed in my raggedy bus. And when we get to R. R. Moton High,
the bus driver gets off with us, because he’s also our history teacher. He
comes in the classroom and fires up the stove and I sit in my winter coat
waiting for the room to get warm. You know the rooms, the ones in the
“addition” as they call it. We call them “the tar paper shacks” because that’s
what they are, am I right? I’m embarrassed that I go to school in tar paper
shacks and when it rains I have to open an umbrella so the leaks from the
roof won’t make the ink run on my paper. And later in the day I have a
hygiene class out in that broken-down bus and a biology class in a corner of
the auditorium with one microscope for the whole school. I’m embarrassed
that our water fountains are broken and our wash basins are broken and it
seems our whole school is broken and crowded and poor. And I’m
embarrassed.
But my embarrassment is nothing compared to my hunger.
I’m not talking about my hunger for food. No, I’m hungry for those shiny
books they have up at Farmville High. I want the page of the Constitution
that is torn out of my social studies book. I want a chance at that “Romeo
and Juliet” I’ve heard about but they tell me I’m not fit to read.
Our
teachers say we can fly just as high as anyone else. That’s what I want to
do. Fly just as high. I said, fly. You know, I’ve been sitting in my
embarrassment and my hunger for so long that I forgot about standing up.
So, today, I’m going to ask you to stand with me. Before we fly, before we
fly just as high as anyone else, we got to walk just as proud as anyone else.
And that’s what we’re going to do! We’re going walk out of this school and
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--23
over to the court house. Do you hear me? We’re going to walk with our
heads high and go talk to the school board. Are you with me? We’re going
to walk out in a strike, yes, I said strike, and we won’t come back until we
get a real school with a gymnasium and library and whole books. And we
will get them. And it’ll be grand. Are you with me? Are we going to walk?
Are we going to fly?
[BARBARA sings “This Little Light of Mine,” others join in.
MRS. GATES blocks her way.]
BARBARA
As citizens of Prince Edward County, we would like to address the school
board. My name is...
MRS. GATES
I know who you are. I’m sure your grandmother would rather you were in
school, not stirring up any trouble.
BARBARA
We have a document to deliver to the board of education, ma’m.
MRS. GATES
I am Mrs. Gates, secretary to the judge. I must tell you it would be
considerable unwise to leave anything in writing, Barbara Rose.
BARBARA
There are 400 students, ma’m. We are citizens...
MRS. GATES
You are children in over your heads.
BARBARA
We are protected by the Constitution and...
MRS. GATES
Hold your tongues, turn around in an orderly fashion and return to your
classrooms.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--24
BARBARA
With all due respect, ma’am, we are certain that members of the school
board are not aware of the conditions of our school. We are citizens...
MRS. GATES
You are children. You have no idea what you are up against. Three hundred
years of tradition. You walk in there and you are throwing oil on a fire. And
trust me, you will be the ones to get burned.
BARBARA
We figure the Farmville jail is too small to hold us all...
MRS. GATES
Jail would be the least of your problems, girl. You don’t want to be starting
a second Civil War now, do you?
BARBARA
I am standing up for my rights and I am not afraid.
MRS. GATES
You are shaking in your mary janes and I can see it. Turn around, child...
BARBARA
As a citizen of Prince Edward County...
MRS. GATES
Barbara Rose, you have a responsibility to the children who’ve followed you.
Are you going to lead them into disaster? You walk in there and a plan of
action will be set in motion. They will close your school.
BARBARA
No one would do that. Public education is a right... You stop me from being
educated, you stop me from being an informed citizen...
MRS. GATES
This is reality, Barbara Rose, not a high school debate. These people don’t
want you in school with white children. Go home.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--25
BARBARA
We, as citizen of Prince Edward County, would like to exercise our right to
address the school board...
VOICE
Let them in, Margaret...
[SHE steps aside. BARBARA walks offstage.
Lights out on MRS. GATES, up on HOUSTON/MARSHALL.
HOUSTON gives a “thumbs up” and we see more thumbprints.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--26
Scene 8
HOUSTON
The ancient Chinese sealed their legal documents with warm wax and put
their thumbprints on the seal.
MARSHALL
What happens to her--Barbara Johns?
HOUSTON
She leads the strike, speaks at community meetings, calls our lawyers.
MARSHALL
What happens to her?
HOUSTON
Even our lawyers tell the students to go back to school.
MARSHALL
But they don’t, do they? WHAT HAPPENS TO HER?
HOUSTON
Threatened by the Ku Klux Klan, Barbara Rose Johns gets sent away to
relatives for her safety.
MARSHALL
And then, when the law changes, the colored students will have a good
school right?
HOUSTON
The public schools in Prince Edward County are closed for 5 years. Private
white academies are set up. Black children are sent away to relatives or...
MARSHALL
Or don’t get any education at all? This girl doesn’t fall, like Icarus. She’s
shot down.
HOUSTON
More stories, more thumbprints, Mr. Marshall. Third stop. Hockessin.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--27
MARSHALL
I know the Delaware cases. Wilmington, Hockessin.
HOUSTON
Mrs. Sarah Bulah goes to visit her church leader.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--28
Scene 9
[Hockessin, Delaware. MRS. SARAH BULAH carries a couple of
shopping bags containing eggs and produce to the REV. MARTIN
LUTHER KILSON.]
MRS. BULAH
Fresh eggs, Reverend.
And I also got for you collard greens picked this
morning, green as grass.
REV. KILSON
Sarah, you do know how to plow God’s earth into yielding up His gifts. Now
what do I owe you for the fruits of your toil?
MRS. BULAH
They is God’s gifts and we are happy to share.
REV. KILSON
May the good Lord bless you and multiply your bounty.
[SHE doesn’t move]
REV. KILSON
Fred in good health?
MRS. BULAH
Oh, yes. Fred--Mr. Bulah, he is right fine, thank you.
REV. KILSON
And Shirley Barbara? What is she now, six years old?
MRS. BULAH
You were always good with numbers Reverend.
REV. KILSON
I see you driving her up the hill here to the school.
MRS. BULAH
It take me a whole hour to walk it! I can’t let a 6-year-old child climb that
hill, oh no.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--29
REV. KILSON
I’m glad you’ve seen fit to stop all that letter writing to the governor and
what all. I mean, nobody was going to let Shirley Barbara on that white bus
no matter how close it rode near your house.
MRS. BULAH
Thirteen feet, Reverend. Thirteen feet.
REV. KILSON
Did I ever tell you how much I admired what you and Mr. Bulah did, taking
in that child?
MRS. BULAH
It’s all because of you, Reverend. You’re the one who preached it from the
pulpit. You talked about that baby girl left abandoned over there in
Wilmington. The way you talked about her, it broke my heart. You are such
a gifted sermonizer, Reverend. The good Lord done give you the gift of gab.
REV. KILSON
I just said the facts. A 10-month-old baby left without parents. But you
were the ones who took her in, made her your own child.
MRS. BULAH
You did the speaking and we did the doing. It’s the power of your words,
Reverend.
REV. KILSON
And you’re still taking such good care of her, taking her to Mrs. Dyson’s
class.
MRS. BULAH
Mrs. Dyson, she’s a good teacher. Sometime, if Shirley Barbara don’t
understand something, why, Mrs. Dyson she come to the house to teach it
to her.
REV. KILSON
We are lucky to have her.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--30
MRS. BULAH
And she got such a hard job, teaching all them grades in one room like she
does. She even takes in the little knee babies--3 and 4 years old. And it’s
not like she can send some of them out to play ball like they do at the white
school ’cause we don’t have a baseball diamond. And we don’t have those
roses to smell like they got over at the white school neither. Just a bunch of
dirt and a one-room school house with one itty toilet next to the closet with
the kids’ lunches.
REV. KILSON
Sarah...
MRS. BULAH
One room and dirt. That’s what we got.
REV. KILSON
Mrs. Bulah, why are you here, bringing me twice as many eggs as usual and
five times as many collard greens?
MRS. BULAH
Well, you were right about my letters getting me nowhere. I wrote the
Superintendent of Schools and the Congressman...
REV. KILSON
And the governor.
MRS. BULAH
Three times. They all say the same thing. The state don’t transport little
black children in no white school bus even if it pass right smack by your
house.
REV. KILSON
As I’ve told you, Mrs. Bulah, we have to live in peace and harmony with our
white neighbors.
MRS. BULAH
So I went and talked to this here lawyer, Mr. Redding. He’s the one that
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--31
won the integration case over at the University. I figured if he could do that,
he could do this.
REV. KILSON
Get Shirley Barbara a ride on the white bus? You bothered him...
MRS. BULAH
I was mistaken about that, for sure.
REV. KILSON
I should say. Taking up that busy man’s time!
MRS. BULAH
He wants me to go all the way for complete integration of our public schools
here in Hockessin.
REV. KILSON
Pardon me?
MRS. BULAH
He’s got a case in Wilmington too. We’re goin’ for the whole state of
Delaware.
REV. KILSON
Mrs. Bulah!
MRS. BULAH
And the whole United States where we all supposed to be created equal. It’s
what Mrs. Dyson teach in that little run-down school though I don’t see how
she can make much of a case...
REV. KILSON
The law of the land, Mrs. Bulah, is “Separate But Equal.”
MRS. BULAH
I sees lots of separates but not much equals. We know that’s not working.
So I was thinking maybe you could preach about it like you done about
Shirley Barbara and convince the others to sign on too ’cause there’s
strength in numbers.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--32
REV. KILSON
Sarah! Stop! What are you trying to do, woman, stir up trouble?
MRS. BULAH
Mr. Redding is going to court and get us colored folks a piece of the action.
REV. KILSON
A piece of the action?
MRS. BULAH
Equal education for our children. Mrs. Dyson is the best there is, but she
doesn’t even have a decent classroom.
REV. KILSON
If you succeed, Mrs. Dyson will be out of a job. You think they’re going to let
a black woman teach white children? They will fire her black self as quick as
that.
[HE snaps his finger]
And what’s going to happen to the parents who sign your letter? They will
lose their jobs at the mill. Those children are going to starve if their daddies
can’t get work!
MRS. BULAH
I heard of preachers speaking out from the pulpit about the struggle, like
Moses leading their people to the Promised Land. I thought about how you
led us to Shirley Barbara and I thought if anybody could speak up a storm
about what is right for the forgotten children it is you, Reverend Kilson. You
got to tell them it’s worth the sacrificing for the good of the future. They’d
listen to you.
REV. KILSON
When I talked to the congregation about that abandoned little Negro girl, I
believed every word I said. About taking care of our own.
MRS. BULAH
It’s the same thing.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--33
REV. KILSON
No, Mrs. Bulah, it is not. I am in favor of segregation. I am a man of peace.
Now I have heard enough about agitating Negroes joining organizations...
MRS. BULAH
You mean the N double A...
REV. KILSON
Spells trouble. We will leave well enough alone.
MRS. BULAH
What you are saying is that our colored children, my little Shirley Barbara
and the rest, aren’t good enough to go to that nice school with the roses?
They don’t deserve it? Good Lord made them of cheaper cloth? Isn’t that
what we saying when we quiet about this? I not going to say it any more.
God did not make the Negro child out of a cheaper cloth. I will not say it.
I’m leaving now, Reverend. It is clear to me you have less pluck than the
chickens in my yard.
[SHE moves to exit.]
REV. KILSON
Mrs. Bulah! I imagine you’ll be wanting your eggs back.
MRS. BULAH
You’re welcome to my greens and hens’ eggs any time, Reverend. But I
reckon from now on you’ll be shopping in town, buying them white eggs.
[SHE exits. HOUSTON gestures and thumbprints are added.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--34
Scene 10
[HOUSTON & MARSHALL alone again. HOUSTON’s briefcase now
has a few feathers sticking out of it.]
MARSHALL
Whatever you’re doing with those thumbprints, hers belong up there. I like
her pluck but...
HOUSTON
The Reverend?
MARSHALL
I don’t get why our own people quit on us like that.
HOUSTON
Perhaps Reverend Kilson is afraid of ruffling feathers.
MARSHALL
If he goes on the way he does, he’ll stay downtrodden. Under-served and
under-privileged.
HOUSTON
Maybe he is afraid of what the future might bring.
MARSHALL
The future? Without racism we could have more architects, problem solvers,
city planners.
HOUSTON
Mr. Marshall, black or white, we are all comforted by tradition. Family,
community...
MARSHALL
That little girl in Virginia could take a chance. “Try to fly a little higher,” like
she said. Why not him, a preacher, leader!
HOUSTON
He might have a clearer view of the risks.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--35
MARSHALL
You’re defending him?
HOUSTON
I think you need to know what you are up against.
MARSHALL
You were my role model, my teacher, now you’re trying to scare me?
HOUSTON
You need to stop and think, Mr. Marshall. About all our people. About
consequences.
MARSHALL
Don’t you worry about me falling down, old man. You think you gave me
wings of wax and feathers? You gave me wings of steel.
HOUSTON
I gave you wings of paper.
MARSHALL
Wings of paper? Yes, the law is on wings of paper but it flies.
HOUSTON
Does it? Mr. Marshall, you are the one who is worried. This is your
nightmare. I did what I could. I taught you what I knew.
MARSHALL
“Change the schools and you’ll change the world.” You did teach me that,
and then?
HOUSTON
It was time to pass on the baton. I had to...
MARSHALL
Leave? Quit? You quit! The NAACP, the Legal Defense Fund, me...
HOUSTON
I left you in charge.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--36
MARSHALL
You dragged me into this integration business and when the going got rough
you...
HOUSTON
Went out of my way to make life hard for you?
MARSHALL
You left me behind.
HOUSTON
I left you in charge. I taught you everything I knew and then I left you in
charge. An able-bodied, clear-thinking...
MARSHALL
Foolish...
HOUSTON
Well-educated...
MARSHALL
See-sawing...
HOUSTON
Brilliant, insightful...
MARSHALL
Terrified child!
[pause]
HOUSTON
Look at me, son!
I’m here. You called me and I came.
MARSHALL
I didn’t call you!
HOUSTON
You summoned me.
MARSHALL
No! It’s you. You’re...haunting...me. Like it or not, your thumbprints are
all over this case. Your thumbprints are all over me.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--37
HOUSTON
We’re not finished.
MARSHALL
What’s wrong with wings of paper?
HOUSTON
They can burn.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--38
Scene 11
HOUSTON
Summerton, South Carolina. Look, Thurgood, these people are meeting in
their burned out church!
[The REV. DELAINE in a circle of light that widens during his
sermon. A few congregants sit in the remaining burned seats,
including a mother and child. Off to the side, HOUSTON and
MARSHALL watch, occasionally speaking, unheard by the other
characters in the scene.]
REV. DELAINE
Welcome, Brothers and Sisters.
MARSHALL [to HOUSTON]
That’s Reverend DeLaine.
REV. DELAINE
Every Sunday, I stand before you and ask you to make a joyful noise unto
the Lord. This Sunday is no different. God’s house is not four walls and a
floor but a people. A community of faith and love. Let the Lord hear our
voice, our hearts, and our prayer.
CONGREGATION
Amen!
MARSHALL
Amen! [then to HOUSTON] This is my case. I know these people.
REV. DELAINE
“Thus saith the Lord, Let my people go.” Exodus, Chapter 8. Lord, our
children walked 7 miles to the shanty they call a school and now, since the
flood, they have rowed boats to school. We asked for a bus and were
refused. We signed a petition for a better school. We knew there would be
consequences, Lord. When your servant Harry Briggs signed the petition
and his cow was put in jail for trespassing, we laughed a little, Lord. We
laughed a little less when he was fired from his job at the filling station. On
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--39
Christmas Eve, Lord. When your servant Annie Gibson signed the petition...
MARSHALL [to HOUSTON]
Because there weren’t even desks in the school!
REV. DELAINE
...she lost her job as a chambermaid. And then she lost her land.
They
have burned our homes to the ground and our church to ashes. They have
sent us into exile.
“And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people.”
Exodus, Chapter 7. Today we have returned for one more meeting, Lord.
Because this country of ours which preaches freedom, practices the racism
of Nazi Germany. Because this land which calls out for equality practices the
separatism of South Africa. And there is no equality in enforced separatism
and there is no freedom in racism.
Lord, we are weak human beings. We have been frightened by the
thunder. We have been burned by the lightning. We have nearly drowned
in the flood waters of the storm. But we are not beaten. We know that on
the other side of the storm there is a brighter day. A day of hope and
equality and freedom.
MARSHALL & OTHERS
Amen!
REV. DELAINE
For now, if there be thunder, we are the Children of Thunder. If there is
lightning, we be its Brothers and Sisters. We will make friends of the Storm.
We will weather the struggle for the sake of our children and our children’s
children. For that day, Lord. For their sake.
[HE begins to sing a spiritual. Others join in.
Outside the church, a drunken white man wanders on,
carrying a gasoline can and talking to himself.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--40
MAN WITH A GASOLINE CAN
So she says, “Go get gas. Move it!” Why can’t she do it herself, walk down
the road a piece. “Move it.” Who does she think I am, her slave boy?
[HE spots boy on side of road. The boy is not portrayed by
an actor. THE MAN acts as if there is. The actor creates
the reality of the child.]
Well, lookie here. Little Black Sambo. Don’t worry, boy, I’m just wondering
if you could point me toward a gas station.
[The MAN looks in the direction “the boy” has pointed.]
Lookie, you did me a favor and I got a shiny penny for you.
[HE searches in his pockets and pulls out a penny.]
See? Only one more thing I wanna know. Is that your church down the
road? The one all burnt to a crisp? “The insane Reverend Delaine’s church?
Y‘know, he’s preaching to you right. Uh-uh. If you look up in the sky, you
don’t see the buzzards and the crows mixing together, do you? Answer me,
boy, do you? It’s a law of nature, boy. Birds of a feather.
[HE drops the penny.]
There. I done give you a penny. Don’t you want the penny? Buy yourself a
little penny candy at the store? Pick it up now.
[THE MAN watches as “the boy” goes to the ground to
retrieve the penny. THE MAN steps on the child’s hand with
his boot.]
MARSHALL
Oh, no.
MAN WITH A GASOLINE CAN
Oh my, I just remembered. They won’t let you in that store. I wonder why?
‘Cause you’re a little black Sambo, a little thief, isn’t that right?
Stealing the place of white boys.
[HE kicks up with his foot, pushing the boy to the ground.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--41
You Negroes are causin’ all kinds of trouble these days. Stealin’ and rabble
rousin’. You and your “insane Reverend Delaine.”
[HE gives another nudge with his boot.]
MARSHALL
Stop it!
HOUSTON
He can’t hear you.
MAN WITH A GASOLINE CAN
Turning everything upside down. I’ll show you to the way it’s supposed to
be.
[HE kicks again and again.]
The way it’s supposed to be!
[MARSHALL gets up. HE is stopped by HOUSTON]
MARSHALL
No! Stop it!
HOUSTON
You can’t stop him.
MAN WITH A GASOLINE CAN
Way it’s supposed to be!
[HE kicks the boy over and over, angrily.]
THE WAY IT’S SUPPOSED TO BE!!!
[HE kicks until “the boy” lies motionless on the ground.
The MAN stops and then runs.
The boy’s MOTHER comes out looking for him.
When SHE finds him, SHE throws herself on him and wails.]
MOTHER
Noooooo!
MARSHALL
Noooooo!
[MARSHALL runs into the scene to comfort the mother.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--42
HOUSTON
She cannot see you.
MARSHALL
What can I do?
[The MOTHER carries the child out of the scene, off-stage.
REV. DELAINE and others also exit.
Suggested music: “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--43
Scene 12
MARSHALL
What can I DO??!!
[HE sits down, deflated]
What happens to this boy, this child kicked senseless?
HOUSTON
The child will die.
MARSHALL
God, is there any justice?
HOUSTON
And you wonder why I am not resting in peace.
MARSHALL
A child! I knew there would be costs but...a child!
HOUSTON
It’s my fault. I blame myself.
MARSHALL
What?
HOUSTON
When I was walking this earth...I should have thought more about the
people, Thurgood.
MARSHALL
What are you talking about?
HOUSTON
I should have been softer, warmer, more human.
MARSHALL
You were who we needed you to be. Our leader, our father...
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--44
HOUSTON
I led them into working for a better day, into making sacrifices for the sake
of the law. These people gave their jobs, their land, and now their children
for something I started. You said it yourself: my thumbprints are all over
this!
MARSHALL
And what am I supposed to do? How do I go on knowing these people are
getting burned and beaten?
HOUSTON
There are reasons to continue.
MARSHALL
You expect me to go on? I dreamed of a future that was free and equal and
what? Segregation persists, racism triumphs. This child died for nothing!
HOUSTON
There are reasons to continue.
MARSHALL
What are you going to show me now? The Ghost of Negro Future? That I
die a miserable failed old man?
HOUSTON
You? This is not about you. You go on...
MARSHALL
I go on...Tell me.
HOUSTON
...to become a judge...
MARSHALL
A judge?
HOUSTON
Circuit judge. Solicitor General. Supreme Court Justice. Satisfied?
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--45
MARSHALL
What?
HOUSTON
You go on to serve as a judge in the highest court of the land. Happy?
MARSHALL
You’re telling me something worked?
HOUSTON
All you care about is your own success? That you made it to the top of your
profession?
MARSHALL
A Negro on the Supreme Court. You said a Negro on the Supreme Court.
Answer me this: in 2008, if I win the case, are there any black children in
the white schools?
HOUSTON
Yes.
MARSHALL
Are there any black congressmen, governors?
HOUSTON
A few.
MARSHALL
Next thing you’ll be telling me a black man is going to run for president.
[Meaningful silence from HOUSTON.]
MARSHALL
Are there separate drinking fountains for black and white?
HOUSTON
No.
MARSHALL
Separate hotels, restaurants, trains?
HOUSTON
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--46
Integrated.
MARSHALL
So, there’s progress.
HOUSTON
It is not perfect, but there is progress. If you win the case.
MARSHALL
So I am supposed to be measuring the cause against a child’s life? I
CANNOT DO IT!!
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--47
Scene 13
[HOUSTON puts his thumb out.]
HOUSTON
Topeka, Kansas. The Santa Fe Railroad yards.
MARSHALL
I can’t do it. I quit!
HOUSTON
Attorney Charles Scott pays a visit to McKinley Burnett, president of the
Topeka NAACP.
[SCOTT & BURNETT enter.]
MARSHALL
No use in doing this...
SCOTT
...My mind is made up.
[MARSHALL backs off and watches.]
BURNETT
Charles Scott, what you doing here?
[SCOTT hands him a paper sack with lunch.]
SCOTT
We gotta talk.
BURNETT
You want to get me fired? This is no NAACP meeting. This is my job. Over
here, I’m a carpenter, a worker ant, get it?
SCOTT
I quit. There won’t be a case!
BURNETT
Why not?
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--48
SCOTT
People are losing their jobs, getting shot at, their churches torched, their
houses burned.
BURNETT
In South Carolina, not Kansas.
SCOTT
It’s happening.
BURNETT
We’re asking people to go into clean civilized schools and register. We’re
asking them to go into clean civilized court rooms and testify.
SCOTT
We are asking them to stick their necks out.
BURNETT
Like I said, this is Kansas, not South Carolina.
SCOTT
Like I said, I quit!
BURNETT
I did not put in years of planning and petitioning to quit now.
SCOTT
And what good did it do us?
BURNETT
Our people have been waiting for hundreds of years for freedom. I put in a
few hours.
SCOTT
A few hundred hours, all a waste of time.
BURNETT
None of it was a waste of time.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--49
SCOTT
Our children are still going to separate schools, treated like second class
citizens.
BURNETT
That’s why we have to keep on trying.
SCOTT
I got holes in the bottoms of my shoes from walking all over Tennessee
Town. I said I would do this if there were a dozen plaintiffs willing to stand
up and be counted. I’m here to tell you we are down to the wire and we
don’t have them.
BURNETT
We’ll find them. We are asking them to go to clean civilized schools.
SCOTT
We are asking them to have their names in the newspapers, to be noticed,
threatened. For what? We don’t even know if it’ll work. We stand up and
what happens? The schools get closed?
MARSHALL
The teachers get fired?
BURNETT
We’ll keep trying till we get it right. We’ll keep trying till we get our rights.
SCOTT
People are running scared and I don’t blame them.
BURNETT
Then we’ll have to draft our friends. Lucinda Todd.
SCOTT
Come on. The woman’s sat down in segregated movie theatres, she’s
organized meetings. She’s done her part.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--50
BURNETT
Ask her. And your friend who works here--that welder you went to school
with...Brown.
SCOTT
Ollie Brown? He’s got two little girls to worry about!
BURNETT
Ask him.
SCOTT
And a third child on the way.
BURNETT
That’s why he should do it.
SCOTT
It’s a lot to risk.
BURNETT
Maybe we should let people make up their own minds.
SCOTT
What if...something happens?
BURNETT
Where did you get this sandwich, Charlie?
SCOTT
Cafe around the corner.
BURNETT
You had to wait out by the garbage cans like a begging dog to get me this
sandwich, right?
SCOTT
Same old, same old.
BURNETT
And you are an educated man of the law. You ought to be able to walk in the
front door like a human being. Let’s not quit now.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--51
SCOTT
You’ve said generals can’t fight without foot soldiers. Where are the foot
soldiers? There’s trouble out there. Who’s going to stand up to it?
MARSHALL
Who’s going to stand up now? Charlie? If I can’t go on, how can I ask
anyone else?
[LIGHTS down on SCOTT & BURNETT, up on HOUSTON and
MARSHALL. A feeling of suspended animation.]
HOUSTON
Thurgood, that child died because of ignorance. Because of prejudice,
because of things you are trying to change. Our people were suffering long
before this. Our children are suffering even if you never take the case to
court. You came along and gave the people hope. You gave them strength
and courage and backbone. You can give them dignity.
MARSHALL
But if I stop, maybe a job will be saved, a life...
HOUSTON
The train is moving with or without you. The people are already taking the
risk. Give them the protection of the law. It is what you can do. Do what
you need to do. Do what I failed to do.
MARSHALL
And what if I try? Who’s going to stand up with me? They’re talking in
school rooms and barbershops. That doesn’t mean they’ll stand up in court.
We need experts, lawyers, plaintiffs. Who’s gonna stand up now?
[A pause, then a light focused on an African-American woman
dressed in her Sunday best. She becomes a series of women, all
plaintiffs in the Topeka case. Visuals of the actual women.]
LUCINDA TODD
My name is Lucinda Todd of Topeka, Kansas. I live in this district. I’m here
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--52
to register my child for school.
My name is Mrs. Richard Lawton. I’m here to register my child for school.
My name is Vivian Scales. My name is Mrs. Andrew Henderson, my name is
Lena Carper, Shirley Hodison, Darlene Brown. My name is Marguerite
Emerson, Sadie Emmanuel, Iona Richardson, Alma Lewis, Shirla Fleming.
I’m here to register my child for school.
[A light comes up on a well-dressed African-American man.]
OLIVER BROWN
My name is Oliver Brown. I live in this district. I’m here to register my child
for school.
PLAINTIFFS [increase in number and volume]
I am here to register my child for school. I AM HERE TO REGISTER MY
CHILD FOR SCHOOL! I AM HERE TO REGISTER MY CHILD FOR
SCHOOL!
[More thumbprints up. Focus back on HOUSTON/MARSHALL]
HOUSTON
Look at them, Thurgood. The people are marching into the schools, marching
into the courts and despite all dangers, Thurgood, your plaintiffs, your
witnesses, your attorneys stand up. They’re with you, Goody. Listen to the
testimony!
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--53
Scene 14
[The sound of a gavel. A series of testimonies
and attorney statements from the various courts]
MATTHEW WHITEHEAD
Matthew Whitehead, Professor of Education. Yes, I will tell you what I saw.
The chairs sent over from the white school were dilapidated and the children
could not sit in them. The tables had holes and cracks.
FREDERIC WERTHAM [Austrian accent]
I, Dr. Frederic Wertham, hold the scientific opinion that if a rosebush should
produce twelve roses and if only one rose grows, it is not a healthy
rosebush.
MATTHEW WHITEHEAD
There was no running water.
FREDERIC WERTHAM
The children we have examined interpret segregation in one way and only
one way--they interpret it as punishment.
LOUISA HOLT
Yes, I am Louisa Holt. Psychologist. [slight pause] The fact that it is
enforced, that it is legal, has more importance than the mere fact of
segregation by itself.
KENNETH CLARK
Kenneth Clark, sociologist. I showed the children of Clarendon County a
white doll and a brown doll and asked them to tell me which one was the
“nice” doll and which one was the “bad” doll. Three out of every four
youngsters--when asked, “Which of these dolls is likely to act bad?” picked
the brown doll...
LOUISA HOLT
It is not simply skin color. The American tradition hinges upon a belief of
treating people upon their own merits.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--54
JAMES NABRIT
Attorney, James Nabritt. The basic question here is one of liberty. You
either have liberty or you do not. We submit that in this case, in the heart
of the nation’s capital, in the capital of democracy, the capital of the free
world, there is no place for a segregated school system. This country cannot
afford it, the Constitution does not permit it, and the statutes of Congress do
not authorize it.
SILAS FLEMING
My name is Silas Fleming. I and my children are craving light--the entire
colored race is craving light, and the only way to reach the light is to start
our children together in their infancy and they come up together.
JAMES NABRITT
The basic question here is one of liberty.
[pause]
HOUSTON
Go ahead, son.
[MARSHALL steps forward to address the court.]
MARSHALL
Separate but equal is a legal fiction. There never was and never will be any
separate equality. Our Constitution cannot be used to sustain ideologies and
practices which we as a people abhor.
[Thumbprints appear of those giving testimony in last scene.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--55
Scene 15
HOUSTON [to audience]
You know what happens. Even though you know, you want to see it with
your own eyes. You want to see the wings unfurl, you want to hear the cry
of the chorus. What happens to thumbprints when there are hundreds,
when there are thousands joined together? What becomes of them?
[HOUSTON turns back to MARSHALL.]
They will be announcing the decision soon.
MARSHALL
There’s feathers sticking out of your briefcase.
HOUSTON
I’ve been collecting a few loose ends.
MARSHALL
Ends?
HOUSTON
Mrs. Bulah gave me some chicken feathers and I got scissors from Bish.
Some wax and string to hold it together from Barbara Johns and Reverend
DeLaine.
MARSHALL
You got some plan in mind?
HOUSTON
And yes, of course, blueprints from McKinley Burnett.
MARSHALL
What are you doing?
HOUSTON
What parents and teachers always do. All the while they are warning about
this and that, at the same time, they are fashioning...
well, you know what I am fashioning.
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--56
MARSHALL
All that stuff about the future...50 years from now...
HOUSTON
They’ll have to come up with their own Gardner Bishops and Sarah
Bulahs.
MARSHALL
You’re not worried any more?
HOUSTON
Of course, I’m worried. But I hear, sometimes in a storm, you can fly above
the weather.
MARSHALL
But you told me I cannot...
HOUSTON
Cannot. Should not. Not alone.
[HOUSTON comes to MARSHALL, giving him a fatherly kind of
blessing. MARSHALL might kneel.]
And you are not alone. You carry us with you, Goody. All of us.
[OTHERS gather around him.]
HOUSTON
Now listen. Listen to the word of the people, the word of the court.
SEVERAL ACTORS TOGETHER
We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but
equal’ has no place.
HOUSTON
Go ahead, son. We are all with you. Go on now, fly!
[MARSHALL raises his arms as if in flight.
HOUSTON moves away, his job done.]
Now Let Me Fly (Youth Version)--57
Scene 16
[A party. The celebration sounds rise as the staff members sing
“Hi de hi de hi de ho, No’ more Jim Crow!”]
MARSHALL
We did it! WAHOO!!!
[MARSHALL twirls CISSY--his future wife--around in a dance.
The celebration continues.]
STAFF
Hi de hi de hi de ho, No more Jim Crow!
SUYAT
You did it, boss!
OTHERS
Speech! Speech! Speech!
[MARSHALL lifts his glass in a toast]
MARSHALL
We gotta give thanks. To Charlie Houston--the Moses of the movement-we’ve just been following your lead. To all of you--staff, lawyers--your
thumbprints go on this decision! To every dishwasher who gave a dime to
the NAACP, and every mama who made fried chicken for the cause--this is
for you!
[HE waves decision around.]
We are all gonna fly! We did it! Wahoo!!
[STAFF add their thumbprints to the back of the decision.
HOUSTON, nods to the audience, then, watching from the
sidelines, flicks his hand. We see an accumulation of
thumbprints grouped to form WINGS.
HOUSTON gives a “thumbs-up” sign, exits.
Glorious music--Now Let Me Fly--celebration.]
END OF PLAY
Wahoo!!!