WRETCHED OF THE EARTH

A New Play by Ben Samuels

Synopsis: Stokely Carmichael, progenitor of Black Power, and George Lincoln Rockwell, founder
of the American Nazi Party, debate on John Madigan's At Random show in 1968 as we chart each
man's journey from activism to extremism over a turbulent decade.

Ben Samuels
ben@bensamuels.com
323-642-8349
Miloknay/Weiner LLP
 The Players from 1958 - 1968
(in order of appearance)

Stokely Carmichael Civil Rights activist who begins the Black Power Movement
before embracing Pan-Africanism

George Lincoln Rockwell Navy officer who founds the American Nazi Party and
originates the White Power Movement

John Madigan host of the WBBM Chicago talk show At Random

Adolphus Stokely's immigrant father

Young Stokely Age 14

Richard A Harlem barber

Porkchop Barbershop customer

Lewis Barbershop customer

White Fellow Barbershop wannabe customer

Young Rockwell Age 11

Arline Rockwell's domineering aunt

Clare Rockwell's meek mother

Doc Rockwell's narcissistic father

Jane Rockwell's wife

Bayard Rustin Stokely's gay mentor and friend at Howard University

Male Student a Howard undergrad

Female Student a Howard undergrad

William Scott Stephenson Founder of the pro-segregationist newspaper The Virginian

Harold Noel Arrowsmith Jr. anti-Semitic billionaire who funds the American Nazi Party
Deputy Tyson Hinds County jailer

Ruby Dee civil rights activist from Nashville

John Lewis Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee

Daniel Burros vengeful American Nazi who is a closeted Jew

Matthew Koehl early joiner and pure Aryan heir to the American Nazi Party

John Patler Rockwell's Greek protégé and editor of Stormtrooper magazine

Barbara von Goetz Rockwell's personal secretary

Solomon Andhil Fineberg American Jewish Committee Community Relations Director

AJC Assistant Assistant to Mr. Fineberg

Martin Luther King, Jr Baptist preacher leading the nonviolent civil rights movement

Eddie Dickerson a white counter-protestor

Harry Belafonte acclaimed songwriter and Civil Rights Activist

Miriam Makeba "Mama Africa," internationally famous South African singer

Malcolm X radicalized icon of the Nation of Islam

White Volunteer 1 suburban hippie tagging along with the black movement

White Volunteer 2 suburban hippie tagging along with the black movement

Chicago Sheriff

Chicago Deputy

Radio Broadcasters/
Newcasters/Bystanders/
Scholars/Philosophers/
Activists/Clergymen/Police/
Luminaries/Voices/Etc. roles to be shared by all ensemble
 The Sharing of Roles

While said actors should play only the roles of Stokely and Rockwell, other roles may be handled
in the manner of a Greek Chorus depending on the size of the ensemble.
Fifteen (15) is recommended.
These seem logical suggestions for shared roles but the director and cast
may discover finer options in the privacy of their process:

Female Student / Ruby Dee

Adolphus / Martin Luther King Jr

Richard / Bayard Rustin / Old Southerner

Lewis / John Lewis

Porkchop / Male Student / Malcolm X

Doc / Solomon Andhil Fineberg

Arrowsmith / Captain R.E. Little

William Scott Stephenson / Matt Koehl / AJC Assistant

White Fellow / Daniel Burros / Eddie Dickerson / White Volunteer 1

Arline / Beverly / White Volunteer 2

Clare / Jane / Alice

Place and Time

Wretched of the Earth charts the rise of the Black and White Power movements from 1958 - 1968,
starting in Harlem, New York and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, traversing to Guinea, South Africa
and Arlington, Virginia, with many stops along the way. What is most integral -- through sound,
through visual cues, through voice and dialect -- is to show the transition of time and place. To feel
the expanse of the journey.
 Shallow understanding from people of good will
is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding
from people of ill will.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Letter From a Birmingham Jail
 PROLOGUE
FORMS in dim light. Faces, people we will meet later:
Freedom Riders, Nazis, Martin Luther King, John Patler,
some consequential, some footnotes to history. Black and
white, all hoping for a revolution.

VOICES OF THE 1960S

(multiple voices denoted by “//”)
A new decade dawns // bringing a reckoning // a call for justice // for representation // a
dismantling // destruction // of the old world // a cry for the unseen // unheard // to be seen //
heard // at last // the start of a new era...

The CRACKLE of a tuning radio/TV set:

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

(building, overlapping)
The four students refused to leave the lunch counter at their local Woolworths // Havoc in
Selma! Peaceful civil rights marchers brutally beaten on Edmund Pettus Bridge // Calling
themselves the American Nazi Party, uniformed stormtroopers held court on the National
Mall // Governor calls out the Guard as Watts burns! // Attorney General Kennedy says
he’s ‘confident’ the country is moving in the right direction // Fineberg demands a press
curtain against the growing white nationalist movement // --Nation of Islam, calling for a
separate piece of America for ‘us’ // The cry in the Mississippi night, in one voice...

BLACK VOICES
Black Power!

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

White Shirts taking to the streets of Chicago with their own battle cry!

WHITE VOICES
White Power!

The chants inflame the other:

BLACK VOICES WHITE VOICES

Black Power! White Power!

As the forms disperse, an FBI AGENT takes center stage.

 2.

FBI AGENT
Mr. Hoover, per your instructions and that of the President, the FBI Rabble Rouser File
has been opened with the specific intent of tracking the likes of Mr. Stokely Carmichael,
recently of New York by way of Trinidad, and Mr. George Lincoln Rockwell of Virginia.

Through this, the AT RANDOM news hour’s theme music

has built to a swell, then...
 3.

ACT I
SCENE 1. AT RANDOM RECORDING STAGE, 1968

LIGHTS UP. One bank at a time from the studio grid

above. Illuminating a STAGE within a stage.

Two broadcast cameras encroach from the wings,

OPERATORS training their lenses and a nation’s
attention on...

JOHN MADIGAN, liberal host, joined by STOKELY

CARMICHAEL, lithely stretching beyond the bounds of
his chair, and GEORGE LINCOLN ROCKWELL, earnest
and eager.

The FLOOR MANAGER cues MADIGAN in...

MADIGAN
Ladies and gentlemen, what a show we have for you tonight. To those folks with us who
drove in from out of town, especially at this critical moment for our nation and our city,
thank you. The next hour promises to answer many of the questions, many of the, perhaps,
painful questions, preoccupying our society today. Indeed, the essential ideas of who we
are and what we want have never been so hotly contested, and disagreed on. It is a time
when seeing eye-to-eye seems like a notion of the past. Our guests are Stokely Carmichael,
Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and George Lincoln
Rockwell, Founder and Commander of the American Nazi Party. Gentlemen, thank you for
coming on the set.

STOKELY ROCKWELL
---- Happy to be here.

MADIGAN (cont’d)
An hour suddenly seems so short a time, but let’s dive right in. Stokely, you are credited
with coining the phrase ‘Black Power,’ which is so much in our dialog these days. You
maintain it is a socio-political ideal and not the tone many have cast on its definition;
namely, that it suggests militant or revolutionary intent. A sort of subliminal battle cry to
the Negro race. Would that be appropriate to say or would you like to set the record
straight?

STOKELY
First off, I did not author it. The term--
 4.

MADIGAN
Black Power--

STOKELY
--has been around in the black community for some time. Dr. DuBois toyed with it. Garvey
strutted it, and I even saw it in an article in Ebony magazine, so I can’t claim--

MADIGAN
I see. But you did use it to a, uh, considerable amount--

STOKELY
Yes--

MADIGAN
Down at the march in Mississippi--

STOKELY
Yes I did.

MADIGAN
Setting aside its origins, would you deny that you are the face of this new Black Power
Movement?
(a beat)
Stokely, within the movement--

STOKELY
The Black Power--

MADIGAN
(correcting)
The Civil Rights Movement--

STOKELY
Okay.

MADIGAN
--there are many who have misgivings about--

STOKELY
In the Civil Rights--

MADIGAN
Yes, many who have misgivings, I’m thinking of Dr. King in particular, about the use of
‘Black Power,’ particularly because it so clearly does evoke ideas of force and violence--
 5.

ROCKWELL
May I--may I ask a question here?

MADIGAN
Of course.

ROCKWELL
I came here tonight set to disagree with you, Mr. Carmichael. I certainly did. But out in the
riots today, I caught a newsstand boy right before he locked up shop against the looters.
And I grabbed myself a copy of Jet, because there was your face, plastered right across the
cover. A flattering photo, I’ll give you that!

STOKELY
Thank you.

ROCKWELL
You’re welcome. And I’m flipping through the pages in the, uh, the back there--

MADIGAN
The green room.

ROCKWELL
Yes! And I’m reading this article, not particularly well-written, I have to say, but what do
you expect. Except, except! You’re quoted, Mr. Carmichael, correct me if I get this wrong,
as saying, ‘integration won’t work because white people don’t want it.’

MADIGAN
Is that right, Stokely?

STOKELY
The quote or that I said?

MADIGAN
That you said it.

STOKELY
Yes.

ROCKWELL
And I heartily agree with you! White people don’t want integration, and there I was, ready
to come out swinging, and here you are, in ink, making no bones about it! Hitting the, uh,
the nail on the head and I have to admit, I do agree with you.
 6.

MADIGAN
Stokely--

ROCKWELL
You’re very clear about the white power structure you’re against and to integrate, you’ll
have to get at that structure. But you know, and I know, white people won’t let you. Which
is why, toss out all the evasion and circumvention of the words, Black Power must mean
force. What choice do you have?

STOKELY
Now I don’t see it at that--

MADIGAN
Mr. Rockwell, it seems you are defending Stokely’s position--

STOKELY
That’s not my--

ROCKWELL
I think I am! I think what’s been happening is that the Jewish papers, which I have been
reading diligently, have been promoting Martin Luther King and his type of racemixing
among middle-class Negroes, but the black masses don’t want it. They want what Mr.
Carmichael’s selling, like they wanted what Malcolm X was selling. A man I was forced to
agree with, because he started a nationalist black movement and wanted Negroes to move
out of here--

MADIGAN
Stokely, if I may interrupt, Stokely, I think you can see here an indication. A sense that Mr.
Rockwell, and many others, are aligning you as the anthithesis of his movement of white
supremacy--

ROCKWELL
Well I think he is!

MADIGAN
A white power movement--

ROCKWELL
There’s no question about it!

MADIGAN
May I finish, Mr. Rockwell?

ROCKWELL
Excuse me.
 7.

MADIGAN
Stokely--

STOKELY
Black Power has been misconstrued; it has been misconstrued by the white press. It was a
new term and we didn’t have a chance to define it for ourselves.

MADIGAN
Negroes?

STOKELY
Yes. Negroes are dependent on forces and institutions within the white society which have
little interest in representing us honestly. The people prefer sensationalism and race-war
mongering, and you give it to them. But it’s this limitation of vision, this dictatorship of
definition and censorship of our history that makes the riots happening outside, just down
the block, in cities all across the country, inevitable. You are inflicting this on us, and on
yourselves.

MADIGAN
But do you try to stop the fighting? Within your people?

STOKELY
I do not.

MADIGAN
You do not stop--

STOKELY
--the fighting, no I do not. I try to prepare the people I am organizing so that when the fight
comes, they are able to win it.

MADIGAN
So Black Power does mean force?

STOKELY
I don’t see it at that. We are simply saying Negroes should control the places in which we
are forced to live. The housing boards, the businesses and shops we frequent, who fixes
our roads, how the water runs and heat in the winter. We need the political power, the
economic power to stop the exploitation that the white system has been using--

MADIGAN
For a moment, for a moment, Mr. Rockwell, please, what is your stand on this?
 8.

ROCKWELL
My stand is this: anybody who’s attacking me or this great America that my people built,
I’m going to attack him back.

MADIGAN
Who is attacking your country?

ROCKWELL
The Negroes! Burning, looting--

MADIGAN
But Mr. Rockwell, would you say 26-million Negroes are doing this? Could not some
individual Negroes be doing it that are completely separate from people of good intent that
are attempting to solve these racial problems?

ROCKWELL
The Soviet Union only has 10% of the Communist Party, but they can blow us all up.

MADIGAN
Well, I don’t think the parallel is the same at all.

ROCKWELL
Sir, if you go into the Negro community in some of these real tough areas where I think
Mr. Carmichael is looked up to, where Mr. X was looked up to, they don’t distinguish
between white liberals and white racemixers, and white hatemongers as they call me.
They’re after you if you have white skin, yelling, ‘Get Whitey!’

STOKELY
If that were true, why do you think that’s so?

ROCKWELL
That your people are doing what they’re doing?

STOKELY
Yes.

ROCKWELL
I think Negroes are doing what they’re doing for the same reason you have tribal war or
that we took the country from the Indians. It’s a question of one group wants what the
other group has. White Christian people built this country, the Negroes want it, the white
man is not about to share it. As you’re finding out everywhere! Every time the black man
moves in, the white man moves out.

MADIGAN
I’m a white Christian--
 9.

ROCKWELL
But you’re not with me yet. Try going down the west side in these riots, you’ll find
yourself aligned with me quick enough!

MADIGAN
Oh!

STOKELY
Is it that the Negro wants to take over? Or that he wants to be left alone?

ROCKWELL
I wouldn’t call it being left alone when you’re shooting my firemen, shooting my police
officers!

MADIGAN
There’s a Negro who lives across the street from me and he’s not shooting anybody!

ROCKWELL
Not yet!

STOKELY laughs. They wait.

MADIGAN
Stokely--

STOKELY
(sharply)
Mr. Madigan, you’re gon’ have to decide. Either I’m Mr. Carmichael or he’s George.

A beat. A shift in STOKELY.

MADIGAN
I’m sorry, Mr. Carmichael, is there something--

STOKELY
For ten years black folk been tryin’ to get whites to give us an even shake. Dr. King asked
you every which way he knew how. I represent a younger generation and we been
watchin’ our fathers and their fathers before them runnin’ and runnin’ and runnin’. Gettin’
nowhere. Now we ain’t runnin’ no more. Playtime is over. If you’re not ready to give us
equality, we’re done askin’ nicely. Get hip to that.

MADIGAN
What you’re saying--
 10.

STOKELY
Your unwillingness to deal with King means you have to deal with me.

A long beat. MUSIC starts to build into the next scene...

MADIGAN
Gentlemen, the Black Power and White Power Movements have only recently entered our
society, perhaps due to the failures of previous movements. Could you, for our viewers at
home, tell us how they came to be? How you came to be? But first, a quick break for
station identification.

LIGHTS. The stage into darkness, the cameras retracted

into the wings. The CRACKLE of a radio tuning, dialing
in DJ SYMPHONY SID:

DJ SYMPHONY SID (OFF)

--it’s me, DJ Symphony Sid, bringing you that new sound, that beat from the street, on this
hot summer day in the year to be here, the time to be alive, 19-55! Pull yourself off that
couch, drag yourself out onta the stoop, because this one’s hot to trot. Break a sweat to beat
the heat. Here. We. Go.

BEBOP that still sounds fresh plays underneath:

SCENE 2. BARBERSHOP, 145TH STREET, HARLEM, 1955

LIGHTS UP on RICHARD cutting PORKCHOP’s hair,

LEWIS sitting nearby, all black, shooting the breeze.

PORKCHOP
Man, they ain’t gon’ let no niggah enter any of dem schools.

LEWIS
Hey, now, hold on a minute there--

PORKCHOP
Hold nothing!

LEWIS
If the court say-so, they ain’t got no choice--

PORKCHOP
Niggah, how stupid is you? Nothin’ this government say worth the sweat in my crack.
 11.

RICHARD
Watch your mouth, I’ma cut this hair right off.

LEWIS
He’ll do it too!

LAUGHTER as the bell over the door rings and

ADOLPHUS enters with his son, YOUNG STOKELY
(14). ALDOPHUS still speaks with the lilting accent of
Port-of-Spain. YOUNG STOKELY is already an
amalgam of place, his words clipped by Harlemisms.

PORKCHOP
Aldophus, my Spanish Moor, how you been, baby?

ADOLPHUS
Union finally come through, thanks to God for hearing my prayers.

LEWIS
There it is!

ADOLPHUS
(paying Richard)
Here’s for the last time. And here is front up for today!

PORKCHOP and LEWIS congratulate ADOLPHUS as

RICHARD coaxes YOUNG STOKELY to a chair.

RICHARD
Hey, Little Man. Hop a stool. I’ll get you soon’s I’m done with Porkchop.

PORKCHOP
Man, you done! You take anymore off, I’ll be Malcolm!
(to ADOLPHUS, candid)
So you, uh, do what I told ya? ‘bout the...ya know. Grease the machine?

ADOLPHUS
I did not pay those bastards one red cent.

LEWIS
Good for you!

ADOLPHUS
Anything you have to steal or to bribe for, is not worth the having.
 12.

LEWIS
Amen!

PORKCHOP
So, what, that union just givin’ you a job! You been a citizen fer--

ADOLPHUS
Two years.

LEWIS
Two years!

PORKCHOP
Been hangin’ ‘round, drivin’ cabs, any odd thing, actin’ the Honest Abe for ‘nother--

ADOLPHUS
...almost ten.

PORKCHOP
Near ten you been breakin’ your back, doin’ everything shortah pickin’ cotton to pay your
way, and them white trades just suddenly giften you a J.O.B.?! Without you payin’ nobody
off? Man, you sure you ain’t killt yer supervisor?

ADOLPHUS
Keep faith in the Lord, the Lord keeps His faith with you.

LEWIS
There it is!

PORKCHOP
Man, Lewis, shut the fuck up.

RICHARD
Hey! You take your cussin’ right out on the street.
(to YOUNG STOKELY)
How’s the studyin’ goin’?

YOUNG STOKELY
It’s good.

RICHARD
You start that new school?

YOUNG STOKELY
Yeah, it’s tough.
 13.

ADOLPHUS
Bronx Science! The best!

RICHARD
But you ready for it?

YOUNG STOKELY
I gotta be. They’re all talking Faulkner, Einstein, all these cats I ain’t never read. All I done
is them Horatio Alger-type stories. The kids’re real nice though.

PORKCHOP
Wops there still callin’ you Sichie?

YOUNG STOKELY
They ain’t Italian. Mostly Jews and, ya know, whites. But not Italian.

ADOLPHUS
Good riddance. Those Sicilian boys were nothing but trouble.

YOUNG STOKELY
They were my friends--

ADOLPHUS
“Black face paisano,” this is what they called my son!

YOUNG STOKELY
They meant it well--

ADOLPHUS
They meant it mean! Everything about those boys was mean. It was a bad neighborhood.
Bad schools. Bad people.

YOUNG STOKELY
You didn’t talk to anyone--

ADOLPHUS
Be glad we got out. East Bronx is much nicer.

YOUNG STOKELY
Says you.

A beat.

LEWIS
I been thinkin’ of moving.
 14.

PORKCHOP
What, outta Harlem? Ain’t no black people in Queens--

LEWIS
Gots family Down South. Thought I’d see ‘bout doin’ some sharecroppin’.

PORKCHOP
You! Sharecroppin’?

LEWIS
It ain’t ridiculous!

PORKCHOP
You! In coveralls, a straw hat!

PORKCHOP cracks up as the BEBOP ends and the

frequency tunes.

DJ SYMPHONY SID (OFF)

I’m back with something sweet. A special treat off the Steve Allen show. She’s sung for
Miles and Nina. Even the Duke’s seen her! Coming this week to Village Vanguard, Mama
Africa herself, Miriam Makeba!

RICHARD
Ho, quiet now! Quiet!

For a time, they listen to the song. Miriam’s voice

transports them.

LEWIS
If that ain’t the most tragical thing you ever heard.

PORKCHOP
Makes me miss a home I never had.

YOUNG STOKELY
I’ma marry her when I grow up.

The guys burst out laughing as YOUNG STOKELY grins,

embarrassed.

PORKCHOP
And I’ma be President! And Lewis’ll get inta farmin’!
 15.

RICHARD
Hey now, if the boy’s got dreams--

PORKCHOP
I think he be talkin’ ‘bout them wet dreams!

RICHARD rolls his eyes, lets the music play.

RICHARD
You’re liking it? The school?

YOUNG STOKELY
Yeah, it’s good. This one kid, his dad some big communist. He always talkin’ ‘bout Marx
and Lenin and how the proletariat gon’ rise up.

PORKCHOP
Damn with the big words.

YOUNG STOKELY
He mean you, pop. The workin’ man. Like this country gon’ be yours one day.

ADOLPHUS
This country will not ever be mine, son. Nor yours. Or any of ours!

RICHARD
Adolphus, ease up--

ADOLPHUS
You are at that school for one reason. Hear me now. To get yourself a good education and
get the best job a black man can get. I don’t want to hear ‘bout you chasing famous singers-

PORKCHOP
Hey, now, it was a joke--

ADOLPHUS
You don’t have the time. Black men do not have the time. You must study harder, longer
than every white boy you are at school with. They are starting ahead. Their fathers have
gone to Harvard, to Yale. They will give them jobs when they graduate, but you, you aren’t
getting anything. Not from me. I have nothing for you.

LEWIS
What about the trades? They givin’ you work now.

ADOLPHUS
And why not before?! Ten years I have paid this union my dues!
 16.

PORKCHOP
Niggah, you been due--

ADOLPHUS
Yes! But I am black. And a black man will always be last.

LEWIS
But you workin’ now.

ADOLPHUS
Because I kept showing up! Finally they have to give me work. Lord bless.

YOUNG STOKELY
So that’s what I’ll do.

ADOLPHUS
What?

YOUNG STOKELY
Keep showin’ up, pop. It ain’t like when you was startin’ out. The country’s changin’. If
you could come to school, you’d feel it. The white kids, they interested. In me, in us. How
we got here, how we treated. They wanna help.

ADOLPHUS
Son, growing up, you may not remember, there were the steps by the road of our house.
Forty-two steps, all the way up. And at the top, the steel band, Casa Blanca, would practice
every evening around dusk. Our songs. The songs of our people. Except one day of the
year. Empire Day. Empire Day and they would have us all in the street to sing, “God Save
the Queen.” “Rule Britannia.” ‘Rule Britannia, Britannia rule the waves! Britons never
never never shall be slaves!’ To remind us, we belong to them. We are the slaves. Even
now. Your new school does not like you. Whites do not like you. They only see you one
way. And if they are interested, it is only because there are just two of you! Just two black
kids, in the whole school. They like that. They are not scared of just two black kids. But all
of us? Would they help all of us? Until there are ten, twenty, a hundred black kids at that
fine school? No! You have been given a chance to get out of this. So keep in line, and do
what they ask. And don’t believe a word of the nice things they say. The whites only know
how to lie.

YOUNG STOKELY
You shouldn’t do that.

RICHARD
Stokely...
 17.

YOUNG STOKELY
You shouldn’t be criticizin’ people. We black, right? Ain’t we tryin’ to wipe out the
stereotypes?

ADOLPHUS
This is not stereotype! It is fact.

YOUNG STOKELY
Yeah, and is it fact that we all drink too much?

ADOLPHUS
Stokely!

YOUNG STOKELY
Or that we gotta stop smokin’, stop cuttin’ each other! That we gotta clean up ‘round here,
get to church.

ADOLPHUS
Stop right now!

YOUNG STOKELY
Man, ain’t that exactly what Malcolm’s saying! He tellin’ us all that same shit, but a white
guy say it and he’s racist. But it’s true, ain’t it? We’re so busy hatin’, we ain’t listenin’.

ADOLPHUS
YOU HAVEN’T SEEN!
(everything gets real quiet)
You have not seen. That is my fault. Maybe if you knew, if you lived in the world, you
would understand how long and how hard our people have had to fight to get by.

RICHARD
He knows, Adolphus.

ADOLPHUS
No, he does not! We are in it for ourselves, son. All well and good, your white friends, but
see where they are when you need a job. When you want to work at their company. Or be
their boss. You think they’ll let you do that?

YOUNG STOKELY
I’ll find out.

A tense silence as the music shifts.

DJ SYMPHONY SID (OFF)

Man-oh-man, what can I say? All I can do, is play some Ray.
 18.

A RAY CHARLES SONG starts, as the door rings and a

WHITE FELLOW comes in. The beatnik variety, who likes
walking into black businesses like he’s down with it.

WHITE FELLOW
Hey, man. Got time for a trim?

Everyone turns and looks. Long.

RICHARD
We full up.

WHITE FELLOW
Cool if I wait?

RICHARD
We full up.

WHITE FELLOW
All day?

RICHARD
All. Day.

WHITE FELLOW
Cool, cool, yeah. Well, stay fresh. Hey, that Ray Charles? Man, he’s swell. Too much!

WHITE FELLOW exits. Beat.

RICHARD
You know...Ray Charles plays like that white boy can’t even think.

LEWIS
There it is!

As they laugh...

LIGHTS DIM

RADIO BROADCASTER (OFF)

The body of Emmett Till was dredged today from the Tallahatchie River. A native of
Chicago, Mr. Till, age fourteen, was visiting family in Mississippi. According to reports,
he disappeared shortly after approaching a white woman on the street. Police confirm his
body was discovered mutilated...
 19.

SCENE 3. ARLINE’S HOUSE, MAINE, 1927

YOUNG ROCKWELL (11) sleeps in a cot at the foot of

his mother, CLARE’s bed, where she is also prone.
ARLINE calls from off, before entering and turning the
lights on. They’re Archie Bunker racist; only at home.

ARLINE (OFF)
George! George, wake up! Don’t make me say it again!
(entering)
GEORGE! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!

She yanks the sheet off, smacking him as he rolls up.

CLARE rouses but keeps her head down during this.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I’m sorry...

ARLINE
What?

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I’m sorry, Aunt Arline.

ARLINE
Yes you are. Yes you are! Now up and dressed. Come on, I haven’t got all day.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
Can I...

ARLINE
WHAT?

YOUNG ROCKWELL
Please, I--

ARLINE
SPEAK UP.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I don’t want to wear the knickers. The kids at school, they, they...and my shorts are so
tight...Mom, please--
 20.

ARLINE
What are you looking at her for? Does she buy your clothes? Does she cook your meals?
No! All she did was marry a deadbeat and saddle me with you.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
Dad’s not a dead--

ARLINE
Oh, isn’t he? Clare, when was the last time he paid his support? Hmmm? Right! Get
dressed.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
He’s busy. He travels. He’s always on the road.

ARLINE smacks him again.

ARLINE
If you think for one second he isn’t loaded, you’re a prize fool. I remember, oh, I
remember all those kikes at your Christening. In the house of God. Miracle they didn’t
burn up on the spot. Groucho and Jack Benny, even that one...what’s his name? Zeppo!
Queer name. Like some nigger chief. Every one of them rich as Beelzebub now. But does
dear old dad have a dollar for you or your mom? For your aunt, who slaves and slaves to
keep you both fed and warm and clothed and happy? Well? Answer me!

YOUNG ROCKWELL
No...

ARLINE
Deadbeat.

ARLINE tidies as YOUNG ROCKWELL dresses. CLARE

hasn’t moved. ARLINE catches him staring at her.

ARLINE (cont’d)
You’re leaving, George.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I just need to get my books.

ARLINE
For Providence.

A beat.
 21.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
For...Providence?

ARLINE
Clare, is it packed?

CLARE meekly points to a suitcase that’s gone unnoticed

until now.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
...Mom?

ARLINE
You’re too much for your mother, George. She’s fragile. The divorce, Doc taking
everything--

YOUNG ROCKWELL
Mom--

ARLINE
You men just take and take. It’s selfish! Your fourth school in two years. Tell her about
Mr. Peters. Oh yes, they told me all about it. What you pulled yesterday.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
He was being unfair--

ARLINE
Tell her what you did.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
He was giving demerits for nothing!

ARLINE
Don’t lie now!

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I’m not!

ARLINE YOUNG ROCKWELL

You held a strike in his classroom! A one- What he was doing was wrong! He’d tell
person strike! Stood up and wouldn’t you the assignment, then change it and
work, wouldn’t listen, and wouldn’t SIT punish you if you got even a little bit
DOWN. wrong. He’s a tyrant!

CLARE starts crying.

 22.

ARLINE
Now look what you’ve done! There, there, sweetheart. you’re alright.

YOUNG ROCKWELL watches his mom break down, too

young to grasp that it’s not entirely about him.

ARLINE (cont’d)
You’re leaving and that’s the end of it. Grams is enrolling you at an academy upstate.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
Is that...boarding school?

ARLINE
If I hear you’ve been anything short of an angel for your grandmother--

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I’ll be good! Please, please, just let me stay! Mom, I don’t have to go! I don’t! I’ll take care
of you better! I’ll behave in school. Do whatever Mr. Peters says. I won’t strike again!

ARLINE
Enough! Say your goodbyes and bring your trunk down.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
I’m going...now?

ARLINE
Downstairs in one minute! Don’t make me come back up.

ARLINE exits.

YOUNG ROCKWELL
Mom...mom...mommy, please...

CLARE
I’m sorry, Link.

She lays back down. A beat.

Slowly, he lifts his trunk and carries it off as LIGHTS

SHIFT to...
 23.

SCENE 4. DOC’S HOUSE, BOOTHBAY HARBOR, MAINE, 1952

DOC ROCKWELL, George’s father, works at his fishing

lures listening to an OLD VAUDEVILLE RECORDING
that seems faintly like the Marx Brothers. DOC performs
along to the recording, suggesting he was there.

He doesn’t notice as ROCKWELL, now a young man,

enters with JANE, his new bride.

ROCKWELL
Dad. Uhm, dad.

DOC
Who’s that? Link!

ROCKWELL
Hello, sir.

DOC barely greets him, untangling from his lures and

lines, intent on JANE.

DOC
‘Cuse me, just a minute and I’ll, got it! Now, tell me, who’s this little wonder?

ROCKWELL
Jane. My wife.

DOC
Your--right, of course! Listen, meant to phone you, so sorry I missed the wedding.
Sounded beautiful, down in...in...

JANE
Barrington.

DOC
Barrington! Delightful spot.

JANE
We got out just as the sun basked the belfry in the most wondrous glow. It cast a long
shadow of the crucifix on the steps to the street. I’ll never forget it. We were so sorry you
couldn’t be there.

DOC
You’ve married a poet, Link! My boy took a hand at letters but it never panned out.
 24.

ROCKWELL
I went for philosophy.

DOC
Doesn’t much matter what you went for if you threw in the towel.

ROCKWELL
You can’t be a bastion of free thought if you’re a haven of intellectual dishonesty.

DOC
Brown a haven--dear God, boy.

ROCKWELL
I didn’t see much high morals in the fraternity--

DOC
The ideas you get! Reminds me of a, Jane, did you ever watch The Colgate Comedy Hour?

JANE
I used to love Dean and Jerry!

DOC
Yes, yes. Did you perhaps see an episode, oh dear me, it would have been ‘round about,
Christmas, 1950? I imagine you were a cute thing then.

ROCKWELL
Dad, how can she remember--

DOC
See if this jogs you.

DOC proceeds to reenact a few mad antics, which we can

assume are from some sketch he once performed.

ROCKWELL
Dad--

JANE
Oh yes! Maybe, I think, yes! I might recall!

DOC
Oh! Then there was this one! An old classic. Your mom used to sing along with her
sisters, The Four Schades! Well, hard with the carpet, but you get the idea. Oh, we used to
be able to do it all. Tap, juggle, soliloquies from Hamlet, you name it! Because we were all
classical performers, you see. Everyone trained in high art--
 25.

JANE
It’s incredible!

DOC
And for the big finale, we’d always--

ROCKWELL
STOP!

DOC missteps and JANE drops her head in a familiar

gesture.

A beat.

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
Dad, I--I’ve won something.

DOC
Oh?

ROCKWELL
At Pratt, it’s a, uh...a competition they encourage you to enter. You see, we do a poster, a
newspaper poster for...well this time the American Cancer Society and...well, I won it, and
it came with a good prize. A thousand dollars, actually. It’s the first time a freshman’s won
it. And I, I also wanted you to meet Jane, of course...

A long beat.

DOC
You know, when you quit Brown and enlisted, I thought you were mad. Joining up right
on the eve of a war. What was it? Two days later the Japs hit Pearl? I’d get your letters,
from this corner of the world or that. Guadalcanal was it? Guam? Who knows. Then when
you finally got out, I thought, ‘It’s out of his system. Now he can get back to it.’

ROCKWELL
To what?

DOC
Living a life worth something, son! Jesus, Link, all those years, your mother crying to me
for money to pay for you, your schooling, I just asked why? What’s the point? You never
had focus. Never had drive to finish anything. Remember that idea you had, the--what’s-it-
called--Old Maine Guide. Free little pamphlets for hotels. That was a million-dollar idea!
You know what I saw on the last road show? Little pamphlets in hotels! And you know
what I thought?
 26.

ROCKWELL
I can guess.

DOC
So why didn’t you do it! Someone’s making piles of money off it--

ROCKWELL
Maybe this is what I wanted!

DOC
What, the army?

ROCKWELL
Navy! To serve! To do something, for something, bigger than me!

DOC
Don’t start with that! You never had nerve, Link, never stuck long enough to see
something through to its end--

ROCKWELL
I must’ve learned that from you.

DOC
From me! From your mother, morelike. She was the coward. I’ve spent my life creating.
Theatre, live performance, risking something every time I go out there. Don’t be foolish to
think it’s just about pulling a few laughs. Life is the show, son! You’re either performing
or you’re one of the TV dinner, comic book kids getting pulled along.

ROCKWELL
I never wanted your life!

DOC
So you made a mockery of your own!

JANE
Mr. Rockwell, sir! George is...he’s a very good man! And he was just so excited about his
award and I’d never met you and I said why don’t we come up. But I see now it was a
poor decision because...because you can’t see what I see in him! He has so much potential,
so much focus it scares me at times, because I know he’ll find the idea that sparks him and
he’ll take to it like bees to honey. He’ll do it better than anyone else could. I just know he
will. Won’t that be something, sir? To see all that intent and passion poured into something
so powerful. Please, just try to look deeper to the man I see--
 27.

ROCKWELL
They’ve called me back up...

JANE turns, caught unawares.

JANE
What?

ROCKWELL
It’s Korea. I’m meant to head out to El Centro the week after next. Run Bearcat training.

JANE
Were you going to tell me?

DOC
Jesus, Link.

ROCKWELL
I just found out! I thought--
(JANE turns from him. A beat.)
Anyway, sir, I--I just thought you should know.

DOC
Know what? That you’re quitting Pratt to head back in? That you hide things from your
wife? Link, I wish you’d surprise me just once. You’ve found a terrific gal, much better
than you deserve, and she sees a whole helluva lot more than I can. But if there’s some
stick in you somewhere, sooner’s better than later, kid.

ROCKWELL
I’m not your kid! You abandoned us! You...you...
(JANE moves for him. He shakes her off.)
I’m a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy! I’ve served on four ships! I
command men!

DOC
But you’re not one! Are you? You signed up, I thought, ‘he’s mad.’ But then it dawned on
me. You’re not ‘mad.’ You’re lazy. Nothing comes easy! You keep looking for a shortcut,
there isn’t one! I worked from the ground up to be who I am. So you could whine and
piddle about not getting a fair shake. You’re worse than the niggers! All those hat-in-hand
sit-inners and wee-wee-inners! You’re a humiliation. So go train your pilots. And quit
when you’re tired of that too.

A beat.
 28.

ROCKWELL
Goodbye, dad.

ROCKWELL exits, leaving JANE and DOC.

DOC
Careful. He’ll get tired of you as well.

JANE reaches into her clutch and unfolds a piece of

newspaper.

JANE
I brought you a copy of his poster. The one that won the award. Some fathers like to hold
onto things their sons make. Some fathers are proud. And some...some are too proud.

She exits. Leaving DOC alone with the poster. LIGHTS.

The whine of a bus pulling away and the distant chants of

hopeful, young voices...

SCENE 5. HOWARD UNIVERSITY LIBRARY, 1961

STOKELY works alone in the deserted stacks, poring over

a spread of books in a Howard sweatshirt.

After a moment, BAYARD RUSTIN enters.

RUSTIN
What in hell are you still doing here? I thought you’d be first on the bus.

STOKELY
Not me, Professor Rustin.

RUSTIN
Is Stokely Carmichael too bookish for Freedom Rides?

STOKELY
No sir, I...I only have a week-and-a-bit of school left. My parents’d kill me if I didn’t
finish. I’ll be on the next one. But Ed and Hank gone down and they’re real excited.

RUSTIN
You know we barely teach the last week, right? The year’s been too damn long and
professors’re trying to get the hell out of here, same as everybody else.
(MORE)
 29.

RUSTIN (cont'd)
(sit with him)
What you got?

STOKELY lifts the book he’s reading:

STOKELY
Go Tell It To The Mountain.

RUSTIN
Hmm, possibly his best. Fierce structure and unapologetic style, the luxury of flashback, all
in the manner only a first work can have. Before we know less by knowing better. When
we write purely from instinct.

STOKELY
I like his essays more.

RUSTIN
So do I.

STOKELY
Why do you think white folk love his protest novels so bad? I mean, Baldwin’s churning
‘em out and the white press gobblin’ ‘em up. But what if, I don’t know, he tries to write a
nice romance ‘bout colored lovers or a little adventure book for kids ‘bout black knights?
He’d be dead! Whites only want us writing ‘bout suffering. Makes me wonder how long
he can go on.

RUSTIN
He hasn’t stopped yet.

STOKELY
No.

RUSTIN
His quill dips the inkwell of our struggle. That reservoir runs deep.

STOKELY
I liked yours. Nonviolence vs. Jim Crow especially. Is it true you taught King?

RUSTIN
I was fortunate to study in Tibet the teachings of his Holiness, the Dalai Lama. King was
gracious enough to listen in those early days when so many called for violence. But we
knew, difficult as it was, that we had to stand and let the white man reveal himself through
his cruelty against our bodies.
 30.

STOKELY
So that’s a yes?

RUSTIN
Stokely, in a movement we all teach each other something. We’re doing this incredible
thing nobody’s attempted before. It’s all improvisation and jazz, making it up as we go.
One day I have the answer, the next day it’s you. Only together does the thing get done.

STOKELY
And you think...Freedom Summer...will work?

RUSTIN
I wouldn’t be telling kids to go if I didn’t.

STOKELY
Why aren’t you there?

RUSTIN
It’s better if...if I stay out of the spotlight. Especially while we’re trying to build something.

STOKELY
I just...

RUSTIN
Go ahead.

STOKELY
I mean, I don’t know.

RUSTIN
Yes you do...

STOKELY
I...I read the paper when those boys down ‘round Greensboro started sittin’-in at
Woolworths, and I thought, ‘damn, niggers always lookin’ for ways to get in the paper.’
And I chucked the paper down. Then, whattaya know, those cats are on the cover of the
New York Times a month later, and turns out they’re still sittin’ there. And a whole lot of
other black folk are too. All over the South. So now I’m thinkin’, ‘damn, niggers is like
monkeys. One do, all do.’ I tossed the paper down again. But then the sit-ins creep all the
way up the interstate in Virginia, just down the road, and I went to one and...and...

RUSTIN
Yes?
 31.

STOKELY
Where I’m from, someone taps you on the shoulder, you turn. You turn ready to fight.
Because they might be jumpin’ you or cuttin’ you. They might be a Parkchester boy
crossed the bridge to Duke territory. You turn swingin’ because you don’t, you liable to
find a blade stickin’ from your chest. First week my father moved us to the Bronx, outta
that ‘bad neighborhood,’ I had a fight, ‘cause ‘Negroes are tough’ and every fool wanted to
figure out how much. First week in school, all them nice white kids ask how to smoke
marijuana even though I never smoked before. But there I was, smokin’ for thirty kids in
the bathroom to show Negroes are down. Doing everything to show them I was who they
imagined me to be. Just not being me. I don’t know why I did it.
(a beat)
But these black folk, in some nowhere diner on the interstate, they just took it. Didn’t puff
out their chests. Didn’t try to be what the white man told ‘em to be. They just themselves.
Silent, stoic. Sittin’ there. Through all the swears and spittin’, the red ketchup dumped on
their heads, hot water poured down their backs. It’s the bravest thing I ever seen.

RUSTIN
So why didn’t you go on the first bus?

A beat.

STOKELY
You think it’s good we at an all-black school?

RUSTIN
Is it not?

STOKELY
My folks didn’t want me to come. My momma, she told me keep readin’, keep readin’.
Always said, ‘remember, these boys be white. They’ll all make it, but you won’t unless
you’re top of the rung.’ My pop said the same thing but not so soft about it.

RUSTIN
They think a white university is better?

STOKELY
I mean, ain’t it?

RUSTIN
So why didn’t you go to one of them? Your grades were good enough.

A beat.
 32.

STOKELY
A bunch of us came down from Bronx Science for this big fair here in DC. We’re walkin’
the Mall and all these white kids are pointin’ at Lincoln, at Washington, all these big marble
faces. Telling me how far we come and how grand America is. Telling me with fat pride
like they descended straight down-the-line from these giants. And I believe it. A part of me
does. Because here I am, a black boy from Harlem walkin’ ‘round with some of the
smartest white kids in the nation’s capital, so things must’ve changed. And I’m noddin’,
but it’s like I’m outside myself, hearing my own voice goin’, ‘Oh yes, Lincoln helped all
them slaves,’ and ‘America sure is the best.’ But that’s not how it feels.

RUSTIN
How does it feel?

STOKELY
Like they were saying I owed them somethin’. Like they were the good ones because they
liked Lincoln and ‘would’ve freed the slaves too’ if they’d had the chance. Like those big
marble faces with their hollow eyes were telling me somehow I owe this country when all
it did was start cleanin’ up the mess those dead white folk made in the first place.
(a beat)
When we’re passin’ Congress, I hear this choir of voices. Not speakin’ words so much as
just...anger. It was this big group of black folk. I’d never seen so many of us in one place
outsidah church! Everyone I was with kept walkin’, walked faster, but I couldn’t help it.
The voices called to me. Beckoned me over. It was the Nonviolent Action Group, from
right here. And they were smart! Every one of them, pullin’ me in, tellin’ me ‘bout DuBois
and Robeson, A. Philip Randolph, Baldwin, you, and all these essential American stories
we weren’t reading at Bronx Science. About this whole other world nobody told me
existed. A black world. Where a whole other canon of literature and thought and freedom
and expression told a different history of America. I knew I had to come.

RUSTIN
Have you read The Myth of the Negro Past?

STOKELY
Not yet. Professor Morrison recommended it though.

RUSTIN
Hershkowitz says we Negroes have a connection with the ritual, the culture of our African
ancestors. So where does that leave us? Reaching back for a land most of us have never
known, scrambling and thrashing forward in a country not yet our own. We are an
oppressed people, and the weapon of the oppressor is to coax us to take on their
mannerisms, their outward way of being. Until all those superficial details sink in and
change us, make us more them and less ourselves. Until we are indistinguishable from
them. They ran a study Down South. Walked these little Negro girls into a room filled with
dolls. Dolls, dolls everywhere. More than they’d ever seen. Heaven for a little girl.
(MORE)
 33.

RUSTIN (cont'd)
And they asked the Negro girls to pick the prettiest doll for themself. One they could take
home and love and hold forever. Every single one of them picked a white doll. Not one
Negro girl picked a black one. Another test asked Negro kids to draw a person on the
chalkboard. Just a person, any person. Every one of them drew a white man or a white
woman. Not a one drew a black man or black woman. We are unseen, Stokely, by the
whites, but most especially by our own people. That, that absence of being visible, of being
heard or understood or proud of who we are, is what we must rectify.

A beat.

STOKELY
I don’t think I buy that first part, about being connected back to Africa. I’ve never been
there. Africa means nothing to me.

RUSTIN
No?

STOKELY
Nah, I think black folk are something else. 100% American. Maybe the only race who is.
Everyone else came here and kept doin’ their thing. Italians still Italian, Jews still Jews, but
Blacks, we don’t got no old culture to fall back on. None at all. They ripped it from us, and
us from it. And what filled that empty space of Africa was all America. All her hates and
wrongdoings and misunderstandings. Maybe that’s why they’re scared of us. Because we
reflect the worst parts of themselves.

A moment passes. Suddenly a MALE STUDENT runs

across the stage, colliding with a FEMALE STUDENT.
He frantically tells her something and she lets out a blood-
curling wail. RUSTIN and STOKELY rise.

RUSTIN
What’s going on?

MALE STUDENT
They burned it! THEY BURNED THE FREEDOM BUS! People tried gettin’ out,
topplin’ from the windows. They beat ‘em! Beat ‘em on the ground! Beat ‘em bloody!

STOKELY
Hank, Ed--

MALE STUDENT
We gon’ riot! Come on!
 34.

STUDENTS run off. STOKELY reels as RUSTIN

frantically grabs him.

RUSTIN
Stokely, Stokely! Listen to me! You weren’t on that bus for a reason. Never forget that.

STOKELY
I gotta go down there. Show them...we’re not scared! We gotta keep the issue alive--!

RUSTIN
Do more than that. You’re meant to lead! You hear me?

STOKELY
I--

RUSTIN
One more dead black boy won’t help nobody. This country’s immune to our death.
They’ve been immune three-hundred years. Show them something, Stokely. Show them
something they’ve never seen.
(from OFF, the sound of a RIOT)
I gotta go talk sense to these kids before they burn our campus to the ground.

He runs off, leaving STOKELY. LIGHTS.

RADIO BROADCASTERS (OFF)

The battle for desegregation continues! // Fifteen Negroes have been arrested sitting in front
of a Birmingham bus as state courts weigh in // Victory today overturning laws that funded
segregated private schools // Reports released by Hoover’s FBI cite the growing threat of
militant Negro groups, most especially Elijah Muhammad’s Nation of Islam. // Flanked by
bodyguards trained in jiujitsu and karate, Malcolm X calls on the white race to--

SCENE 6. POINT LOMA, SAN DIEGO, 1958

ROCKWELL and JANE, pregnant, at a formal house

party. He’s drunkenly charismatic in dress uniform,
which she enjoys with the unease of knowing it can turn.
Her hair in an updo as he steals a gauche kiss.

WILLIAM SCOTT STEPHENSON enters with HAROLD

NOEL ARROWSMITH JR. Both in civilian suits.
 35.

STEPHENSON
Rockwell, there you are! This is who I wanted to introduce you to. Harold, meet George
Lincoln Rockwell.

ARROWSMITH
A pleasure, Commander. Harold Noel Arrowsmith, Jr.

ROCKWELL
That’s a mouthful.

ARROWSMITH
Yes, yes it certainly is. And who is this fine specimen of white distinction?

ROCKWELL
Sorry, my wife, Jane.

ARROWSMITH
Mrs. Rockwell, charmed.

STEPHENSON
Harold has been a longtime supporter of The Virginian, keeping my little paper afloat more
than once.

ARROWSMITH
Your words are needed now more than ever.

JANE
You’re a writer, Mr. Stephenson?

STEPHENSON
Oh no, I pen an article or two, but we are able to keep a modest staff much more adept than
myself.

JANE
Is your paper a--news publication? An item of special interest? You know, George
founded US Lady, for the wives of servicemen.

ROCKWELL
Jane--

STEPHENSON
You didn’t say you had a knack for marketing, Rockwell. See, Harold, what did I tell you?

ROCKWELL
It was short-lived.
 36.

JANE
I didn’t mean to ramble. You were saying.

STEPHENSON
Not at all, dear lady. The Virginian is a proud publication that champions the scientific facts
behind the perils of desegregation.
(JANE gets very quiet as the men continue)
Harold here has funded a great deal of our research. I mentioned him to you, Rockwell.
Especially in light of our chats about your recent deployment to Iceland.

ROCKWELL
Oh, yeah, sure. See, now that was something. You know how long the days are in Iceland?
They’re not! But the nights. Interminable.

ARROWSMITH
Willy tells me you read quite a bit there.

ROCKWELL
Nothing the hell else to do.

ARROWSMITH
Read a mutual interest of ours...

ROCKWELL
Now, see, if I didn’t know better, I’d say we’re talking about--

ARROWSMITH
We are.
(a beat)
You know, in Germany, the kosher conservatives ignored Hitler at first. Then, when he
wouldn’t go away, they laughed at him. And still, when he was not gone, they called him
an ‘agent,’ working against the German interest. Mein Kampf is a living monument to the
rise of an ideal against all odds.

JANE
George, I’m feeling a little faint. Could you show me to a seat?

STEPHENSON
Oh dear lady, could I get you an aspirin? Or tonic?

JANE
George, I’d like to--
 37.

ROCKWELL
I tried to find a place...for my ideas. I was a conservative, for many years, but ‘Rabbit’
Welch and his fucking John Birch Society--

JANE
George--

ROCKWELL
They’re bloomer girls! Bunch of old men who won’t fight when the chips are down. We’re
losing our culture. Why just on the way over, the radio was on about Negroes learning
Oriental fighting styles--

JANE
I’m sorry, gentlemen, my husband’s had a bit to drink--

ROCKWELL
See, there! There it is, gentleman! When I married her, she was a beautiful white woman.
Model of the race. You know what I loved most? Her hair. Her gorgeous, womanly hair.
There’s poetic beauty to a white girl’s hair, the way it flows about the neck, falls gently on
the shoulders. That’s hair a nigger girl can’t equal. No matter how much chemical
straightener she dumps on, or bear grease her mammy lathers in with her big black paws,
it’s still just ugly animal wool. Yet, for some damn reason, our good white women are
getting these nigger styles. Putting their hair up in ‘Beehives’ and what-have-you. Like my
wife. It’s humiliating.

JANE rushes off. ROCKWELL watches for a moment.

STEPHENSON
She seemed unwell.

ROCKWELL
It’s the child. Our first was like that too.

STEPHENSON
I’ll check on her.

ROCKWELL
Leave it.

He slugs his drink.

ARROWSMITH
Such a shame, George. Your wife, a beautiful woman with no need to change herself. But
it’s happening, all across the country. And it’s not just hair, is it? It’s jazz, dancing the
monkey, the watusi. All this abstract art. And you know why?
(MORE)
 38.

ARROWSMITH (cont'd)
Because no nigger can match a white person, so they’re forcing their culture on us, making
us do the things they’re superior at. So they can surpass us! We take on their ways and let
ourselves get bested by cannibals fresh out of the jungle.

STEPHENSON
Monstrous.

ARROWSMITH
George, I need you. If you’re up to it. America’s headed for a reckoning and they’ve got us
outnumbered 10-to-1. Whites are divided and decadent, the colored races get harder and
harder.

ROCKWELL
Why not do something about it?

ARROWSMITH
God knows, I try! But I’m not a leader of men, George. You are! Those medals on your
chest, they mean something. You’re meant for more than idling away training fighter pilots.
You’re meant to command! Don’t you feel it? Your whole life, haven’t you looked for that
thing, that one thing you were put here to do? I see it in you, so does Willy. We’ve been
waiting for you, George. This whole country’s been waiting for the leader of our times.
They’ll ignore you, then laugh at you. Call you an agent, just like they did the Fuehrer. But
if you have iron in your stomach, you’ll reclaim the America we were promised. You will
save this country. Commander, I want you to lead the American Reich.

A beat.

ROCKWELL
How do we begin?

LIGHTS SHIFT as ROCKWELL walks upstage,

returning to...
 39.

ACT II
SCENE 1. AT RANDOM SOUNDSTAGE, 1968

The gentlemen assembled again.

MADIGAN
Mr. Rockwell, where do you find in the Bill of Rights or the Constitution any
differentiation among the peoples of this country?

ROCKWELL
Well, for instance, in the Constitution, Article 1, Section 2, I believe, it states black people
will be counted as four-fifths--

STOKELY MADIGAN
Three-fifths. Have you heard of the Civil War?

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
Of course I have! Yes, three-fifths. Mr. Carmichael is agreeing with me--

STOKELY
Three-fifths.

ROCKWELL
The fact is--

STOKELY
Would you say this country was founded on racism?

ROCKWELL
Of course.

STOKELY
On whose side?

ROCKWELL
On my side.

STOKELY
Thank you.

Laughter from the audience. ROCKWELL reddens.

 40.

ROCKWELL
Now you’re beginning to be racist on your side, but you won’t admit it!

A beat.

STOKELY
How are we exploited in the communities we live?

ROCKWELL
Mr. Carmichael, even though I believe you and I are going to confront each other shooting,
I’ll agree you were exploited. I’ll agree you were brought over as slaves, which is
disgraceful. I read you’ve been exploited for three or four-hundred years or whatever you
say, but it does not give you the right to take anything from me by force!

STOKELY
Have I taken anything from you by force?

ROCKWELL
Not yet, and you won’t do it!

MADIGAN
Mr. Rockwell, why would you make a statement just fraught with such foreboding as to
say eventually we’ll be shooting each other?

ROCKWELL
It’s already happened. Last week--

MADIGAN
I know, I know, but is that an adult way to approach a big problem, a basic problem of our
times--

ROCKWELL
It’s a historical way!

MADIGAN
History is changed by individuals of good will!

ROCKWELL
Our forefathers did plenty of praying, but they did more shooting! Mr. Madigan, we took
this country from the Indians. We didn’t talk them out of it. We took it away and we killed
most of ‘em. There’s hardly any left--
 41.

MADIGAN
Alright, Mr. Rockwell, let’s say many people, White Christians as you label them, share a
distaste in Stoke--Mr. Carmichael’s Black Power Movement, merit aside for the moment--

ROCKWELL
They do!

MADIGAN
Why would you think -- with the name you have attached to yourself, the American Nazi
Party -- think that Americans would support you as their leader in this?

ROCKWELL
If I--

MADIGAN
Recently, a national magazine--

ROCKWELL
If I--

MADIGAN
--a national magazine said you were the most universally detested public figure in America
today.

ROCKWELL
If I dropped the term Nazi, I wouldn’t be here and you wouldn’t be here.
(a beat)
We are not Germans. We don’t wear jackboots. Most of us are veterans of the Army,
Navy, Marine Corps. We didn’t duck our responsibility to defend this country, like on his
side. We are not hoodlums, like he has on his side. We’re not bullyboys. We’re not against
anyone for something he can’t help, his color or his race. But we are racists. We believe in
race. We believe in race openly, not like you Northern racists, who hide it. Science tells us
there are different breeds. Breeds with superior and inferior qualities. Race horses
compared to plowhorses. Greyhounds compared to mongrels. White Christians built this
great society and I’m out to preserve it. Is it hate to want to breed a good bull to a good
cow? I say it is science.

MADIGAN
Let me ask, Mr. Carmichael, philosophically, the positions he exhorts so vigorously here,
or at least that he doesn’t attempt to hide, which, let’s assume for a moment that others
share his views but are afraid to speak them, what does it do to you inside?

The other two don’t react as STOKELY slowly rises and

walks downstage, removing his suit jacket.
 42.

MADIGAN (cont’d)
Mr. Carmichael?

LIGHTS FADE on the soundstage, isolating STOKELY.

STOKELY
Mama...it’s me. This is for real now. Something I gotta do. I only ask one thing. If the
press should contact you, just tell them you’re proud of me.
(YELLS from OFF)
Just tell them you’re proud...

SCENE 2. HINDS COUNTY JAIL, 1961

More yells of protest as WHITE DEPUTIES viciously

shove BLACK ACTIVISTS onstage, corralling them and
STOKELY into separate patches of light. Cells.

DEPUTY TYSON looms over STOKELY.

TYSON
Boy, what the hell was you thinkin’? You not gon’ change nuthin’. Count yerself lucky
that mob didn’t kill you. Next time, they will, ya hear? So get yerself back up North and
leave the South to Southerners. We got nice Negrahs ‘round here. Don’t need you stirrin’
‘em up. Yer not gon’ change nuthin’--

STOKELY
You said...

TYSON
Alright then. Lock it up!

TYSON starts to exit as another activist, RUBY DEE, two

cells down, taunts him.

RUBY DEE
Hey, Depu-tee, what kinda grub you servin’ in this place?

TYSON
Can it, nigger.

RUBY DEE
You got dat corrrrrrrn breaddddd? Gon’ whip me up some grits--
 43.

TYSON
I said can it!

He exits.

RUBY DEE
Touchy, touchy. Hey, who all we got in heer? Hey, who in the place?

STOKELY
I am.

RUBY DEE
Yeah, who dat?

STOKELY
Name’s Stokely.

RUBY DEE
Ruby Dee from Tennessee!

STOKELY
Nice to meet you, I guess.

RUBY DEE
You guess? Nigger, everybody should have a friend like me.

Another prisoner speaks up...

JOHN LEWIS
Hey, keep it down.

RUBY DEE
Man, what else you got to do!

JOHN LEWIS
I was thinking ‘bout sleepin’.

RUBY DEE
Sleep when you’re dead, old timer. Hey Stoke, where’d they grab you?

STOKELY
Felt like right off the plane. Got into N’Orleans ‘round 3AM, already this huge crowd
gathered. Throwin’ eggs, cursin’, hollerin’. Planned on sitting-in next morning, but hadn’t
planted our butts more’n ten minutes when the police yankin’ us back up, dumpin’ us here.
 44.

JOHN LEWIS
How old’re ya?

STOKELY
Twenty.

JOHN LEWIS
This your first arrest?

STOKELY
Yessir.

RUBY DEE
Man, yer life been blessed!

JOHN LEWIS
You gon’ keep protestin’?

STOKELY
Yessir.

JOHN LEWIS
Than get yerself comfortable. Mattress better if you put it on the floor. It’s the springs in
these rusty cots that kill ya. I got the back of a fifty-year-old now.

STOKELY
Thanks, I’ll--remember that.

RUBY DEE
Most important thang, never let up. Just ‘cause they got you don’t mean you ain’t fightin’.
Keep it alive in here just as much as out there.

STOKELY
Whatcha mean?

RUBY DEE
Keep makin’ a ruckus. Drive these crackers out dere podunk minds. ‘Til they so vexed
they got to give us what we need. You know any church songs? They hates the hymnals.

STOKELY
A couple.

RUBY DEE
Well let’s hear ‘em, Stoke. Loud as you can. Ain’t no time like the right now!
 45.

LIGHTS SHIFT as ROCKWELL enters stage with

ARROWSMITH...

Through the following, STOKELY and the prisoners stay

where they are, as if coexisting in a shared memory.

SCENE 3. ARLINGTON ANP HEADQUARTERS, 1960

ROCKWELL marvels at the space, lost in its potential.

His potential.

ARROWSMITH
It’s been abandoned going on a year, but nothing a few able boys can’t fix up.

ROCKWELL
We’ll have plenty of those!

ARROWSMITH
Porch wraps around, three stories, number of bedrooms, The neighbors are quiet, suburban
types. DC just a stone’s throw away, giving you easy access to the politicians, the press.

ROCKWELL rolls a printing press from the wings.

ROCKWELL
What’s this?!

ARROWSMITH
I was hoping to find a newer model, but it’ll get the job done. Built to last. See? ‘Made in
America.’

ROCKWELL
Harold, it’s ideal.

ARROWSMITH
I’m taking a gamble on you, Rockwell. Twenty-thousand’s a lot of capital. You use it now.
Drive the Jews mad.

ROCKWELL
Believe me, sir, I will.

Scene transitions become rapid-fire as we volley back-and-

forth between ROCKWELL starting out and STOKELY
serving his first sentence. Transitions denoted by “-->”:
 46.

RUBY DEE
Yo! Deputee Ty-son!

STOKELY
Deputy!

TYSON enters.

TYSON
What the hell is it?

RUBY DEE
Take these plates back, we strikin’!

TYSON
You...what?

RUBY DEE
We. Ain’t. Eatin’. Which ain’t hard, yer cookin’ so bad!

TYSON
Nigger, get that food down right now.

RUBY DEE
Uh-uh.

TYSON
Do as yer told! Don’t make me force ya!

STOKELY
Deputy Tyson, it’s all of us. You gon’ feed me too?

TYSON
Stokely, don’t give me no lip.

STOKELY
Don’t give me no food.

TYSON
Boy, you gon’ be in here a loooong time!

STOKELY
That’s okay. So are you! Right here with us!

TYSON storms out as the prisoners howl.

 47.

--> Frenetic DANIEL BURROS enters towards

ROCKWELL with a large handpainted sign that reads,
“No Trespassers. Dogs and Jews will be shot.”

BURROS
Where’d you want this, Commander?

ROCKWELL
Oh, that’s good, Danny, real good. Right out front. First thing you see from the road.

BURROS
Yes, sir! And sir, I was wondering, could I be Gestapo boss? I’d be real good at it, I
always wanted to be an SS spy! My hero growing up was Horst Wessel, you know he
was the first man to die for his race, 1930, shot in the head by Communist Jews--

ROCKWELL
When the time comes, Danny, you’ll be my first choice.

BURROS
Thank you!

BURROS exits as JOHN PATLER enters in Marine

uniform, a wide-eyed Greek kid mesmerized by what he’s
seeing.

ROCKWELL doesn’t notice PATLER as MATT KOEHL

strides in and shows him a freshly printed flyer.

ROCKWELL
The text’s spot on, ‘Jews thru in ‘72,’ I love it. But the cartoons, who did the illustrations?

KOEHL
One of the boys took a stab at it.

ROCKWELL
They’re awful. Awful! How’s anyone gonna take us seriously if we draw like a bunch of
grade school--

PATLER
I can illustrate.

ROCKWELL turns as KOEHL takes an instant dislike to

PATLER, his uniform, his darker features.
 48.

ROCKWELL
What’s your name, son?

PATLER
John Patsalos, sir.

KOEHL
What’s that? Greek?

PATLER
On my father’s side.

ROCKWELL
How long you been in the service?

PATLER
Couple years. It was...

ROCKWELL
Speak up.

PATLER
That or prison, sir.

ROCKWELL starts to turn away. KOEHL sneers.

PATLER (cont’d)
“The Aryan race is the only creative race! Marxists use social justice to conceal the chains
they have forged for the proletariat! The great deeds have never been accomplished by the
mass, but only by individuals! Democracy denies responsibility by spreading it! Mob rule
means rule by the mediocre.”
(ROCKWELL turns back)
I read it, sir, your Official Stormtrooper Manual. Cover-to-cover, and then I read it again. I
had to come. I started out with DeWest Hooker, if you know him. Runs the Nationalist
Youth League. That’s why I was arrested. Mr. Rockwell, sir, you’re...an inspiration to me
and I’d just like to say, whether you let me join or not, I believe in what you’re doing. I
believe...in you.

PATLER snaps a smart salute. A beat.

ROCKWELL
Call me Commander.
 49.

--> STOKELY is refusing food as TYSON tries to shove a

plate into his hand.

TYSON
Take the plate, goddammit!

STOKELY
No, no, hell no, get off me!

TYSON
Eat something you stubborn coon!

In the struggle, the plate clatters to the ground and

TYSON manhandles STOKELY from the cell, forcing him
into ‘wrist-breaker’ handcuffs.

RUBY DEE
Stoke! What they doin’ to you!

JOHN LEWIS
HEY! LET HIM GO!

STOKELY
(singing as he’s cuffed)
I’m gonna tell God how you treat me!
I’m gonna tell God how you treat me one of these days, hallelujah!

The other prisoners join in.

STOKELY & PRISONERS

I’m gonna sit at the welcome table!
I’m gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days, hallelujah!

TYSON
STOP IT! Boy, these things go tighter.

STOKELY
AHHH!

The prisoners keep it up as STOKELY loses his voice to

the pain.

PRISONERS
I’m gonna walk the streets of glory!
I’m gonna walk the streets of glory one of these days, hallelujah!
 50.

Unexpectedly, TYSON backs away, STOKELY on his

knees groaning.

TYSON
Boy, why you doin’ this to me! It ain’t fair. You’re bein’ unfair. You’re bein’ unfair!

PRISONERS
(trailing off)
I’m gonna tell God how you treat me...one of these days...

STOKELY
Me unfair! You’re the one breakin’ my arm!

TYSON
You’re making me!

STOKELY
Making you nothin’, you’re choosin’ to!

TYSON
I tell ya not to sing, ya sing! Not to pray, ya pray! Ya don’t respect a word I say!

STOKELY
You don’t give us no lawyers! No ministers! You take away our clothes, our beddin’!

TYSON
You didn’t have to come down here!

STOKELY
Yes, I did! I got to resist! We all got to RESIST!

TYSON
Well I got to resist too!

STOKELY
What!

TYSON
What?!

STOKELY
Resist what?!

TYSON
CHANGE!
 51.

TYSON collapses by STOKELY and slowly uncuffs him as

the lights shift back to the world of ROCKWELL...

--> Gathered with KOEHL, BURROS, and PATLER as

his secretary BARBARA VON GOETZ enters with a heavy
box.

ROCKWELL
Careful now, Barbara! Danny, give her a hand. Come on, let’s see ‘em!

DANNY rips the box open, pulling out the first issue of
Stormtrooper Magazine. Everyone grabs a copy.

A beat as they all read, look at the pictures, etc.

BARBARA
It’s beautiful. ‘U.S. Nazis Are Ready--’

BURROS
You bet we are! Lookee here, the ‘Miami Beach Kike!’ He’s drawn real good, John!

PATLER
Thanks.

ROCKWELL
You stuck it to the States Rights boys nice and proper, Matt. And Sammie Davis, the
‘Kosher Coon,’ goddamn!

BARBARA
I’m partial to the ‘Jew Zoo.’ John, it’s just such lovely work. It all flows together so well.

ROCKWELL
Let’s get ‘em out. The time is now! In one week we march on the Mall. Danny, help John
with the scaffold and posters. Koehl, get the men in line and their kit sorted. Crisp
uniforms. I’m not showing up with a bunch of mommy boys playing dress-up.
(everyone starts to leave)
John, hold on a minute.

The others exit, except KOEHL.

KOEHL
Commander, we need to talk about the Speaking Tour--
 52.

ROCKWELL
Give me a moment--

KOEHL
I’ve gotta call ahead to--

ROCKWELL
A moment, Matt.

KOEHL exits. ROCKWELL appraises PATLER as he

flips through a Stormtrooper.

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
I’ve been thinking. Your name.

PATLER
What about it?

ROCKWELL
It’s got a certain sound to it. Patsolas...what about...Patler? How’s that strike you? A more
masculine feel. What do you think?

PATLER
Yes, sir. Patler, I--yes, I like it very much.

ROCKWELL
Sure your daddy won’t mind?

PATLER
I like it even more if he does.

ROCKWELL
That’s the spirit! Damn the old man. John Patler, editor of Stormtrooper magazine.

PATLER
Editor!

ROCKWELL
You’ll have to keep up illustrating as well, but I look at this and I think, hell, if you’re not a
layout man, I don’t know who is! I need you steering the magazine. I’ll be in charge--

PATLER
Of course.
 53.

ROCKWELL
I plan to run my own as well, The Rockwell Report. A bimonthly expose from the desk of
the Commander. But Stormtrooper has to be a triumph. A legitimate publication to rival the
big houses. Bold design, hard reporting. I want to light up the truth like a big neon sign ‘til
the public can’t ignore it. You think you can do that for me?

PATLER
For you, sir, anything.

ROCKWELL
Good, now get these circulated.

PATLER starts off with the box of magazines, but stops.

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
Was there something else, John?

PATLER
Just...no one’s ever appreciated what I can do, sir. It means a lot. A whole heck of a lot.

ROCKWELL
You’re a special boy, son. I’m lucky to have you.

PATLER exits as ROCKWELL takes a moment alone, then

exits.

--> Leaving only the prisoners.

STOKELY
Now, y’all, listen up! My name’s Stokely Carmichael! You remember that name. Stokely.
Carmichael. This is the first, but it ain’t gon’ be the last time I’m in one of these cells! If
you stickin’ with the fight, odds are we’ll see each other again in here, maybe sooner than
we like. Well, if we do, DON’T NONE OF YOU MENTION HUNGER STRIKES!
Because I ain’t doin’ ‘em again! First man who mention any kind of hunger strike, I’m
holding him down! I’m stuffin’ a sock in his mouth! From here on out, we eatin’! We
stayin’ strong!

RUBY DEE
Man, you won’t be hearin’ no hunger strike from me.

STOKELY
Ruby Dee, it was your idea!

TYSON enters, unlocks STOKELY’s door, then the rest.

 54.

TYSON
You’re out.

RUBY DEE
Praise Jesus! Come on, Stoke, let’s get some eats!

RUBY DEE rushes out, but STOKELY lingers.

STOKELY
You got another of our boys down in The Hole. Ain’t had a lick of sunlight in weeks.
Ain’t seen no priest or talked to no other earthly creature. That ain’t right. You know it
ain’t. Now we gone, bring ‘em up. At least give ‘em a window. The sound of other voices,
even if it’s just your radio playin’ that god-awful hootenanny out in the office.

TYSON
I’ll think about it.
(STOKELY starts to leave)
You’re crazy, you know that?

STOKELY
Nah. You don’t think I’m crazy. You worried I’m too smart.

TYSON
Ha! You ain’t smart. You’re ignorant.

STOKELY
Whatever you say.

A beat.

TYSON
I...I’m not sure what’s gon’ happen, but...I want my kids to be happy, and my grandkids. I
guess y’all probably want the same for yours. So that’s...

STOKELY
Yeah.

TYSON
Go on, get. Bet you’re glad to be goin’.

STOKELY
Nah, Deputy. I’ll miss you.
 55.

TYSON
Ha!
(a beat)
I’ll miss you too, all the trouble you caused me.

TYSON strides out as JOHN LEWIS leaves his cell and

approaches STOKELY.

STOKELY
How you doin’?

JOHN LEWIS
Oh, I been here many times before. John Lewis. Chairman of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee, but you mighta heard us called SNICK. You have heard of us?

STOKELY
(eagerly)
Yes, yessir. My name’s Stokely--

JOHN LEWIS
Oh, I know. Stokely Carmichael, I got plans for you.

LIGHTS.

SCENE 4. NATIONAL MALL, APRIL 1960

Far right, ROCKWELL nips from a flask in full Nazi

uniform. Braces himself and walks out onto a
SCAFFOLDING set for him.

Patler flanks him with a banner that reads, ‘Whites Have

Rights Too!’ BYSTANDERS pass hurriedly.

ROCKWELL
You there, sir! Ma’am! Step up for a minute, please. Take time from your day to hear the
truth, the truth as no one else has the courage to tell it! Yes you, this way, please! Just a
moment of your time! It’s the start of a new decade, ladies and gentlemen, and I’m here to
tell you, here to tell you that what lays ahead is so much worse than what we have already
seen! The Communist Jew and his Negro pet are threatening our nation.

BYSTANDER 1
NAZI!
 56.

ROCKWELL
Nazi! Yes, yes I am. And I salute you, sir! I salute you as the Romans did the Greeks! As
a sign of friendship between us, that you, sir, are one of us! That you, sir, are with us!

BYSTANDER 1
Like hell I am!

BYSTANDER 2
BIGOT!

ROCKWELL
No ma’am, not by choice. I am a man of our times. Times when social welfare has created
the boom of little black bastards! Bastards your tax dollars are being used to keep in liquor!

BYSTANDER 3
Die, you sicko!

ROCKWELL
And I might, sir, I very well might! For speaking the truth about those who are powerful!
For divulging their secrets to you, here, now, today!! They may gun me down!

BYSTANDER 3
Wish they’d hurry up and do it!

ROCKWELL
I may not live to see the victory I will make possible, but I will not die before I make that
victory certain!

BYSTANDER 1 pelts ROCKWELL with an egg. A beat.

BYSTANDER 2
Let’s go.

The crowd starts to disperse.

ROCKWELL
Two thousand years ago the most hated doctrine was Christianity. The most hated man was
Jesus Christ. His symbol, the cross, was even more hated. So hated, that his followers
used a fish. A fish! Until it was safe to worship the cross. Would you live in those times
again? Too scared to be the good White Christian people you are? Too scared to walk the
streets of this nation’s capital? How many of you feel safe walking around DC? You know
the neighborhoods I mean. The places you, an American! An American, with the promise
of a free, clean, good, Christian country can not go. And why not? Why can’t you?
Because filth and crime and violence wait for you there. Don’t be fooled, ladies and
gentlemen. We’re not the enemy.
(MORE)
 57.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
This bright, young boy here, my Stormtroopers, they’re handpicked, every one. By me.
They swear oaths. Oaths to be courteous, manly, just, courageous. Honest and disciplined.
You’d do better letting one of them walk your daughter home than let her go play with
Martin Luther Coon and his type. See what happens to her after dark with those animals!

BYSTANDER 4
My daughter’s not getting near you cranks!

ROCKWELL
Debate me then, sir! Don’t walk off! Debate me! I will defend myself. Not by name-calling
or smears, as you’ve done, but by presenting my case, with facts and logic! What do you
have to lose?! Hear me out!

Everyone is leaving, except one bystander, a young

RECRUIT who steps forward, won over.

Downstage left, SOLOMON ANDHIL FINEBERG enters

in a suit and traditional kippah, speaking on the phone as
an American Jewish Committee ASSISTANT races to him.

FINEBERG
That’s right, Mr. Attorney General. Do nothing. That’s what I’m asking for. The last thing
we want at the AJC is a file opened on these haters. That’ll just legitimize them. Yes. Very
good, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kennedy.

He hangs up.

AJC ASSISTANT
Dr. Fineberg, the Committee needs to know what to recommend. The press is running with
Rockwell. They’re all asking for comment. He’s called it the American Nazi Party.

FINEBERG
We treat him like we treated Gerald Smith. Nothing! Not one word, no acknowledgement.
Make sure everybody’s in line on this. Dynamic silence. Full quarantine. We try to stifle
him, or take it to court, it’ll be like wrapping fire in paper.

ASSISTANT
Will that work?

FINEBERG
As long as nobody breaks rank, he’ll run out of money and out of support, they always do.
 58.

They exit as ROCKWELL vaults downstage with PATLER

and a handful of newspapers. PATLER tries to rub the
egg off ROCKWELL’s shirt.

ROCKWELL
Look at this! Look at this! I told you!

PATLER
This isn’t coming out easy--

ROCKWELL
It’s ad work, son. In the marketing racket we’d use naked women, that’s what sells. For
us, it’s swastikas. You use what brings ‘em in. What are you doing there?

PATLER
I think I need soda water--

ROCKWELL
(back in his newspapers)
Makes them into wild ghetto Jews! Frothing, baying, full of fear and rage. You can always
count on the Jew to blow up their own victories, throw aside their cold reasoning abilities
with their insane passions of hate and revenge--

PATLER
Could you hold still a moment!

ROCKWELL stops moving as PATLER scrubs.

ROCKWELL
You have to dab.

PATLER
It wasn’t working.

ROCKWELL
Here, you have...like this!

ROCKWELL takes the kerchief and does it himself. A beat.

PATLER
I wanted to sock that man who threw it at you. Laughing like he was.

ROCKWELL
No, don’t you see? This is what we want! How many reporters asked about that egg? How
many stories mentioned it? This is it, the lifeblood of a party. Free publicity!
(MORE)
 59.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
John, we’re gonna need to come out with some pretty strong stuff to stay in business.
Today’s worth more than a three-dollar shirt and a two-quarter egg!

Through this, ROCKWELL has gotten the shirt off, now in

his undershirt.

PATLER
It just...made me so angry...

He and ROCKWELL are close.

ROCKWELL
I’m glad it did, son. That means you care.

A beat. BURROS enters.

BURROS
Commander, you’ve got a visitor.

ROCKWELL
Not now, Danny!

BURROS
He says he’s your father.

A beat.

ROCKWELL
Give me the room.

BURROS exits and PATLER moves into the wings, not

fully gone. A moment later, DOC enters. BURROS tucks
in with PATLER to watch.

DOC
Hell, Link, this is too much.

ROCKWELL
Like what I’ve done with the place? I modeled the office after yours.

DOC
What are you talking about? This, this is insane.
 60.

ROCKWELL
I’m a busy man, dad. I’ve only got a couple minutes.

DOC
Is that right?

ROCKWELL
The movement’s picking up! Donations pouring in. We’re planning a mission Down
South, where all the Negroes are running wild. Remember those wee-wee-inners? It’s a
war, dad, for the soul of the country. And I’ve been picked to lead.

DOC
Link, I--

ROCKWELL
Commander. In here, it’s Commander. Even to you.

DOC
You were discharged, George.

ROCKWELL
Honorably.

DOC
They wanted you out.

ROCKWELL
My ‘mobilization potential had been reduced.’

DOC
George--

ROCKWELL
Hell, if a southern boy from Mississippi has to serve under a colored sergeant, coloreds
should have to serve under me and not complain about it! I commanded plenty of Negroes,
apparently did a good job of it after nineteen-and-a-half years. Told them they were the best
squadron in the best navy in the world. That’s how you instill a sense of pride, purpose!
But they want colored troops to feel welcome and safe, they want kid gloves, everyone to
love each other. That’s why we’re losing so bad now. Army’s a bunch of pansies! No
place in it for men like me anymore. Real men.

DOC reels and slowly takes out a piece of paper.

DOC
I got this from a book a friend gave me. You remember Harry Golden?
 61.

ROCKWELL
Fat Jew, Ukrainian.

DOC
Just hear me out.

ROCKWELL
Your time’s almost up--

DOC
Paranoia. ‘A psychosis which develops relatively late in life and is highly
monosymptomatic in that the patient has a systemized set of delusions of persecution which
are usually balanced by delusions of grandeur.’

A beat.

ROCKWELL
I’m waiting for the big reveal here, dad.

DOC
Can’t you see it?

ROCKWELL
Thanks for stopping by. You’ll see more of me, much more, I guarantee it.

DOC
No, Link, I won’t. That’s why I’m here. Either give this up, all this madness, and come
home with me right now. I’ll even give you some money. Get you started out. Please, come
with me.

ROCKWELL
Or?

DOC
I’ll sever our connection forever.

A beat.

ROCKWELL
I remember Golden. You used to have him over for dinners. Him and the rest. Old Doc
Rockwell they’d call you. Made you sound like you weren’t such a selfish bastard, huh?
You’d even join them on the Sabbath, charm their old Jew mothers. Not a minute in the
day to see my mom, but smooth as silk with theirs. Remember you brought me along once
or twice. They let me light the candles.
(MORE)
 62.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
Showed me where to read along with the songs and the prayers. Funny language. Never
could get the sounds right. Then you’d walk me uptown. All the way from the Lower East
and remember what you used to say? ‘Kikes taking all the good gigs.’ They all got TV
shows. Yours got cancelled. ‘Jew studio heads don’t know what funny is.’ That must have
been humiliating.

DOC
Everyone talks guff like that, Link! Heck, I bet ol’ Golden and the lot used to call me a
phoney-baloney goyim when I wasn’t in the room. But you don’t take it outside the home!
That’s just the way it is.

ROCKWELL
And why not! If we’re all saying it anyway, if it’s what we’re all feeling! I’m not chicken
like you, dad, playing second string to his Jew buddies, moaning and groaning while they
make it and you’re still on the night show circuit. I’m a prophet of truth! The battle cry for
a huge and hidden movement in this country, waiting to reveal itself!

DOC
You’ve lost it!

ROCKWELL
WHY!

DOC
You think these kids are a movement!

ROCKWELL
We’re just the beginning! The KKK used to march in rankfile by the thousands down
Pennsylvania Avenue. America First, Lindbergh. Ford, McCarthy. All silent, gone, dashed
to pieces! Because they couldn’t make it stick! Hell, the white South with its States Rights,
Confederate approach, they’re being beaten to their knees. All other methods fail! Continue
to fail! But they’re out there, thousands and millions of patriots, waiting. Waiting for me.
To rise up and fight. To fight and win!

A beat.

DOC
Goodbye, George.

ROCKWELL
That’s it?! That’s all you’ve got? No big speech? Nothing but a bunch of hollow threats!
What’d you expect me to say! ‘Thanks for the money, dad. Really means a lot.’ I could’ve
used it when I was growing up! Mom could’ve used it!
 63.

DOC
I’m...sorry...I wasn’t there more--

ROCKWELL
I’m sorry you were there at all. If this is the last time I see you, make sure you stop by and
say hello to Jane and the girls. She took quite a shine to you--

DOC
They’re gone, Link.
(a beat)
I helped them to the airport this morning. She called and...we would have told you but...

A long beat. DOC starts to leave.

ROCKWELL
Hey dad.

DOC
(hopeful)
Yes, son?

ROCKWELL
Tell Golden, when the day comes that we gas the Jews, I’ll review his case personally.

BURROS spits on DOC as he goes. LIGHTS SHIFT.

SCENE 5. SNICK HEADQUARTERS, GREENWOOD, 1961

STOKELY addresses a new group of STUDENT

VOLUNTEERS, black and white, men and women.

STOKELY
Baby powder. Now don’t be laughin’. I’m serious. You gon’ be walkin’ long miles on hot
days and, let me tell you, baby powder. It’s gon’ make all the difference, especially to you
men. Other things: no cussin’, no drinkin’, don’t be seen datin’. If you get arrested, and
you will if you’re doing it right, don’t leave after dark. Don’t matter if the deputies are
pushin’ you out the door, you dig in with your fingernails to stay in that cell ‘til the sun
come up. Outside those walls, you’re liable to get jumped right back to the morgue. And
ladies, no pants. It ain’t respectable down here and the last thing we wanna do is be
anything less than respectable ‘round these timid white folk. 5PM curfew! Now get to it.

An ORGANIZER runs up to STOKELY.

 64.

ORGANIZER
Stoke, he’s, he’s here! He shown up, right here! In Greenwood! I, he, jumpin’ jeepers--

STOKELY
Slow down, who’s here?

ORGANIZER
King!

STOKELY
KING!

ORGANIZER
They’re asking for someone to drive him around.

STOKELY
Man, where’s he at?

ORGANIZER
The airport!

STOKELY
Gimme your keys. Gimme your keys!

ORGANIZER
You even know how to drive?

STOKELY
Push the pedal, turn the wheel. How hard can it be!

STOKELY runs off as the stage clears.

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR steps out, BODYGUARDS

following at a distance. KING takes in his surroundings.
A moment later, STOKELY jogs up, breathless.

STOKELY (cont’d)
I found a spot ‘round the corner. You just let me know when you’re ready, I’ll pull ‘round.

KING
Stokely, right?

STOKELY
Carmichael, yessir. I, uh, I study with Bayard Rustin at Howard. We talk ‘bout you.
 65.

KING
He’s a good man. We’re working on something together right now. A march.

STOKELY
For black folk?

KING
It’s not confined by race alone. We’re thinking of calling it, ‘Jobs and Freedom.’ Our black
brothers and sisters need the help of good white folk as well. The more we include them in
our movement, the faster progress will be made.

STOKELY
You think...this is working?

KING
The movement?

STOKELY
This, Freedom Rides. Just sittin’ down and takin’ it. Malcolm don’t believe it’ll solve
anythin’. Said he’d rather build his own restaurant than beg the white man to eat at his.

KING
There are three things wrong with that. The first is the idea that we’re sitting down and
taking anything. For hundreds of years, we did exactly that. We allowed ourselves to be
beaten and chained, yoked to the master’s bidding. But now, sitting at his counters, riding
his buses, we’re standing. Standing and speaking in a voice louder than any word,
showing that those days are gone. It might look like one thing, but it’s the opposite.
Second, we’re not begging the white man to eat in his restaurant. We’re asking him, why
can’t we? What is so threatening, so dangerous about us sitting down to a nice meal like
anybody else? We could have picked any place to protest, could have picketed the unions
or on job sites, but we picked where we eat. It’s about our most basic need to survive.
Something so integral to every person, black or white. The nourishing of the body. The
thing that allows us to breathe and be healthy and reach older age. As sweet old Ms. Baker
says, it’s about ‘more than a hamburger.’

STOKELY
And the last thing?

KING
The last thing. Is how we open our own restaurants. And there...you’ve got me.

A BLACK CHILD runs by. They watch.

STOKELY
I guess...
 66.

KING
Yes?

STOKELY
I don’t see the point then.

KING
Of Freedom Rides?

STOKELY
We’re tryin’ to change people, how they see us, but I don’t imagine people can change.
Sure, they’re different away from the mob. Maybe you get friendly with ‘em, share a
laugh, you feel like you’re making progress, but out in the world, they’re right back to
bein’ who they always were. Their institutions though, those can change. Laws can change.
We can make ‘em hire us, make ‘em give us the vote. I just think...if we wait and hope on
their beliefs changin’, we gon’ be waitin’ a long time. Maybe longer than any of us got.

KING
So what would you suggest?

STOKELY
Forget the sit-ins! Focus on the black folk who don’t got time to show up, can’t afford to
not work. Get out to them, where they are. Get past the bossman in the field, find ‘em at
night on their porches with their children choppin’ wood for the fires, the mud ankle-deep
but their songs so full to burstin’, and get them the Vote. Register more black folk down
here than the courthouses can handle. ‘Til there more black folk on the rolls than white
folk. God knows, there’s more of us than them, but we ain’t usin’ the power we supposed
to have. And that’s what it is, right, power? Who’s got it. What they do with it.

KING
Sounds like the South has worked on you.

STOKELY
I...love it down here, sir.

KING
They’re good people.

STOKELY
I came thinkin’ I knew up from down. But here, here I’ve met heroes. Humble folk, of
slight education and modest means, they’ve fed us, protected us. Shown all us ‘educated,’
‘civilized’ college-kids we just a bunch of smart-asses.
(a beat)
In high school, everybody was my best friend.
(MORE)
 67.

STOKELY (cont'd)
There’s wasn’t but two Negroes in the whole school and everyone was always askin’ us
places. Some weekend, I headed to this classmate’s birthday, up along Park Avenue.
Entered this doorman building, all marble floors and gold mirrors, this little, cramped
elevator with a stool in it went all the way up to the 15th floor. Opened right into this livin’
room, no entryway, the elevator just opened into this livin’ room. Big fireplace, stereo all
over the house, you could hear it everywhere. Stuff I’d only seen in movies. And my
friend, he insisted I meet his mother. Now I didn’t care one way or the other, but he was
real serious about it, wanted me to say hello. So he brings her over, with this whole group
of ladies. And we hit it right off. I’m talkin’, they laughin’, tellin’ me they heard so much
about me, what a good lookin’ boy I am, what nice features, and on and on. Finally I’m
leavin’, they let me go, and just as the elevator’s ‘bout to close, lookin’ back at that whole
big livin’ room with the fire and the music, his mother says to her friends, ‘Oh yes, we let
Jimmy hang around with Negroes.’
(a beat)
Fifteen floors down that echoed over and over in that cramped elevator. ‘Hang around with
Negroes.’ I didn’t like that. Not how it sounded. Not how it made me feel. Like the elevator
was fallin’ faster, like the wire broke and I was plummetin’, my heart up in my neck. Later,
walking home, the queerest thought hit me. I’d been singin’ up there, some old song, and
everyone was gathered ‘round, tellin’ me how good my singin’ was. Man, I can’t carry a
tune. I’ve been thinking on that a lot down here.

KING
I’m sure your singing isn’t that bad.

STOKELY
No, it’s pretty bad!

KING
From what John told me, you get quite a jailhouse rock going when you have a mind to.

STOKELY
Yeah, but cops ain’t gradin’ on chord progression.

KING
Stokely, I like you. I can see where you’re going. And something tells me we aren’t always
going to see eye-to-eye. So promise me this, any differences between us, let’s settle them
between us. It’s hard enough keeping white folk focused on our aims. The press gets
distracted with one camp saying one thing, another camp saying something else; King said
this but McKissick said that; CORE wants A but Urban League wants B. We can debate
how to get there, but let’s keep the debate black. We don’t need whites ‘round while we air
our dirty laundry.
 68.

STOKELY
I’m not sure I understand--

KING
You will, Stokely, you will. Just know, if you respect me, I’ll always respect you.

STOKELY
Of course.

Neither notices as PATLER enters in civilian clothes,

strides across the stage, taps KING on the shoulder and
punches him.

KING’s bodyguards rush forward and grapple with him.

KING
No, no! Don’t hurt him! DON’T HURT HIM! We must pray for this man. Pray for him!

KING is drowned out as a car horn approaches. The

American Nazi Party’s VW HATE BUS drives onto the
stage. ROCKWELL at the wheel, corncob pipe clenched
between his teeth.

Bedlam as the stage floods with black and white men and
women, KING yelling as violence incites on both sides.
Only STOKELY and ROCKWELL do not fight.

(No phoney stage violence here. Hard, sharp movements

cascade from one fight, one beating to the next, punctuated
by instances where the light finds a single character:)

REPORTER 1
Mississippi legislator E.H. Hurst acquitted on all charges for shooting civil rights activist
Herbert Lee. Reports state that the men grew up together and were often on friendly terms.

WHITE UPPER EAST SIDE MOTHER

Oh that’s a nice little name! And how wonderfully you sing!

NAZIS leave a BLACK WOMAN, her face covered in

blood. She screams.

DR. JEROME D. FRANK

The great question we gather to address must be, how long will the nonviolent movement
last in the face of strengthened violence? Deeper still, what does the nonviolent participant
do with repressed feelings?
 69.

PATLER
Whites are winning for the first time in fifty years!

BLACK SCHOLAR
Whites have an intimidating effect, in direct proportion to the amount of degradation black
people have suffered.

REPORTER 2
A mob today attacked four stormtroopers of the American Nazi Party picketing the release
of the movie Exodus. Met with a ring of police, the counter-protestors knocked two
officers to the ground before the cringing Nazis were loaded into a police wagon and
whisked off.

ROCKWELL
The Kennedys send 15,000 troops to get one black boy into Ole Miss, a white university
that does not want him, and there’re no marshals, no soldiers, no protection for my good
boys who are being beaten bloody!

FINEBERG
We must keep up the quarantine! What did Stern say?

ASSISTANT
The Sun will stop covering Rockwell.

FINEBERG
Well there’s something!

ROCKWELL
Greater than the tread of armies is the power of an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo.

BLACK SCHOLAR 2
Frederick Douglass says the youth of today should fight to be leaders. God knows, we
need ‘em. This country is sick. Sick!

STOKELY
Mama, it’s me. This is for real now. Something I gotta do. I only ask one thing. If the press
should contact you, just tell them you’re proud of me.

STOKELY’S MOTHER
Stop chatting nonsense, boy. You’re putting your life on the line for people who don’t care
nuthin’ ‘bout you.
 70.

STOKELY
It ain’t gon’ be me! Somebody will die, but it’ll be the guy next to me.

STOKELY tries not to fight back as a man, EDDIE

DICKERSON, throws him down and beats him.

HOWARD UNIVERSITY DEAN

For enduring many hardships for his people registering voters in Mississippi, the Senior
Class Humanity Award is given to Stokely Carmichael.

PATLER stands with ROCKWELL, KOEHL scowling to

the side.

ROCKWELL
For service above and beyond the call of his Commander, and a mean left hook, I award
John Patler the Order of Adolph Hitler Silver Medal.

The voices and people start to fade away...

REPORTER 3
New York Mayor Wagner denied Mr. Rockwell’s permit application to hold a July 4th
Nazi rally in Union Square, calling him a ‘half-penny Hitler’--

REPORTER 4
The Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith has filed suit in the hopes of silencing the
Nazi leader. The ACLU has intervened on Mr. Rockwell’s behalf and the case has
inadvertently brought more attention to the Nazi cause--

ASSISTANT finds FINEBERG a final time.

ASSISTANT
Sir, the quarantine...

FINEBERG
It’s over.

All exit and we discover ourselves back in SNICK

headquarters...

SCENE 6. SNICK HEADQUARTERS, 1961

STOKELY sits nursing a black eye with JOHN LEWIS

and RUBY DEE. Other ACTIVISTS rush around.
 71.

STOKELY
It’s not working!

RUBY DEE
Stoke--

STOKELY
IT’S NOT FUCKING WORKING!

JOHN LEWIS
Just sit a minute. I got this, Ruby Dee. You’re okay.

STOKELY
How we supposed to do this, huh, John? Every time we show up, there they are, pump
rifles and gas cans. One of us dies, okay. Three die, now people paying attention. Next
time, it’s gotta be six though, because you already done three! Then it’s gotta be ten,
twenty, a hundred of us dyin’ just for anyone to care!

JOHN LEWIS
That’s the mob, Stokely. It’s not America.

STOKELY
Yeah, well, if that’s the mob, where’s everybody else!

JOHN LEWIS
They’re--

STOKELY
Oh sure, some of ‘em come down, help out! You! You! Thank you!

JOHN LEWIS
Keep it down--

STOKELY
You sayin’ this ain’t the majority? This ain’t the majority! That means ‘the majority’ is
sittin’ at home, silently okayin’ the whole thing. Lookin’ on and every once in awhile,
maybe when it is ten or a hundred of us, feelin’ a bit ashamed, but only when it’s so
blatant, so egregious they downright obligated to feel somethin’!

JOHN LEWIS
Stokely, you’re not a student anymore. You’ve got to think about what’s next.

STOKELY
What d’ya you mean?
 72.

JOHN LEWIS
I’m leaving.

STOKELY
What?!

JOHN LEWIS
Heading north. For awhile anyway. All this, the situation down here. It’s a dress rehearsal.
The real fight’s the North.
(a beat)
There’s a code down here, Stokely. Some notion of respect for courage. They may not like
ya, but when they see you keep showin’ up, sooner or later, they come to respect you. And
if not you, your grit. And once that Southern man crosses a line in himself and starts to
deal with you, he won’t lie to you. We can work with that. Not like what’s happening up
North, where a fellow’ll slap you on the back and say, ‘It’s fine, it’s fine, I’m with you,’
but he ain’t. Does that make sense?

STOKELY
Not really--

JOHN LEWIS
You’ll figure it out. When the time’s right. ‘Til then, you got to decide who you are. Where
you gon’ be.

STOKELY
Here. Right here. This is my fight.

JOHN LEWIS
I hoped you’d say that. SNICK’s gonna need a new Chairman. I want that to be you. I’ll
put in the word, it’ll still go to a vote, but you’re respected here. And nothing pulls support
like a black eye.

STOKELY
Mr. Lewis...I’m not sure I’m ready.

JOHN LEWIS
I am.

EDDIE DICKERSON -- the man who beat Stokely --

enters. The room stops.
 73.

EDDIE DICKERSON
I...I’m not here to join ya. I just...next time...well, next time ya show up, if I’m in the
crowd, don’t ‘pect me to talk ter ya or nuthin’ but...I just wanted to say...I’ma try real hard
not to be there.

STOKELY starts off, but JOHN stops him. A beat.

STOKELY offers EDDIE his hand. They shake. LIGHTS.

JOHN LEWIS (OFF)

By unanimous vote, I appoint Stokely Carmichael Chairman of the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee!

Applause fades...

SCENE 7. NOW, TONIGHT

ROCKWELL enters in a suit with a Nazi armband,

directly addressing the audience, engaging with them.

ROCKWELL
First of all, thank you for this rare opportunity to present to a courteous audience. I don’t
usually get to speak without someone hollering over me or trying to get me arrested. I shall
in turn attempt in every way possible to be courteous, to insult nobody, to slur nobody, to
simply present a philosophy that I believe is worthy of your interest.
Our country...is facing chaos. That should be apparent to everybody, all of you, sitting out
there. Under these conditions, we cannot afford the luxury of ideal government. What we
need is order. Sanity. Rational thought. Leaders we can believe in again.
I look out at you and, well, let’s be honest. You want the truth sugar-coated. Easy. You
came here to be entertained. George Stinking Rockwell, Queen of the Nazis!
Now I cannot personally hope to convert you. I’m not expecting to make a revolutionary
out of the man sitting there with two cars and an electric lawn mower. No, he’s too
comfortable. Too complacent. But you feel it, don’t you? That anger, that fear beneath the
surface. That knowledge that this isn’t the country you want. The country you were raised
with. That something has changed and it doesn’t feel right. It feels like an attack. On you!
I remember in school or when your mom caught you doing something you weren’t
supposed to, the grown ups would always say, ‘the truth will set you free.’ But how do
you expect to get the truth when every outlet, every TV station, newspaper, radio frequency
or magazine is controlled by the enemy? When saying how you feel gets you smeared as a
racist, a bigot, a homophobe? The paper curtain in this country denies you information it
deems hate. You’ve heard about ‘managed news.’ You are the victims of suppressed
news! Even I only reach a fraction of a percentage of Americans, but still millions of
Americans know my name! Know there is no man who will stand up for the patriots!
Imagine now, if I could reach everyone. All the time. What couldn’t I do?
(MORE)
 74.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
Because believe this. Most Americans, and many in this room, want what I’m offering.
They wish for these things. Call me a rat or a liar, but this is what they want. The things no
politician or right-winger dares to offer them. And when the economy blows, and blow it
will! When the Negroes have jobs and the Whites are jobless, when the Jews are rich and
the Gentiles have crumbs, the people won’t want any moderate to lead them. They’ll want
all-out war! And the Birch Society, even my own Nazi Party, they may be too strong for
the average American today, but in five years these groups will be milk toast!
(regards his suit, removes the Nazi armband)
Don’t be fooled. All this...this is the show. Tactics. Dramatic tactics to keep away the
cowards and the fakers and the blabber-mouths with which the Conservative Party
abounds. No, I want the hardcore. The fanatics. Yes, I want Americans to be fanatics!
Fanatics for their country! Fanatics for their race! Fanatics for what they believe in! Christ
was a fanatic. Galileo was a fanatic. Washington, Franklin, Sam Adams, all fanatics! Every
man or woman who has ever succeeded in doing great things, things the rest of the world
says are impossible, was a fanatic. America is fed-up with pansy, pantywaist leadership.
America is lost, confused, disgusted, and becoming angry. And you? You rich folk sitting
out there pretending you hate me. Hate what I have to say. You know. As well as I. When
you feel that hairy hand on your wallet, you’ll come looking for me. And you won’t have
to tell a soul. Thanks to this great nation, the one last refuge, the one sacred place that has
been saved for us by the Founding Fathers, for which I thank God, is the voting booth.
You can go in, cursing Rockwell, cursing the Nazis, and still vote for whoever you want,
and no one will be the wiser. And you will. I know you will. And why shouldn’t we? The
blacks aren’t stupid. The Jews aren’t stupid. Hell, if Martin Luther Coon ran as a
Conservative, they’d still vote for him! Because the blacks unite by race. The Jews don’t
cancel themselves out voting half one way, half the other. But they tell us, if we vote as
whites, that’s racism! They told you you’re a Democrat and you you’re a Republican, and
this man cancels out that man, and that woman there cancels out this woman here. This
whole room, this whole audience, neatly divided into two parties! And we get wiped out!
The blacks vote black! Jews vote Jew! All together, and they trounce us every time while
we’re trying to be sensitive and kind and understanding. While our cities turn into ghettos.
Our families leave homes they’ve lived in for generations. Drugs and violence on our
streets. I took the subway to get here. This city’s covered in trash! The blacks are outside
shrieking, out of their minds. Unshowered, stinking, urinating in front of your children,
their teeth yellow. Don’t turn away! Don’t look at me the way you look at them! It’s time
we learned to be respected rather than respectable! Our enemies tolerate and ignore us
because we represent no real threat. But know this, you already are me! You have been
your entire life. I don’t need you to say it. I don’t even need you to think it, but the time has
come, not as Conservatives, not as Democrats, not as Southerners or Protestants, but as all
of us to stand up with our Hearts and Souls and unite!
Ladies and gentleman, I’m running for Governor of Virginia, then President of the United
States and I say, let Whites Vote White!

LIGHTS.
 75.

INTERMISSION
 76.

ACT III
SCENE 1. AT RANDOM SOUNDSTAGE, 1968

LIGHTS UP as FLOOR MANAGER cues MADIGAN in...

FLOOR MANAGER
And we’re back in five, four, three...

LEAD-IN
We now return to At Random, with your host John Madigan!

Applause.

MADIGAN
Welcome back. Mr. Carmichael, I’d like to examine just a moment. You met earlier today
with Elijah Muhammad, and were quoted as saying you could see your group aligning, or
to join up with, the Black Muslims--

STOKELY
First of all--

MADIGAN
These are black nationalists--

STOKELY
First of all--

MADIGAN
Separatists.

STOKELY
First of all, they’re not called Black Muslims. They’re Muslims. They call themselves
Muslims. Secondly, we said we’re gonna move in the black community to speak with other
black groups and we’re not gonna let anybody who is white tell us what groups to talk
with or what they represent. We’re gonna understand firsthand what these groups are about
and see where we can work with them.

MADIGAN
This identification of yours with the nationalist movement is, I think, a danger to your--

ROCKWELL
I disagree--
 77.

STOKELY MADIGAN
I will not publicly debate before a white I’m thinking of Floyd McKissick and Roy
audience the tactics of another black group-- Innis, both avowed black nationalists--

STOKELY
All Floyd and Roy are saying is we want the right to politically and economically control
our communities--

ROCKWELL
They’re saying much more than that!

MADIGAN
Haven’t you indicated you’ve abandoned the NAACP? It’s too bad and this is the same
NAACP that has so often paid the legal fees--

STOKELY
When did you see me say that?

MADIGAN
--bail, and so forth when SNICK members have--

STOKELY
When did you see me say that? And make sure your facts are straight. Now, if you’re
quoting a newspaper, you quote him. But don’t put words in my mouth.

MADIGAN
Stokely--

STOKELY
Don’t be startin’ that Stokely business again.

MADIGAN
Ahm. I...didn’t hear you say that.

STOKELY
Okay then.

A beat.

MADIGAN
Mr. Carmichael, can the, uh, modern Negro make it in America today?

STOKELY
It seems to me...that if the barriers of racism are removed, the black people would make it.
 78.

ROCKWELL
Mr. Carmichael, the more barriers we remove--

MADIGAN
Please don’t say ‘we’--

ROCKWELL
We remove, the more riots we have. Down south, they have the barriers, not the riots. But
up North, they’re tearin’ down the barriers with the fanatical liberal ideal that you invite
‘em all to come on in, all the pygmies and aborigines and what-have-you, and they’ll all
write arias and books, producing music and verses. That all you have to do is educate them.
But it’s not true! The fact is Negro performance gets worse and worse.

STOKELY
Why do you think that is?

ROCKWELL
When you let the monkeys out of the zoo, you’re gonna have a pretty wild time.

STOKELY
You think most white Americans agree with you?

ROCKWELL
Deep down, they all do! The man in the street does, because he lives with the Negro. He
knows how bad it gets. But the editor, the physician, the ones preaching loudest for
integration and brotherhood, those are the ones living where the Negro can’t even drive to!
They lie about wanting change and all that does is hurt him and hurt you.

MADIGAN
You don’t believe the monkeys from the zoo--

ROCKWELL
It was hyperbole.

MADIGAN
Hyperbole that was double-edged. Meant to--

ROCKWELL
You can’t keep squeezing little helpless people economically--

MADIGAN
Meant to--!
 79.

ROCKWELL
Running your riots on the hour and half-hour--

MADIGAN
You engage in--!

ROCKWELL
What?

MADIGAN
Generalities! Generalizations! Meant to stoke fear and--

ROCKWELL
Listen! All over this country I went around warning that we were going to have riots and
violence and we would hear about Black Power. People said, ‘Oh, you’re a hate monger.
The Negroes are only full of love and wanna mix.’ Now they’re shooting policemen,
shooting firemen, they want to kill people and they’re doing exactly what I predicted! I’m
telling you now we’re coming to a race war. It’s gonna be a question of us and the Indians
and this time the Indians are black!

STOKELY
What if the situation was reversed?

ROCKWELL
Excuse me?

STOKELY
What if your skin was black?

ROCKWELL
Then I’d...I’d...be Malcolm X! A man who’d talk right up to you, fair and square, who
wouldn’t cringe and cowtail and Black Tom. I knew the man, shook his hand, admired
him. I thought I’d face him over guns too, but he was a great man, black as he was.
Everywhere I went in America, I heard that all the Negroes hated him. Everybody hated
him. I spent some time in jails, and perhaps Mr. Carmichael will help me out on this, the
Negroes in jail, the poor Negroes, were all for Mr. X! Admired him, admired Muhammad
and his Muslims. It’s the same with white people now. All our pseudo-leaders, our
politicians say, ‘everyone hates George Lincoln Rockwell,’ but go out on the street, as I did
today -- I talked to a policeman and I’m not going to give any names or situations, but he
wound up saying, ‘Thank you. We’re with you.’ ‘Poo-lice brutality,’ that’s all they hear. I
don’t care what people think, the cops are doing a hell of a job! They’re up against terrific
odds and somebody ought to back ‘em up.

STOKELY
Let’s be real and honest.
 80.

ROCKWELL
Let’s!

STOKELY
Most people are afraid to go into the ghetto. They lock their car doors, roll up the windows,
even in broad daylight. Drive around the long way even if it takes twice the time.

ROCKWELL
Who can blame them?

STOKELY
They’re scared they’ll be ‘beat up, cut, looted’--

ROCKWELL
You’re damn right.

STOKELY
So you get a man to go into the ghetto for you. A cop. You give him a gun, a stick, one
pair of shackles, and drop him into a place you yourself won’t go. Now figure his
mentality. Out in the ghetto. At night. He’s afraid of black people. Been told to be afraid his
whole life, in all the small ways and all the big ones. Better believe, the first black man that
jumps, that white officer gonna shoot him. Gonna shoot him dead.

ROCKWELL
There are 10,000 policemen in Chicago right now battling on the west side. Just outside
this studio. Are you telling me they shouldn’t be protecting their lives from these freaks!

MADIGAN
Mr. Carmichael, Mr. Rockwell’s specific sentiments aside, doesn’t this raise the very good
question that violence is inherently self-defeating and that any movement that hopes to
affect real change must be rooted in the nonviolence Dr. King espouses? Mr. Carmichael,
let me, let me ask you something. There’s probably many Negroes listening now. Will you,
in front of the TV camera, condemn the rioters out of hand, the ones in Chicago, Cleveland,
around the country, and say that they’re wrong and you’re against it?

STOKELY
No I will not.

ROCKWELL
That’s my point!--

MADIGAN
Please, give him time to explain.
 81.

STOKELY
First of all, I don’t call them rioters. They are people rebelling against the way they’re
forced to live, against laws they had no part in making, laws that keep them down. I cannot
condemn or condone if they’re trying to get the cops off their backs.

ROCKWELL
You think when a policeman arrests a Negro for a bona fide crime he’s on your backs!

STOKELY
If we didn’t have a part in making the law--

ROCKWELL
Giving you the right to overwhelm the Los Angeles Police Department--

STOKELY
Overwhelm?

ROCKWELL
To the point they had to call the National Guard out to Watts--

STOKELY
Who was the violence against!

ROCKWELL
Against white policemen! Anytime they try to arrest--

MADIGAN
What about the charges made by our Mayor that this wave of rioting was an organized
thing? Part of a national pattern orchestrated by black organizations--

STOKELY
If it was organized, don’t you think blacks’d be makin’ more gains! If it was organized,
don’t you think we’d be shooting the enemy? If it was organized, we wouldn’t be killin’
each other!

MADIGAN
Black people?

STOKELY
YES!
(a beat)
The only time I hear people talk ‘bout nonviolence is when black people move to defend
themselves against white people.
(MORE)
 82.

STOKELY (cont'd)
Black people cut each other every night in the ghetto, don’t nobody talk ‘bout nonviolence.
LBJ busy bombin’ the hell out of Vietnam, don’t nobody talk ‘bout nonviolence. White
people beat up black people every day, nobody talkin’ about nonviolence. But a black man
fight back against white oppression, he’s a monkey! A criminal! A freak! ‘Don’t defend
yourself!’ That’s what you tellin’ us. That’s what you tellin’ us.

LIGHTS SHIFT.

SCENE 2. VILLAGE VANGUARD, BACKSTAGE, LOWER MANHATTAN, 1961

BLACK LUMINARIES meet STOKELY downstage,

passing a joint, drinking and grooving as Miriam Makeba
finishes singing (OFF). HARRY BELAFONTE enters from
applause with MIRIAM MAKEBA.

HARRY BELAFONTE
Now that’s music! American Negroes didn’t know what they were missing ‘til you arrived
on our shores!

Adulation as BELAFONTE leads MIRIAM, making

introductions. STOKELY stands nervously aside.

HARRY BELAFONTE (cont’d)

And this is Stokely Carmichael! Catching a break from Chairing SNICK in the Deep
South. I hear you’re heading right back down.

STOKELY
Yessir. My ma sure thinks I’ve done my part, but the fight’s not done.

HARRY BELAFONTE
Don’t cross your momma now, boy. Mommas hold all kinds of grudges! Have you met
Miriam Makeba?

STOKELY
I...

MIRIAM
Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Carmichael.

STOKELY
Stokely. Just...yeah.
 83.

MIRIAM
Is it really as dire as it sounds? All we hear is the white people won’t budge. Would rather
use dogs and hoses than talk civilly about what needs to be done.

STOKELY
I’m not denyin’ things get heavy, but there’s hope.

HARRY BELAFONTE
Hope! Always hope. When the black man votes, it means something! When the black man
gets a job and holds it down! When the black man buys a house and his family lives in it a
hundred years! That’s hope!

STOKELY
Yessir.

BLACK LUMINARY 1
All this Equal Employment business, that’s the way. Give us a little preference, let us make
a buck, we’ll climb all the way up!

BLACK LUMINARY 2
Hell, I don’t want just any job. Give me a black man in the White House! Call it the Black
House!

BLACK LUMINARY 1
In our lifetime? I’ll take a black senator at this rate!

BLACK LUMINARY 2
A black comptroller!

BLACK LUMINARY 1
A black traffic cop!

Laughter.

STOKELY
I...um, don’t think we get anywhere talkin’ about preferential treatment.

BLACK LUMINARY 1
‘cuse me?

STOKELY
It’s just...I mean, that white fellow in Virginia...or Maryland, he may be with us. May think
everything down in Mississippi and Alabama is the evilest thing he ever seen, but the
second he thinks you’re coming for him, his job, well, I mean, then he’s just gone.
 84.

BLACK LUMINARY 1
That sounds like his problem.

STOKELY
I think it’s our problem, sir. Don’t mistake me, I still think that white boy prolly hates us.
Deep down, in some secret way, but he’s not actin’ on it outwardly. Outwardly he’s for us
and he’ll let us get so far. The line is right about when he thinks it’s his livelihood you’re
comin’ for. Then he’s got a real reason to hate you. Hate you good and public.

A beat.

HARRY BELAFONTE
The boy’s got ideas. Lot to learn, but got ideas!

BELAFONTE leads everyone out laughing. Except

MIRIAM. She appraises STOKELY.

MIRIAM
Huh.

STOKELY
You’re looking at me strange.

MIRIAM
I’m looking at you, Shaka.

A beat.

STOKELY
I--

MIRIAM
Have you ever been seen, Stokely Carmichael? Behind those eyes? Those eyes that’ve
already seen so much. Too much. More than your years.

STOKELY
I’m twenty, miss.

MIRIAM
No. You are beyond time. Living outside of it. I see lifetimes in those eyes. A boy I knew
under the sun of Africa. This isn’t your first revolution. You’ve bled and died and been
reborn many times. You fought in the bush and on ships that carried you from home, but
you always kept it close. You have the blood of ancestors fighting through you.
 85.

STOKELY
You see a lot.

MIRIAM
I see you. I see what you will do.

A beat. STOKELY chuckles.

STOKELY
I swore I’d marry you. When I was a boy.

He looks away, immediately embarrassed.

MIRIAM
Perhaps you will.
(a beat)
Stay alive, Shaka.

She exits. LIGHTS.

BRITISH BROADCASTER (OFF)

American citizen George Lincoln Rockwell deported today. Mr. Rockwell entered the
country without a visa a week ago to meet with leadership of National Socialist groups.
Deemed an ‘undesirable,’ 10 Downing Street cited concern that Mr. Rockwell’s visit
coincides with the rise of this country’s own British National Socialist Movement under
Colin Jordan--

SCENE 3. ARLINGTON ANP HEADQUARTERS, 1964

PATLER shines his medal at center. KOEHL enters.

KOEHL
Wipin’ the grease off, you swarthy Greek?

PATLER
This is my room.

KOEHL
I can smell it. All that shit you put in your hair. Like a nigger.

PATLER starts for him, but BURROS enters, stands

behind KOEHL.
 86.

KOEHL (cont’d)
You know, any pansy can be pink. It takes a man to be a Nazi. You fuck, Patsolas? The
other night, with the ladies over, I didn’t see you take to anyone. Did he, Danny?

BURROS
Take to the ladies? No, no he did not.

KOEHL
Are you suggesting...he took to the men?

BURROS
Rather gas queers than anybody else. More than kikes even.

KOEHL
Patso, a man who won’t fuck, won’t fight. This nation, it’s getting to the point the men
don’t act any different from the women. Can’t tell the difference sometimes.

BURROS gestures and BARBARA brings in ALICE, a new

Nazi devotee.

KOEHL (cont’d)
Can you? Tell the difference?

KOEHL indicates and ALICE moves forward. PATLER

recoils. She advances, he recoils. KOEHL shoves her at
him and PATLER tosses her away and dives at KOEHL.
ROCKWELL enters.

ROCKWELL
What the hell’s going on!
(helps ALICE to her feet)
I’m so sorry. What’s your name, dear?

ALICE
Alice, Commander.

ROCKWELL
Danny, take Alice downstairs--

BURROS
We just makin’ sure he ain’t no faggot.
 87.

ROCKWELL
Now Danny!
(BURROS and the women exit)
Explain.

PATLER
They started it!

KOEHL
Commander, I just thought, John was doing such a good job with the magazine, he might
want some company. A lady’s type of company. But he didn’t seem inclined.

ROCKWELL
That right, John?

PATLER
No, he!...I mean, inclined, sure, but--you’re the fucking queer! I’ve heard about you! What
you done with little boys!

ROCKWELL
Alright! Alright, Matt, step outside.

KOEHL
Sir--

ROCKWELL
OUTSIDE!

KOEHL leaves. A beat.

PATLER
I shouldn’ta let him get to me. Couldn’t help it. Just the way he--I’m not a fuckin’ queer!
Godammit, what’s the big deal with women anyway? Maybe some of us just don’t. I don’t
need...I love working! The magazine, how it looks, I really...like it, sir. I’m proud of it.

ROCKWELL
Diary of Anne Fink’s going to be a big hit.

PATLER
It’s funny, right? ‘Close the door, you schmuck! You’re letting out the gas!’

A beat.

ROCKWELL
This business with the woman--
 88.

PATLER
I’m not queer!

ROCKWELL
We’ve had homosexuals before. I rescued them--

PATLER
He shot her!
(a beat)
My dad...he shot my mom when I was four. I don’t remember her much, but he always
said she ran around. Saw other men. He shot her in the kitchen. At dinner.

ROCKWELL
Did he go away? Serve time?

PATLER
Yeah, ten years. Mom’s mom raised us. If you call it that. She cried all the fucking time.
Drove me mad. They sent me to the Hygiene Clinic. I’d been breaking into cars, petty stuff.
They kept me in a room all day. Small, white room you could barely breathe in. Just a
narrow slat window. No view. Just enough light to know it was day or night. Asking me
questions. Endless questions. Filling out forms, tests. You know what they said about me?
‘May become dangerous...appears as a potential murderer...’ Who says that about a kid?

PATLER weeps and ROCKWELL consoles him.

ROCKWELL
John, we’ve signed an agreement. Nineteen chapters. We’ve got England and France.
Chile, Uruguay. Italy, Spain, hell there’s one as far as Japan. Eichmann’s son leading in
Argentina. All aligned right here, in Arlington, Virgina. Following me.

PATLER
It’s happening.

ROCKWELL
It is. The World Union of National Socialists. It won’t be easy. There’s going to be a lot of
pissed-off people in the party, but I’ll hold them together. With you. I need you. Now more
than ever. Can I count on you, son?

PATLER
I don’t think there are two people on earth who think and feel the same as we do. Without
you, there’s no future.

A beat. ROCKWELL moves away.

 89.

ROCKWELL
Barbara!

KOEHL enters.

KOEHL
You need us, Commander?

ROCKWELL
Send Barbara up, and have her bring the new girl.
(KOEHL exits)
We need to ramp up, John. The niggers are moving North. Whites there aren’t going to like
it but they’re too chicken to do anything about it. The mass...the mass is feminine. The
mass says ‘no,’ but what they mean is ‘force me to say yes. Yes to what I really want, but
won’t admit. Because if you accept my “no,” you’re a weakling. Show me your manhood,
make me say yes.’
(BARBARA brings in ALICE, KOEHL
watching ROCKWELL circle her)
We’re training our girls by the millions to be anything but successful wives and mothers.
Trying to make them an ‘equal part’ of a man’s world, but their place isn’t politics. Or War.
Nazism tells us women already are equal. But they’re different. And thank God for the
difference! Man’s share in the world is no greater or more glorious than that of a woman
who knows she is a woman, who produces for society a great family of happy people.
Alice, do you like John?

ALICE
I guess, sir.

ROCKWELL
Is he a handsome young man?

ALICE
I think so.

ROCKWELL
I know you’re not a queer, son. Matt does too. But let’s just put it to rest anyway.

PATLER
Commander?

ROCKWELL gestures ALICE forward. PATLER has

nowhere to recoil to. LIGHTS.
 90.

RADIO BROADCASTER (OFF)

James Meredith, the celebrated activist who made headlines as the first black student to
enroll at Ole Miss, was shot today. Meredith was walking alone across Mississippi to
prove that a black man could cross the state safely. The lone sniper got off three rounds
with a shotgun. Martin Luther King was quick to state there would be a March Against
Fear in the coming days--

SCENE 4. SNICK HEADQUARTERS, LOWDNES COUNTY, JUNE 1966

An OLD SOUTHERNER sits telling STOKELY stories.

STOKELY wears denim overalls and work boots. He’s
been in the South awhile now.

An early Black Panther poster hangs on the wall (this is

not the legendary Black Panther Party, but its precursor).

OLD SOUTHERNER
I been slavin’ over that stove all day! Made the grits, the cornbread! Just like how her
momma made, and she tellin’ me she want grill’ cheese and fries! Girl, you goin’ to bed
hungry ‘less you got money to go out and get some! Man, my day you ate what you was
given and were thankful for it.

VOLUNTEERS rush in, including RUBY DEE.

RUBY DEE
King’s here, Stoke! And he ain’t none too happy.

STOKELY
I’m talkin’--

RUBY DEE
Stokely.

OLD SOUTHERNER
That’s alright. Just me doin’ the upbringin’. Better get back so’s she can tell me more of
what I’m doing wrong.

STOKELY
God luck wit’ your granddaughter.

OLD SOUTHERNER
Ha! There’s folks younger than you now, give you a run for your money.

STOKELY
I believe it.
 91.

He exits, STOKELY suddenly contemplative.

RUBY DEE
He’s coming, Stoke.

STOKELY
You ever think ‘bout that?

RUBY DEE
‘bout what?

STOKELY
It’s in the word, ain’t it?

RUBY DEE
What word? Stokely, King comin’, what the hell you talkin’ about?

STOKELY
‘Upbringin’.’ To Bring Up. But to what? And from where?

KING enters.

KING
Can we--

RUBY DEE
Come on y’all, signs need paintin’.

The room clears.

KING
I said I’d always bring it to you, brother. So here I am.

STOKELY
So shoot.

KING
(pointing to the poster)
What! Is that!

STOKELY
We callin’ it the Black Panther. Of the Lowndes County Freedom Organization.

KING
It’s violent.
 92.

STOKELY
So’s Lowndes.

KING
Stokely, this does not help us. The press is mad for it.

STOKELY
Man, the Alabama Democratic Party got a rooster for their symbol, ain’t nobody callin’
them the White Cock Party.

KING
We’re held to a different standard.

STOKELY
Don’t mean we have to live by it!
(a beat)
Martin, baby, I walked with you ‘cross that bridge in Selma. Everybody down there, every
white folk for miles felt like, holding shotguns in our stomachs, yellin’, screamin’. You
remember, group of us got surrounded, they spittin’ and kickin’. How much more we gotta
stand? How many of us gotta get our teeth stomped in before we throw it back at ‘em?

KING
We’re making progress! Johnson got the Voting Rights Bill through, but every time we
incite violence down here, his hands get tied a little tighter. The American people are losing
interest! They want an end. We can’t go out on the wrong side of this.

STOKELY
‘Goin’ out,’ nuthin’! You hear ‘bout Jonathan Daniels? White preacher down in
Hayneville walking ‘round with a black girl, Ruby Sales. They been in jail seven days, no
food, no water, lookin’ for Coca-Colas. This white man call out near the store, walk up and
aim a gun right at Ruby. Jonathan step in the way and he’s shot dead in the street. What’s
the Sheriff do? He jail the murderer? Hell no he don’t. Instead, he deputize 300-whites and
stop the protestin’ before we even get it goin’. Ruby ain’t spoken since. Down ‘round
Tuskegee, Sammy Younge, he shot tryin’ to use a gas station bathroom. Found the body in
a pile of ‘One Man, One Vote’ stickers he handin’ out. Know what I did? Got three bottles
of wine and drank one for Jonathan, one from Sammy, and one for me. Civil rights is the
beggar’s role, Martin! Enough with idiot optimism! Why we keep puttin’ our faith in a
society whose only history is racism? We ain’t winnin’ down here, we losin’. Nonviolence
don’t work. I’m sorry, it just don’t.

A beat.
 93.

KING
We’re marching for James. I want you with me. By my side. One last time if it has to be.
But please, give it a chance. Then, you do what you have to.

STOKELY
You really think this time gon’ be any different?

KING
It has to be. What else do we have left?

LIGHTS SHIFT.

SCENE 5. ARLINGTON ANP HEADQUARTERS, NOVEMBER 1965

ROCKWELL paces, much the worse for wear, the room

lit by a kerosene lamp, an open can of hash on his desk,
as he pores over a letter.

ROCKWELL
Danny! Godammit, they can’t do this...

He tears open a small stack of correspondence, finding

the odd check or two, a dollar here or there.

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
Not enough, not enough! We need more! DANNY!
(PATLER enters laughing with ALICE, they
stop abruptly at the sight)
Get in here! John, I need you to look at the ledger!

PATLER
I...I’m not good with numbers.

ALICE
I can.

ROCKWELL
They’re trying to seize the house!

PATLER
Who is?

ROCKWELL
Hoover and his men! They’re playing as the IRS but this has Fed written all over it.
 94.

ALICE
What about our backers in Dallas?

ROCKWELL
They dried up for the month. We can’t last that long! How much do you have? Come on!
How much?

PATLER
I’ve got my month’s stipend, plus a little from that cartoon I did for the grocery.

ROCKWELL
Hand it over! Come on, the Party needs you! Hand it over!

PATLER does as ALICE reviews the ledger.

ALICE
We’re not making back in subscriptions what it costs just to print the magazine.

ROCKWELL
You think I don’t know that! DANNY!

ALICE
What was left the last couple months, running for Governor cleaned us out.

ROCKWELL
The people were scared! I should’ve known. It would’ve been war. The day after I won,
the whole South would’ve exploded. Fear! That’s what did it. And these Jews! In ‘38, they
weren’t ready. They weren’t ready and look how easy it was. But now! Every Jew, they’ve
all read Mein Kampf. Know the score. They’re a step ahead of us at every turn! At this rate,
we’ll need a whole generation to go by and pray they don’t read history. We need
something, something they’re more afraid of! DANNY! Where is he?

ALICE
I, um...

ROCKWELL
What? What!

ALICE
Well, it’s just, you said, sir, they all...know the score.

ROCKWELL
So?
 95.

ALICE
Have you...read David Hogan? From Harvard? He said Germany wasn’t responsible for
the war at all. And there’s this woman, I can’t recall her name, but she says people
remembering the Holocaust, that alone’ll stop the rise of Nazism in the post-war world.

ROCKWELL
You seen this, John?

PATLER
She’s the reader, sir. Most of it, I can’t follow.

ROCKWELL
We’re on the brink, Alice. If you have something, now’s the time.

ALICE
Well, um, Commander, I read it didn’t even happen. Any of it. The six-million missing
Jews all died happy and rich in the Bronx, or some-such-where. All the Nuremberg
testimonies, Eichmann and the lot, were tortured by the Israelis. Made to say those things. I
mean, it can’t be possible, not really. Six-million Yids killed, just like that? The whole thing
is to make money. To bring out the onions and get teary every time you show up or they
need a housing contract or a store license or whatever dirty little piece of business they’re
putting their fingers on. That’s why everyone’s so scared to come out for you. The press
coddles the Jews. I’m sorry to ramble, Commander. It just makes me so mad to see how
hard you work, and no one respects what you’re trying to do.

ROCKWELL
Do you, Alice? Respect me?

ALICE
Yes...I do.

A beat.

ROCKWELL
Maybe. Maybe. DANNY! John, the next issue may be our last. The finances are dried up
so let’s do it right. I want an article on this Holocaust conspiracy. Conservatives too timid
to stand up to the Jews, intellectuals all towing the line.

PATLER
Deny the whole thing?

ROCKWELL
The whole thing. Any lie that tells the truth, I’m for it. And cartoons. Spreads of them.
Jews paying off Congress, paying off the IRS, anyone they can get to come after us.
Because they’re doing it! Tell our readers they’re starving us out.
(MORE)
 96.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
Tell them I’m eating cans of hash. Tell them the time to make a stand is now! Or we’re
done. Alice, I want your help on this--

KOEHL comes rushing in with a newspaper.

KOEHL
Commander! It’s...Danny, he’s killed himself!

ROCKWELL
What?!

KOEHL
The Times. Here, I’ve got it. ‘Daniel Burros, 28, committed suicide in front of three
witnesses, after this paper’s exposé revealed his Orthodox Jewish roots.’

DANNY BURROS appears center stage, holding a

newspaper. He throws it aside and sticks a gun in his
mouth. LIGHTS as he pulls the trigger. BANG!

SCENE 6. BROAD STREET PARK, GREENWOOD, MS, JUNE 16TH, 1966

A DEPUTY uncuffs STOKELY, beaten and battered. He

storms towards center, rubbing his wrists. KING runs on.

KING
Stokely, please. Don’t.

STOKELY addresses the audience as KING watches.

Throughout, BLACK ACTORS in the theater reply with
calls of: ‘That’s right!’ ‘Give ‘em hell, Stokely!’ ‘Tell ‘em
how it is!’

STOKELY
From birth, black people been told a set of lies about themselves! We told we’re lazy! Yet I
drive the Delta and all I see is brothers and sisters pickin’ cotton fourteen-hours-a-day in
the hot sun! We’re told, ‘you work hard, you’ll succeed.’ But, man, if that were true, black
people would own this country! The first man, the first man to die for America in the war
for independence was a black man. Crispus Attucks. That nigger was a fool! A fool! He
got shot for white folks while his brothers and sisters were slaves. Today what’s changed?
They just blown up four kids in Birmingham! And that diminishes me! It diminishes you!
Because they blown up for only one reason: they were black! We’re black, and that means
they can blow us up too! For too long, we’ve let the white man tell us how to do things.
They told us how to be slaves, now they tell us how to be free!
(MORE)
 97.

STOKELY (cont'd)
They always jumpin’ on the bandwagon, sayin’ get the Negro to do this, get the Negro to
do that. This is the right way, that is the wrong way. I’m tired of thinkin’ ‘bout whether the
whites are gon’ accept me. I want to decide whether I’m gon’ accept them!
(looks at KING, knows there’s no going back)
It’s time we say it. We are oppressed because we are black! We are killed because we are
black! We ain’t lazy, ignorant, or stupid! Growing up, I used to go the movies on Saturday.
When I didn’t have the money, I’d sneak in. Because, baby, I loved me some Tarzan. He
swingin’ from vine-to-vine, giving out that Tarzan call --- UHHHHH! I loved it. Used to
stand up and cheer. Cheer while he was beatin’ those savages, screamin’ out, ‘Kill ‘em!
Kill ‘em, Tarzan! Get ‘em good!’ But all I was screamin’ was ‘Kill me! Kill me!’ I was
like some Jewish boy cheerin’ on the Nazis. White people have taught us to hate ourselves.
(a beat)
It takes time to undo the lies we been told our whole lives. Time to undo the shaming effect
on our black minds. To reject the most important lie: that black people can’t do the things
white people can, unless white people help them. Well I’m here today to tell you, we’ve
had enough! We’ve had enough and the lies end right now! Today is the twenty-seventh
time I been arrested, and I ain’t goin’ to jail NO MORE! WE WANT BLACK POWER!
You hear me? Say it with me! WE WANT BLACK POWER! WE WANT--
(he gestures for the crowd. Works them into
an uproar)
Don’t be scared now! Don’t let them make you scared! WE WANT BLACK POWER! If
you ain’t black, I don’t want to hear it. None of you liberals better be yellin’! Liberalism
ain’t nuthin’ but paternalism. You just want us one way. Happy and equal but nowhere
near where y’all live! Not one of you wants us livin’ next door! Come on now, my radiant
brothers and sisters! You feel that? That beauty in you! That voice you been smotherin’
under generations of not speakin’ up. Your mother weren’t allowed to speak, your father
weren’t allowed to speak. You gon’ be silent now too! Yell it! What do we want?!
(KING watches, disheartened)
That’s right! WE WANT BLACK POWER. The time for runnin’ has come to an end. You
tell all them white folks in Mississippi, and the white folk up in Chicago and Philadelphia
and New York and Cleveland, we comin’! We comin’ and all the scared niggers is dead!
They shot the rabbits! Now they got to deal with us! BLACK POWER!
(steps upstage with KING)
I’m sorry, Martin. But it’s time.

KING
...See you when I see you.

STOKELY
See you when I see you.

LIGHTS SHIFT as ROCKWELL enters excitedly with

KOEHL and PATLER.
 98.

ROCKWELL
This is it! ‘Black Power!’ It’s all there. Terrifying. Revise the issue, lead with this!
Negroes wild in the streets. Guns. Violence. We need something to counter. A slogan of
our own, a rallying cry. How ‘bout this? Simple, direct: ‘White Power!’

KOEHL
It’s good, George. Real good.

They stride off together

A sudden cascade of voices and sound. The start of a new

era. BLACK POWER! WHITE POWER!

BLACK REVOLUTIONARY
You have the right to defend yourself! Follow the symbol! Brother Huey proclaims, now
is the time of the Black Panther!

BLACK PANTHER
BLACK POWER!

A massive Black Panther flag unfurls upstage right.

PATLER
They’re burning Watts! Niggers in the street by the hundreds! The cops can’t stop ‘em!
And they’re coming here next! Take up the Commander’s call!

WHITE SUPREMACIST
WHITE POWER!

A White Power flag unfurls upstage left as a COP wrestles

PATLER off stage. Through the following, scenes of riot
and beatings, fear and fleeing.

WALL STREET JOURNAL

This new outbreak of rioting is bad for the civil rights business. The Negro needs the white
man far more than the other way around.

NAACP SPOKESMAN
The NAACP cannot condone the present words and actions of our people. Black Power is
little more than racism in reverse, leading to black death. It is a reverse Mississippi, a
reverse Hitler, a reverse Ku Klux Klan.
 99.

CORE SPOKESMAN
What’s so hard to understand?! Two simple words. ‘Black,’ every sixth grader knows
what that means. ‘Power,’ again a word for a sixth grader. But you put them together and
I’m gettin’ Harvard professors writing me saying, ‘What does Black Power mean?’ It
means some power in the hands of black people!

RADIO BROADCASTER
More riots today in Detroit and Philadelphia, where local authorities have cited the
influence of SNICK Chairman Stokely Carmichael, who recently held rallies in the Negro
communities there--

STOKELY
Brothers and sisters, we are faced with a situation where powerless conscience meets
conscienceless power! So do not apologize for the use of group power, for we have been
oppressed as a group, not as individuals! If a honkie gets his store bombed every Friday or
Saturday, he’s gon’ sell that store to us!

BLACK VOICES
BLACK POWER!

RUBY DEE
Stokely, this ain’t what SNICK’s about! You got to stop!

RADIO BROADCASTER
Stokely Carmichael met today with Elijah Muhammad, who declared the young leader was
now under the protection of the militant Fruit of Islam. At a press conference with
embattled heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, Carmichael reinforced his commitment
to the Black Power idealogy he began, further condemning Vietnam as an unjust conflict
exploiting poor Negroes, who he referred to as ‘black mercenaries.’

ROCKWELL
In ‘72, when I’m President, I’ll have pardon powers. So if one of my boys gets excited and
shoots a nigger, I can scoop him up on the way to the electric chair and have him over to
the Executive Mansion for dinner. We’re going to have nice, quiet niggers in this country,
like we used to!

RADIO BROADCASTER
Rockwell on a sold-out national speaking tour as Carmichael refuses to attend President
Johnson’s Conference on Civil Rights, declaring, ‘racism is conducted by whites. There is
no reason for blacks to attend.’

STOKELY
As long as Negroes remain politically dependent on the Democratic Party and the
democratic machine, their interests will be secondary to that machine!
 100.

RUBY DEE
You’re breakin’ us up, Stoke. SNICK can’t be sayin’ this.

ALICE
You can’t learn the truth from news! NBC, CBS, and ABC are all Jew-owned! The New
York Times, Washington Post, St. Louis Dispatch, all Jew firms! Check the facts! Then
ask yourself why you’ve never heard them before.

WHITE SUPREMACIST
WHITE POWER!

ROCKWELL approaches ALICE. They hold a stare and

then she helps him undress his suit and don a Nazi
uniform as:

BLACK CLERGYMAN
Members and Friends! We all feel angry! We have reason, but Stokely Carmichael is
wrong! Race rioting is a destructive, lawless act led by people with nothing to lose. The
most damaging consequences are always borne by the black community. The real
revolution must be made in our homes. Our children must be made ready to push through
the doors of opportunity with love and respect, and a sense of personal dignity--

STOKELY
Every civil rights bill ever passed was for white people! I’m black. I know I’m a human
being. With the right to go to public places. But every time I tried, white folks stopped me.
So some other white folks had to write a bill and say, ‘Hey, he’s human and he can go
places!’ But we known the whole time!

BLACK PANTHER
BLACK POWER!

ROCKWELL now takes center stage with ELIJAH

MUHAMMAD and MALCOLM X behind him.

ROCKWELL
Mr. Muhammad, Mr. X, it is a pleasure to speak today before you. I honor and respect the
Nation of Islam on this Saviours’ Day. I have been speaking all over the country, the
demand, I’ll say, is high, but I will readily admit, these 10,000 black faces constitute the
largest crowd I’ve ever spoken before. Why may you ask? Because white people are
scared. Scared to admit to themselves who they are! But you know. You’ve known a long
time. We don’t want you here! And you don’t want to be here! The honest man draws the
color line right out in public. The dishonest man draws it at his daughter’s bedroom door.
(laughter, cheers)
I’m with Mr. Muhammad;
(MORE)
 101.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
the only place you blacks will ever find dignity and respect and a first-class life is in
Africa! Your home nation. Just like Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and even
Lincoln suggested it! I think if we help you people build your own nation in Africa, we
won’t have to deport you, you’ll volunteer by the millions!

Cheers as MALCOLM X steps forward, holding up a few

dollar bills. NATION OF ISLAM AIDES run up giving
him more money.

MALCOLM X
Who’s got a hundred dollars for separation! Or should I come down? Should I come
down. Who’s got twenty dollars, twenty dollars for separation! A whole mess of twenty
dollars. Thomas Jane from Hartford! Twenty dollars! I should get a whole mess of twenty
dollars!
(another handful of cash)
Twenty dollars from who?

NAZI FROM THE BACK

GEORGE LINCOLN ROCKWELL!

MALCOLM X
George Lincoln Rockwell!
(Wild cheers, MALCOLM laughs good and
long)
Twenty dollars from George Lincoln Rockwell and you got the biggest hand you ever got,
didn’t you Mr. Rockwell!

Cheers as the lights dial in on MALCOLM. He just keeps

laughing and laughing. A big, beaming smile.

Then...

He’s gone.

STOKELY enters and RUBY DEE runs in a moment later.

RUBY DEE
STOKE! They done it. They shot Malcolm!

LIGHTS.
 102.

ACT IV
SCENE 1. AT RANDOM SOUNDSTAGE, 1968

STOKELY on the attack, MADIGAN growing desperate.

STOKELY
Do you believe in Western civilization?

ROCKWELL
That’s what I’m fighting for, as hard as I know how.

STOKELY
Do you think your Western Civilization has the right to rape, plunder, exploit people--

ROCKWELL
No! I don’t believe in injustice or bullying. But the solution isn’t for you to turn around
and do it to us!

MADIGAN
Sir, couldn’t we agree, these acts of criminality, of rioting are not committed because of a
person’s color, but rather on the basis of their economic desperation--

ROCKWELL
Then how do you explain 85% of the crimes by 10% of the people?

MADIGAN
Because 85% of the people who are inadequate or underprivileged in our society are black!

ROCKWELL
The Poles don’t do it. The Italians don’t do it--

MADIGAN
I’m not condoning any individual act but the act isn’t committed--

ROCKWELL
Here in Chicago, they cut the bushes out of the south side. Negroes were jumping out of
trees on white girls.

MADIGAN
No neighbor of mine is jumping out of trees--
 103.

ROCKWELL
So you may have some middle-class Negroes who’ve gotten ahead, thanks to a lot of white
blood.

MADIGAN
Sir!

ROCKWELL
60,000 of them to be exact. Negroes passing over into the white race with hidden
blackness.

STOKELY
Am I a black person with white blood?

ROCKWELL
I imagine you’ve got a little white blood somewhere.

STOKELY
Why?

ROCKWELL
Because you’re a little more intelligent than average.

MADIGAN
What is the science--??

STOKELY
I was about to say you have some black blood in you.

ROCKWELL
I...have black blood?

STOKELY
Do you?

ROCKWELL
If you can prove that, you could put me out of business awful quick. Have you got any
proof?

STOKELY
Do you have any proof you don’t?
 104.

ROCKWELL
I’ll have you know, my mother’s a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution
and has had a complete genealogical survey. If you’re looking for any coons in the
woodpile, there aren’t any as far as I know.

STOKELY
Good. We don’t want you.

ROCKWELL
Well, you look darker than most of ‘em. Maybe you’re dumber, I don’t know.

STOKELY has started laughing through this as

MADIGAN reels.

MADIGAN
Are you saying...because one has white blood...it makes one more intelligent...?

ROCKWELL
I say the white average is higher than the black average and when you mix the two you get
an intermediate grade in the average!

STOKELY is laughing harder, verging on something.

MADIGAN
We don’t have these facts--

ROCKWELL
Harvard has proved again and again the Negro brain is lighter--

MADIGAN
There has been no scientific difference in the capabilities of attainment--

ROCKWELL
I think Malcolm X admitted that he had white blood and he was brilliant!

STOKELY stops laughing abruptly.

STOKELY
Did he say that?

ROCKWELL
Excuse me?
 105.

STOKELY
Did Malcolm say he had white blood? While we’re at it, did he ever say he was going to
shoot any white people?

ROCKWELL
Well--

STOKELY
Did he say he was going to shoot any white people? Was that in his philosophy?

ROCKWELL
He said all kinds of things--

STOKELY
So do you. I’m asking, did he say that?

ROCKWELL
You’re doing it now as well! Let’s get back to the iss--

STOKELY
When Brother Malcolm left the Muslim movement to form a political philosophy, did he
say he was going to kill white people?

ROCKWELL
I haven’t heard everything he said--

STOKELY
But you ought to. Because you quote him quite frequently.

ROCKWELL
I simply believe--

STOKELY
As an intelligent white man, you want to quote him correctly, don’t you?

ROCKWELL
I try, sir.

STOKELY
Well then, let’s see. It seems to me Brother Malcolm said when he formed a political
philosophy that black people had to organize themselves economically--

ROCKWELL
Yes.
 106.

STOKELY
--and move to control their neighborhoods--

ROCKWELL
Well, he was saying--

STOKELY
Now, now--

ROCKWELL
--a little more than neighborhoods.

STOKELY
No. You quote him. As a superior white man, you certainly remember everything he said.

A beat.

ROCKWELL
I can’t recall the specific quote but I’ve heard speeches he gave--

STOKELY
Uh-huh.
(a beat, measured)
Mr. Rockwell, black people are powerless. They don’t have political power. We didn’t
have the Vote until ‘65 in the South, and even then it wasn’t enforced. But it’s more than
that. In Bloody Lowndes County, 86 white families owned 90% of the land. We’d go out
and try to get sharecroppers to stand with us and any who did ended up in Freedom City.
Tents, dozens of them, outside our headquarters. Evicted just for wearin’ a button or a
sticker. For doin’ what every white American’s been safe to do for two-hundred years.
Brother Malcolm knew, and I know, poor black folk have two problems: they’re poor and
they’re black. I deplore the overt acts of violence in these riots, but crops don’t grow
without rain. I been to the funerals of seventeen friends. And just when I think I can’t keep
goin’, when the grief is near inconsolable, I remember how much is left to be done. A
white terrorist bombs five kids in church, that’s an act of racism widely deplored by white
society. But when, in the same city, five-hundred kids die each year because of lack of
proper food, of proper shelter; when thousands are maimed, physically, emotionally,
intellectually by the horrors of poverty, that same white society suddenly pretends It. Does.
Not. Know. Or it is incapable of doing anything about it. So I say to the black rebels in the
streets, it’s your town. If you want to burn it, burn it. And to white America, to you, Mr.
Madigan, and all your listeners, move over, or we’re gon’ move on over you.

LIGHTS SHIFT.
 107.

SCENE 2. ARLINGTON ANP HEADQUARTERS, 1967

PATLER enters, disheveled.

PATLER
Alice! Alice, you here?

KOEHL enters.

KOEHL
Is it just me, or did jail make you blacker?

PATLER
They had me locked up for two weeks! I called you for bail!

KOEHL
Time’s are tight, Patso. We had to make choices.

PATLER
Like hell! The Commander’s giving more speeches than we’ve ever had.

KOEHL
He decided growth was more important. Invest in publication, infrastructure. This whole
White Power thing’s taking off.

PATLER
I don’t like being locked up.

KOEHL
I figured a queer like you’d be happy inside.

PATLER
Where’s Alice?

KOEHL
Last I saw she was with the Commander. In his office. Bit of a regular thing now actually.

PATLER
Oh...

KOEHL
Maybe the Commander just wanted you gone for awhile.

A beat. PATLER starts for the door as ALICE enters

laughing, buttoning her top.
 108.

ALICE
John? Oh John, you’re back.

ROCKWELL enters.

ROCKWELL
Hey, there he is! We’ve missed you, Alice and the boys. It’s been busy. So much time on
the road, but I never forgot about you.

PATLER
I called...

ROCKWELL
The college kids are eating it up. Jacked my rate another hundred. Matt tell you, we’re
thinking of starting something: The Extremist Speakers Bureau! The lower and cruddier the
better. Get a whole line-up. Every brash, rash, unsentimental somebody out there and just
push ‘em on these flunkies. The college crowd can’t help themselves. Think it makes them
tough to let us speak. Auditoriums have been packed! Two-thousand, three-thousand
students at a time! Standing room only. It’s a gem of an idea. Now you’re back, I’ll need
you to work up a real jim dandy brochure--

PATLER
I called. I called more than once. Where was my bail, Commander?

KOEHL
I told you--

PATLER
I wasn’t talking to you!

ROCKWELL
John, we got busy. The movement’s building so fast--

PATLER
THEY KEPT ME IN A BOX!

ALICE
John--

PATLER
Don’t you touch me! Without a window! Without sunlight! I didn’t know if it was day or
night. It was cramped, just a few steps long, not enough room to move around, and the
wailing, the wailing through the walls. I tried to make them stop, yelled and screamed for
them to shut up! But they just kept crying and moaning. I don’t think I slept for days--
 109.

ROCKWELL
Alice, why don’t you run John a bath--

PATLER
I trusted you!

ALICE
John--

PATLER
GET OFF!
(prostrating to ROCKWELL)
I trusted you with things! Things I never told another person--

KOEHL
Jesus--

PATLER
Is this about her? Because if you want to make it with Alice--

ALICE
JOHN!

PATLER
--I won’t object. Honest! But don’t...abandon me. Please. I can’t live without you. You’re
all I’ve got and, and--

ROCKWELL
Get up, John.

PATLER
Commander--

ROCKWELL
GET UP JOHN!
(PATLER slowly rises. A beat.)
You’re out.

KOEHL gestures and a STORMTROOPER enters.

PATLER
I’m...

ROCKWELL
Get out of here. NOW! GET OUT!
 110.

PATLER
Commander, please--
(he advances but the STORMTROOPER
grabs him)
Please don’t! I want to stay! I’ll be quiet. Work on the brochure! Please don’t do this!

KOEHL
You’re doing this, Patso. No one else.

PATLER
Fuck you! FUCK YOU! I believed in you! I BELIEVED IN YOU!

He’s thrown out. A beat.

KOEHL
Even a nigger’s got more self-respect--

ROCKWELL
DON’T! I’ve had enough of this. Enough cursing the Greeks and the Italians. Enough guff
about Slavs and Catholics. It’s not enough! We’re not enough! Good Anglo-Saxon
Christians are not enough!

KOEHL
Sir, Hitler called for the Master Race--

ROCKWELL
White men can’t afford to keep self-annihilating! I want it changed. All of it. Starting with
the next issue. From now on White Power means White. White anything. Anybody. As
long as you’re not brown, black, red, yellow or any other fucking color, you belong with
us! Wipe that look off your face! You think you’re any better? So busy trying to claim
some place as the überman, you’re losing the country! You sniveling snake-in-the-grass.
See the big picture! And don’t ever forget who’s in charge around here!

ROCKWELL storms off and ALICE follows. KOEHL

lingers as the STORMTROOPER reenters. They share a
look. LIGHTS SHIFT.

SCENE 3. SNICK HEADQUARTERS, OCTOBER 1966

RUBY DEE reads an article to TWO WHITE

VOLUNTEERS.
 111.

RUBY DEE
‘I have visited the Holy City of Mecca. And witnessed pilgrims of all colors, from every
part of the earth, displaying a spirit of unity like I’ve never witnessed during my life in
America. If more of our leaders would visit Africa, it would broaden their scope, and our
struggle for freedom and human dignity would take on new dimensions.’

WHITE VOLUNTEER 1
Tight man.

WHITE VOLUNTEER 2
It’s just so...beautiful. You can feel it, right? It’s in his words. Africa changed him. It really
changed him.

RUBY DEE
Brother Malcolm was a complicated man.

WHITE VOLUNTEER 1
Tight.

STOKELY storms in.

STOKELY
Ruby Dee, seen my tie? The one with the paisley print? Come on, I got a plane to catch!

RUBY DEE
Stoke, we need a minute.

STOKELY
When I get back. Where’s the damn thing?

Other SNICK MEMBERS enter.

RUBY DEE
Stoke, now.
(a beat)
Some of us, well, all of us actually, we took a vote. We took a vote and...we can’t let you
keep going like this.

STOKELY
We’ve been through this. Listen, I got a plane--

RUBY DEE
We canceled your flight.
 112.

STOKELY
You what?

RUBY DEE
SNICK...ain’t gonna pay your way no more unless you give up the rhetoric. We need you
to calm down. You makin’ us sound like McKissick and CORE. It’s not what we’re about.

STOKELY
Not what we’re about--

WHITE VOLUNTEER 2
Stokely, we love you, but it’s coming across like you don’t want us around.

STOKELY
I don’t.

RUBY DEE
Stokely!

WHITE VOLUNTEER 1
Hey man, we’ve been here--

STOKELY
How long?!

RUBY DEE
Stoke--

STOKELY
How long, white boy?!

WHITE VOLUNTEER 1
Hey, now that’s--

STOKELY
You read Killian/Grigg? Come on now! I assume you’re one of them smart white boys!
Run down to help out the poor black folk who be needin’ your help! You read it? NO?

WHITE VOLUNTEER 2
No--

STOKELY
No what?!

WHITE VOLUNTEER 2
No...I haven’t read it.
 113.

STOKELY
It says you ain’t me! No matter how long your beard grows or how many phoney African
bracelets you wear, or how much grass you smoke, you ain’t me! You fuckin’ Pepsi kids,
tryin’ to ‘come alive’ through blackness, gettin’ outta your meaningless, irrelevant
suburban lives, claimin’ you ‘color blind,’ ain’t seein’ ‘no difference in color,’ droppin’
words, all ‘yeah man’ this and ‘yeah baby’ that. Man, you want to be black? You really
wanna be black! Then how ‘bout this. NIGGER, GET ON YOUR KNEES! You heard
me! Get. On. Your. Knees! Don’t look at each other like you don’t understand English,
nigger! I ain’t speakin’ Ugandan. Bitch, keep your mouth shut! I don’t want to hear a
goddamn word from your fat black lips! Now get down! You want to kiss my shotgun
boy! Put your mouth ‘round it and take a mouthful of birdshot to the back of your head!
HUH! NIGGER! HUH!

RUBY DEE rushes forward.

RUBY DEE
STOKE!

STOKELY
GET OUTTA HERE! Run home to mommy and daddy! Back into the cocoon, you middle-
class beatnik fakes!

WHITE VOLUNTEERS run off.

RUBY DEE
That was too far!

STOKELY
Ruby Dee, we been therapy to white society for too long! I ain’t holdin’ ‘em no more while
they cry ‘bout how bad they been! We gone mad tryin’. Stark ravin’ mad!

RUBY DEE
Maybe you have.

STOKELY
What are you talkin’ about? You actin’ like we ain’t seen the same things. Like you don’t
know little black girls are raped to death. Black boys hung to death. Gas canisters shot in
our face. We spent near ten years screamin’ at these white folks, ‘Come on baby, we know
you’re nice guys! Why you beatin’ us up? Just help a brother out!’ But they ain’t nice,
Ruby Dee! They ain’t nice! Soon as they pass desegregation, soon as we’re movin’ in,
buyin’ a house, tryin’ta get ahead, they move out! They resegretated right in front of our
faces! The same folk claimin’ to be for us, right off to the suburbs! Talkin’ ‘bout bussin’
our kids out, but not bussin’ their kids in! Man, we found ‘em out! White people just usin’
us as a political football! Callin’ on us, passin’ a law for us, when they need the votes!
(MORE)
 114.

STOKELY (cont'd)
But not one of them’s standing there when we need the law enforced! When our schools
are all black again and not half as good. When our poverty’s three times higher! Our
unemployment’s 40%.

RUBY DEE
The movement can’t survive without them.

STOKELY
Yes it can!

RUBY DEE
No, it can’t! Where you think all our fundin’ comes from?

STOKELY
I figured my speaking engagements the way y’all grab ‘em up. You don’t want the money,
let me know, I’ll stop right now.

RUBY DEE
You’re turning away good people! Allies!

STOKELY
Man, they ain’t allies!

RUBY DEE
They’re workin’ with us!

STOKELY
We worked the land! They worked us. Never forget that.
(a beat)
Ruby Dee, don’t you want, just once in your life, to say what you’re really feelin’? To look
the white man in the face and let him see you. The real you. Not the politics and the
wheelin’ and dealin’ with that dumb, ‘let me hear what you think’ grin you give ‘em. With
all the niceties so they feel good writin’ a check and maybe shakin’ their heads while their
kid does a month or two ‘round the office with us? Before they gone again, takin’ a job
they was born into. No matter how mediocre, how plain stupid they are. Gettin’ the job and
the house and town far away from our black asses while our streets get polluted with junk
and drugs and stabbin’ and cuttin’. While this country keeps tellin’ us if someone’s poor,
it’s their individual blight. It’s their fault they were born on the wrong side of town; they
musta drank too much, had too many kids, didn’t care ‘bout school. Man, that’s nonsense!
Poverty is well-calculated in America and no poverty program’s every gon’ work because
the calculators are administratin’ it! But they got poverty too! Poverty of awareness,
poverty of humanity! And still they want us docile, compliant, when all we’re askin’ for is
a shot at controlling our own destinies.
(MORE)
 115.

STOKELY (cont'd)
As hundreds of black brothers and sisters get starved out, froze to death, shot, beat,
strangled, dyin’ because they ain’t got no medicine, no education, no job, no chance!
Where’s their call for nonviolence then, all them white folk! When all we know is violence!
Against us! Against our bodies! Our minds! Our hearts! We are not savages! We are not
culturally deprived! We are not apathetic, or lazy. We are beautiful, intelligent, aggressive
humans. Man, for once, just once, don’t you, all of you, want black folk to use the words
we want to use! Not just the words whites want to hear.

A beat.

RUBY DEE
I want change, Stokely.

STOKELY
That is change.

RUBY DEE
It’s not enough. Words are not enough. Anger’s not enough. I’m sorry, Stoke, get in line
or we gotta let you go.

STOKELY
Let me go? Hell, I resign.

STOKELY exits. LIGHTS SHIFT as a TV REPORTER

appears downstage left.

TV REPORTER
Mr. Carmichael, if you had the chance to stand up in front of the white community and say
anything you desire, say ‘understand me, white man,’ what would you say?

A spotlight on STOKELY alone downstage right.

STOKELY
Understand yourself, white man. That the white man’s burden should not have been
preached in Africa. But it should have been preached among you. You need now to civilize
yourself. You have moved to destroy and disrupt. You have taken people away, you have
broken down their systems, and you have called all that civilization. And we who have
suffered at this are now saying to you, you are the killers of the dreams, you are the
savages. Yes, it is you who has always been uncivilized. Civilize yourselves.

LIGHTS SHIFT as WHITE ACTORS approach from the

darkness in White Power T-Shirts. The dawn of modern
white supremacists. BLACK ACTORS fall before them.
 116.

RADIO BROADCASTER (OFF)

The streets of Chicago aflame today as race riots break out across the city. For the first
time, police worked in two directions as the predominantly black protestors were met by
militant white supremacists, t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan of George Lincoln
Rockwell, ‘White Power!’ This veritable army, from every walk of life and ethnic enclave,
took to the streets to, as they called it, ‘reclaim their city.’ Though absent from the riots,
Black Power activist Stokely Carmichael spoke earlier in the day and was arrested at his
hotel shortly after demonstrations broke out--

SCENE 5. CHICAGO JAIL, 1967

STOKELY in a cell. The SHERIFF saunters in, holding a

folder smugly.

CHICAGO SHERIFF
Well, well, Stokely. I thought you had us there for a minute. Like the whole city was going
to tear itself apart. Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve thanked you for it. Months and years
we’ve been waiting. Hoping for a big enough provocation to call out the Guard and get all
you apes back in line. Goddamn, I wish, I wish it had gone that way!

STOKELY
Sorry to disappoint you, Sheriff.

CHICAGO SHERIFF
Disappoint? Nah, you didn’t disappoint me one bit. This, this is so much sweeter.

He holds out the folder tantalizingly. A DEPUTY enters.

CHICAGO DEPUTY
Sir, Reverend King’s here to post bail.

CHICAGO SHERIFF
Oh, this’ll be even better! Send him on through.
(CHICAGO DEPUTY exits)
Were you always this way, boy? I mean, you’re like out of Little Abner, the fellow in the
comic with that little stormcloud over his head. Violence and turbulence following you
everywhere you go.

STOKELY
Man, you oughta be square. You don’t know what’s happenin’.

KING’s ushered in, clothes torn and bloodied. The

SHERIFF holds up his folder merrily.
 117.

CHICAGO SHERIFF
Good to have you, Reverend! Thought you might enjoy this too. Stokely, it’s my deep
pleasure to hand you this petition, signed by over 1,000 residents of this great city. Not a
one of them white, for the record. No, no, this is from your people, the black people.
Common folk, asking you to get the hell out of town. How about that? Black folk asking
me, a honky sheriff, to run you off. Haha! I knew it. Knew it was bound to happen.
You’re helping people too stupid to know they need helping. Wait, wait, wait, this is even
better. Deputy, that morning paper around?

CHICAGO DEPUTY
Yessir.

CHICAGO SHERIFF
Fetch it. You’ll love this. Ed Brooke, over in Massachusetts. Got himself elected Attorney
General as a black fellow, and that’s no small feat. He’s running to be the first black
Senator this country’s ever seen.
(DEPUTY returns with the paper)
Thank you, yes, here it is. Want to know what he’s running on, his platform? And I read,
“A vote against me, is a vote for Stokely.” Haha! How about that? Man’s running against
you. That’s his whole campaign. Probably has it on every yard sign and button.

KING
Sheriff, if you don’t mind, could we have the room.

CHICAGO SHERIFF
Sure, Reverend, sure. I’m going to see about getting you a ride to the airport. And hey,
Stokely. Don’t beat yourself up too bad. I fight poverty too. I work!

Laughing, he exits. KING and STOKELY take a beat.

STOKELY
I’m sorry, Martin. You didn’t have to come.

KING
Better me than Huey’s lot, or Elijah’s boys. Stokely, there’s a big, red target on your back.
If you keep going like this, they’ll come for you.

STOKELY
They already are.

KING
You know what I mean.
 118.

STOKELY
My life ain’t too much to give to get rid of fascism.

KING
I’m tired of black brothers and sisters giving their lives at all. I’m tired of...doesn’t matter...
(a beat)
I’m planning something new. A Poor Peoples Campaign. I’d like you to think about it.
Take a break from all this. Come along with us. Try to create some real change. Sorry, I
don’t mean to put it quite like that.

STOKELY
Yes you do.

A beat.

KING
It was bedlam today.

STOKELY
Much worse than the South.

KING
Not worse. But equal. The hate is everywhere. We have not aroused it here, as they claim,
but rather revealed it. The South was overt in its despisings; the North is a place of latent
hostilities. They were happy to desegregate a lunch counter in Alabama, but when it comes
to housing, job discrimination up here...yes, sure as rain falls from the sky, the hate is here.

STOKELY
Now they have to reckon with it. With themselves.

KING
It’s a distraction. All this hate, those white shirts out there today, just a way to keep us
apart from each other. Stokely, this Poor Peoples Campaign...in the case of poverty there
are two communities in this country: poor whites and poor blacks. Now who do you think
was out there throwing rocks and swinging bats today? It wasn’t the rich white folk. No,
they may hate us too, but they do it from their living rooms. Out there, jeering and
assaulting us, it’s the poor white folk. Poor white folk who don’t realize they’re being
used. Don’t realize they have more in common with us than their white masters. All this
time, we’ve been kept in a state of perpetual conflict with each other, rather than
cooperation. The poor whites everywhere are becoming more hostile, more violent as
we’ve focused the nation’s attentions and programs on the plight of the poor Negro. Yet all
they’re doing when they strike back against us is saying, ‘why is nobody coming for me?
Coming to help me?’ In this, they are not wrong.
(MORE)
 119.

KING (cont'd)
It is our, ours and their inability to see each other in the light of sameness that keeps turning
this wheel of senseless violence. All while the rich few get richer at the expense of us all.
They prefer us in conflict, need us in conflict. This in-fighting among the have-nots
protects those who have. They sow the discord, the dislike for the unlike. And all we’re
doing is making enemies where we should forge strong alliances.
(a beat)
Will you come with me, Stokely? Leave all this behind. The hate and the vitriol. Extend an
olive branch to the people beating us? Until they see we are the same. Please, you must see,
Black Power does not work. Reagan got elected governor just by saying those two words
over and over. Scaring every white California liberal for miles. Made them into
conservatives, every last one. His policies’ll set us back a generation. We lost the
Congress, five other governorships. Way things are going, Nixon’ll be our next President.
Then where will we be?

A beat.

STOKELY
We’re passed all that, Martin. There’s no road back, ‘sumin’ there ever was. It’s been
washed out, flooded by generations of blood and tears, whipped out the backs and eyes of
black folks...I been thinkin’ ‘bout leavin’ for awhile. Like Brother Malcolm. Like you. See
the world, see Africa. I’ve never been outside this country. Never seen how everybody else
is doin’ what we can’t. I have to believe, need to find, a reason to hope again. Because
baby, if the whole world’s like this, I’m ‘bout ready to throw it in.

KING
And the Poor Peoples Campaign?

STOKELY
I won’t speak against it. That’s the best I can do.

KING
Alright.
(a beat)
Let me see about getting you out.
(he starts out, stops)
Stokely, I’m heading back South but I’ll be at Riverside tonight.

STOKELY
Something special happenin’, Reverend?

KING
Well, I’ll be preachin’.
 120.

STOKELY manages a weak smile.

STOKELY
Oooo goodness, you surely do make me tap mah feets, Dr. King.

KING
I’d...love you to be there.

STOKELY
We gon’ sing all the hymn--

KING
Please. There’s hope in the little things, brother.

A beat.

STOKELY
You know, when the missionaries came to civilize us ‘cause we were uncivilized...educate
us ‘cause we were uneducated...they came with the Bible and we had the land. But when
they left, they had the land and all we got was the Bible.
(a beat)
I’ll be there.

KING
Please, Stokely, be extra careful now. Avoid any unnecessary risks. Promise me.

STOKELY
Don’t worry ‘bout me. I always said, it’d be the guy next to me.

A long beat.

LIGHTS OUT, then an immediate BANG. A crescendo of

overlapping voices:

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

Tragedy today // the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis // announced an occupation of Washington
for his Poor Peoples Campaign // the lone gunman in the building next door // speaking at
the Mason Temple the night before // a final message of hope //

KING
...I’ve been to the mountaintop...Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity
has its place...
 121.

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

Riots across the nation // Panthers promising reprisals // ‘they kill one of ours, we kill one
of them’ // the darkest days of this civil rights struggle //

KING
...I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know
tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.

Another BANG! Reminding us we haven’t. LIGHTS UP.

SCENE 4. AT RANDOM SOUNDSTAGE, 1968

MADIGAN at his wit’s end. ROCKWELL smugly defiant.

MADIGAN
Isn’t it true, in our recent history, the Italians, the Poles, the Irish, any immigrant group
during their period of heavy oppression, fought and got equality by attaining some political
office? By attaining social power, economic power. By being more a part of our society,
not less.
(STOKELY is silent)
Don’t you think Black Power, the Black Power Movement, is alienating your allies. Your
white allies! Good people who have put their reputation on the line! Their lives! Schwerner
and Goodman, Father Daniels! These people who have been the vanguard of civil rights.
All so you could bring the American Negro into the mainstream of American life.

STOKELY
That’s what they meant to you.

MADIGAN
These are white people who died for your cause! For the cause of integration!

STOKELY
Mr. Madigan, integration as the white man sees it is the coming together of two cultures,
with one culture being absorbed. What you oppose, even you right now, is the Negro
bringing his own culture, Negro culture, into the American life. It is to say, I have to
sacrifice my identity to gain equality.

MADIGAN
That’s not...All those groups, those various ethnic groups, they’ve all been absorbed into
American culture, yes, but a little bit of them rubs off on all of us. The heritage of the Irish,
of the Poles. The heritage of the Jews--

STOKELY
Is that what we get? What you’ll allow us to have? A ‘little bit’ to rub off? As long we
sacrifice our jazz, our nitty-gritty, our soul? What does that makes us then?
 122.

ROCKWELL
American.
(a beat)
There’s one thing you’re forgetting, John. Your people fit. The Irish fit, the Italians fit, the
Poles, they all fit as Americans. His people don’t. The Negro will never be happy in
America, because he’ll always remain a second-class citizen. They just don’t have what it
takes to make it in the modern setting. It’s proved again and again. Right here in Chicago,
there was a housing unit. It was integrated and one winter, the heat wasn’t turned on fast
enough and the Negroes, what did they do, they tore off the windows and the doors and
burned them in their bathtubs. Then they turned around and howled for federal money that
their place was a dump. Better they go back to Africa the way they live, with their wine
bottles and heroin needles and number games--

MADIGAN
ENOUGH! I...all you’ve done is confuse the issues! Said a dozen things at once and kept
us so unsure of what to think, what you actually care about, that we don’t stay clearheaded
enough to say what we should have said the whole time! You’re wrong! YOU ARE
WRONG! Crime isn’t committed because of color. The Negroes in that building weren’t
burning their homes because they’re savages! It’s because of a lack of culture, a lack of
education, of family training! Their background. Just like the criminality among your men!
The boys who follow you, who are no better than the street Negroes in the criminal
elements you describe! Any man is capable of wrongdoing. Any man is capable of failing
if society abandons him! But hate is a choice! You sir, are the bully! You sir, are the hater!

A beat.

ROCKWELL
I’ve been hearing this for fifteen years. And for fifteen years, people like you have given
in, more and more, to people like him. And it’s only gotten worse. Our country is failing.
The American Dream is failing. But the worst of it is, he doesn’t have to say a thing. Mr.
Carmichael sits there and you stick up for him because the guilt of it all’s too much for you.
You’re ashamed, Mr. Madigan. Ashamed to live the way you do, in a house far away from
Mr. Carmichael. From the everyday Negroes he represents. Far away from me. And the
type of boys who seek me out. You host your dinner parties and talk about the plight of the
poor and how you could fix us or do better if you were one of us, but you’ve never walked
a day in our shoes. Never put yourself where we stand and seen the world as it is. You
vote over us, you consolidate what you’ve got away from us, and you call us despicable,
deplorable, demented. You disgust me, sir. The only reason I hold any regard for you, any
semblance of sympathy, is because I know you disgust yourself.

MADIGAN
I...
 123.

The men remain as they are, lost in this moment, as

NEWSCASTERS overlap:

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

Stokely Carmichael departs today for a world tour, claiming he will stop in Red Hanoi and
Red Cuba // Playboy’s Alex Hale conducted the interview with Mr. Rockwell // this issue
of Holocaust denial, does it actually have legs // an Aide to Mr. Carmichael said if
President Johnson made him a CIA target, reprisals at home would be swift // published
his book White Power, already being hailed as the bedrock of the white nationalist
movement // Castro demands protections for Mr. Carmichael as his flight turns back // the
moral vacuum left in the wake of Martin Luther King’s assassination // all the world
asking, ‘who will rise to lead next?’

SCENE 5., ARLINGTON ANP HEADQUARTERS, AUGUST 24TH, 1967

ROCKWELL has everyone assembled -- KOEHL, ALICE,

BARBARA, etc -- to enact a play he’s written featuring a
panel of icons of the Conservative movement: William F
Buckley, Jr., Robert Welch, Jr., and Edward Fields. The
Nazis wear full uniforms, everyone in the best spirits.

NAZI - MODERATOR
All good Americans, regardless of race, color, or creed, despise Rockwell and everything
he stands for! I want you to know that!

NAZI - WELCH
Yes! I despise Rockwell! I’m not a Nazi!

NAZI - BUCKLEY
I’m not a Nazi either!

NAZI - MODERATOR
Thank you for clarifying, Mr. Buckley.

NAZI - BUCKLEY
Thank you for asking!

ALL NAZIS
We’re not Nazis! We’re not Nazis! NOT NAZIS NOT NAZIS NOT NAZIS!

NAZI - MODERATOR
Here, here! Now, gentlemen, as Moderator of this panel, I should remind you, nobody here
called you a Nazi.
 124.

NAZI - BUCKLEY
He did! But I love Jews! My best friends are black!

Laughter. NAZI - FIELDS waves a Confederate flag and

speaks with a real doppy drawl.

NAZI - FIELDS
Yeah, me also as well! I ain’t no Nazzzeee. I’ma proud Southern geentleman, and we’re the
biggest third party!

NAZI - MODERATOR
Thank you, Mr. Fields.

ROCKWELL (as himself) leaps up and takes control.

ROCKWELL
Now listen up! The pinkos, the Zionists, the peace-creeps of all stripes, they’re all
cooperating. They keep winning and knocking us over because they’re not afraid of the
extreme on their side. They stick together! Present a united front. But look at us! Each
leader and organization attacking the next!

NAZI - BUCKLEY
The Republican Party has no room for conspiracy nuts like Welch!

NAZI - WELCH
Or liberal apologists like you, Buckley!

NAZI - FIELDS
Yer both elitist North’ners who don’t know the state of the South! We’re the biggest third
party!

ROCKWELL
The evils of moderation! When I was in World War II, no one taught me moderation. We
were taught to hate Germans, hate Japs, and get the job done. And we did. We beat the hell
out of ‘em. We killed ‘em as fast as we could. They told me Hitler was out to conquer the
world. That we had to save Poland and Czechoslovakia. But all I did was go murder
millions of my fellow white, Christian, anti-communist, German brothers! In order to help
save a gang of atheist, murdering, anti-Christian, communist-Bolshevik race-mixers who
boast they will bury us and are doing it! Forget the Cold War, there’s a hot war going on
right now! People are dying and you can’t do what needs to be done by talk, by prayer, or
by petition. Every conservative one of you couldn’t reach the masses, but I did. I broke the
press curtain and got to them where they live. I got people stirred up, to stand up. I don’t
care if you’re mad at me. America needs to be shocked. America is stupefied.
(MORE)
 125.

ROCKWELL (cont'd)
We’re a dinosaur trudging along to extinction. You can’t fight a war without passion and
hatred, whether we like it or not! The enemy takes beatings, gets called vile names, gets
dragged to jail and lynched, but they keep persisting. This is a war for survival, gentlemen,
and the man who sits on the fence gets shot by both sides.

NAZI - BUCKLEY
I don’t know--

NAZI - WELCH
He may have something.

ROCKWELL
I won’t deny it, we’re the extreme of extremes. My young men are willing to die--
(cheers, delighted laughter building)
Until we came along, the Republican Party had no fighters! We sat in the cellar and talked
to ourselves. But still, no single group can accomplish our task. No single group can put
me in the White House. We’ve got to quit smearing each other and blasting each other and
get together! The time for moderation is over. Listen to them. You hear it? ‘Get Whitey!’
You imagine if we went over to the Congo and started screaming, ‘Get Blackie!’ They’d
eat you! White people have become soft. I see guys on the street, their hair, their clothes,
they look like girls and they think it’s bad and naughty to fight. They’re scared to fight,
ashamed to fight. The majority is supposed to rule and the majority in this country is White
and Christian. While I may not be a Christian -- I don’t believe in miracles and all that sort
of thing -- I do believe this is a Christian Country and has the right to stay that way!

NAZI - FIELDS
Could it be?

ROCKWELL
Christ says, ‘He who loses his life, finds it.’ When you’re ready to die for something,
you’re alive. So decide, gentlemen. Dithering old conservatives can keep up being
reactionary, mumbling into their ear drums, clinging to their moneybags as the new
generation of do-nothings leeches them dry through social welfare, or we can set a plan.
Build a bastion of solidarity. You don’t win by being right. You have to build a machine!
Run for President, run for every office you can and get elected; don’t tolerate the hangers-
on and thrill-seekers. Let’s clean up the mess over in Washington and make America a free,
decent, moral land for the people who built it! It’s time the Republican Party embraces its
extremes and secures four, eight, a hundred years of leaders!

NAZI - WELCH
My God--
 126.

NAZI - FIELDS
We are Nazis!

ROCKWELL
All of you?

NAZI - BUCKLEY
Yes, I think we are!

ALL NAZIS
We are Nazis! We Are Nazis! WE ARE NAZIS!

ROCKWELL suddenly dons a Groucho Marx

eyeglass/nose mask.

ROCKWELL - AS GROUCHO
Ach, no! Rockvell’s too smaat a cookie! Oy! Oy! The camps! The gas! Don’t forget the
six-million (vere are my onions?!)--

NAZI - BUCKLEY
I feel incredible! I hardly know what to say!

ROCKWELL
(as himself again:)
How about...SIEG HEIL!

NAZI - FIELDS
SIEG HEIL!

NAZI - WELCH
SIEG HEIL!

NAZI - BUCKLEY
SIEG HEIL!

ROCKWELL - AS GROUCHO
NO! NEVER AGAIN! NEVER AGAIN!

ROCKWELL drops to the floor convulsing as everyone

stands and applauds. He bounds back up.

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
The Panel Show!
 127.

More cheers. It becomes noticeable that ALICE is

cradling a BABY. ROCKWELL gradually quiets them and
is affected through this:

ROCKWELL (cont’d)
I am...so very proud of each and every one of you. At one time or another, each and every
one walked through that door. I didn’t ask where you came from, but you told me over the
years. One story at a time. Told me about your struggles, your hardship, the sorry
specimens you were. Time spent in prison. Years lost as drunkards and dope fiends.
Lieutenant, how long have you gone without a drink?

NAZI - FIELDS
Since I walked through that door, sir.

ROCKWELL
Private, when was the last time you smoked grass?

NAZI - WELCH
Right before you took me in, sir.

ROCKWELL
You used to chase women. But now you see their strength. Behold this beauty, with the
glow of life about her. Alice, have you ever felt better than in this instant?

ALICE
It’s the proudest moment of my life.

ROCKWELL
That. That is why we’re here. We’re dedicated to principles and ideals. You might’ve
started out lost, delinquent, but you are clean-cut, honorable people now. But I must
apologize--
(protests)
No, no, I must. It was my generation, my generation that failed the youth. It was our
leadership that told you to love and mix with the blacks and Communists and Jews, but all
we’ve given you is a decade of war. And defeat. I remember being stationed in Iceland.
Barren, desolate earth. But the most incredible culture you’ve ever seen. Grand buildings,
music, monuments. Almost no natural resources, tucked away without sunlight half the
year, and yet the beautiful white race there thrived. America could be that and more. Nature
is unfair. It produces cripples and broken things and has created an inferior race of people.
You hate to hear it, I hate to say it, but blacks aren’t blessed with the gifts of the white man.
Thanks to us, to you, America knows that again. The misdeeds of my generation are being
righted.
(a beat)
Take them off. Come on, your uniforms. It’s time to put them away.
 128.

KOEHL
Commander?

ROCKWELL
It’s alright, boys. Our race, our cause is more than fabric.

KOEHL
What’s this about--

ROCKWELL
We don’t need them anymore. The swastikas, the armbands. The people are ready at last.
Ready to be us. It’s time to wear suits, ties. Carry briefcases and rise among them. Lead
them forward. They’re asking us to. It’s alright boys, take ‘em off. Go on now.

Some do. Some don’t.

KOEHL
Stop.

ROCKWELL
Captain...that was an order.

KOEHL
No sir, I will not remove my uniform.

ROCKWELL
Ignore him--

KOEHL
Men, stay as you are.

ROCKWELL
How dare you--

KOEHL
What was this? You’re a playwright now? Sounded more like self-congratulatory fantasy.

ROCKWELL
I’m talking about the future--

KOEHL
You’re talking about yourself. I signed up for one reason: kikes and niggers are taking my
country and nobody’s doing anything about it.
 129.

ROCKWELL
We have! We will!

KOEHL
Oh yeah, how? By getting the Republicans in line with us? ‘Lead from within,’ after ten
years, that’s all you’ve got?! The idea they’d ever elect you! The only thing through in ‘72
is you! The Republican Party is too timid to stand behind an open bigot.

ROCKWELL
Captain, you’re dismissed--

KOEHL
DISMISSED?! From what? This isn’t an army. There’s a dozen of us! Where are the
hundreds, the thousands you promised? All you’ve built here is a sham, a cult of
personality to your own ego. You’re more worried about speaking fees and getting your
picture splashed across the front page. I signed up to do something!

ROCKWELL
You’re discharged, Captain! Dishonorably!

KOEHL
No, you were. And this, all this, goes on without you.

The room divides.

ROCKWELL
There’s nothing without me! You men, you really think he’s got the answers? You think
he can stick? Really stick, when the chips are down? You know the smears I’ve taken?!
The abuse and loudmouths? You haven’t been out front of this thing. You don’t know
how hard-going it gets. But you want it? Then be my guest! Go ahead. Hell, you can even
keep the name. Call yourself a Nazi for what good it does you. What I’m doing, where I’m
going, that’s the Republican Party that will be! A few short years from now, you’ll know
where to find us: the White House!

KOEHL
You’re deluded.

ROCKWELL
And you’re a Neanderthal too dim to see you’re destroying the best chance we’ve got!

KOEHL
You’re through, George. You’ve gone chicken.
 130.

ROCKWELL
Chicken? CHICKEN?!
(KOEHL leads his cohort off)
You Jew-loving swine! I’m the only one who can see this through! Nobody, nobody
could’ve done what I’ve done! You’ll see! YOU’LL SEE! I don’t truck with traitors!
Backstabbers! Liars! Rats!
(desperate)
You’re destroying the Party! What we built! What I built...

LIGHTS SHIFT.

SCENE 6. GUINEA, 1968

STOKELY sits alone, staring into nothing. And

everything. MIRIAM enters.

MIRIAM
Greetings, Shaka.

STOKELY
Miriam!

MIRIAM
So you finally made it?

STOKELY
Yes, I...

MIRIAM
Guinea has the most exquisite air. Shhhh. Just breathe.

He does for a time, then words start pouring out:

STOKELY
For so long, I wanted to die with a gun in my hand. I always said it would be the guy next
to me, but deep down, I hoped I’d be the one. Just to escape the day-to-day heartache. All
the tough talk and attitude, I meant every word but every year each word came out heavier
than the last. Until ten years of words had me strugglin’ not to bend forward. Strugglin’
against my back breakin’. Just tryin’ to stay upright, tall and proud, just a few words more,
so Death could find me and I could go out standin’ strong. So they wouldn’t see how close
I was to collapsin’. Anything, anything to not die the way my daddy did. A heart attack
from workin’ too hard and bowin’ down. He was an Uncle Tom, my daddy, but he was an
Uncle Tom so I could be a man. Like Malcolm, and Martin.
(MORE)
 131.

STOKELY (cont'd)
Martin, dead speakin’ up for garbage men in a place nobody gave a second thought to
before...before...That night, I went out on the street. Marched down U Street past all the old
spots. Carter’s, Pig’n’Pit, Ben’s Chili Bowl. I remember a kid in a Howard sweatshirt who
used to dance and laugh down that same stretch. Who was mad for books, readin’ and
playin’ like he was brilliant. Like he was gonna solve the whole race issue...A whole mess
of us were out marchin’ that night and just as we reach the Republic Theater, this young
man, this young, handsome, fierce Negro full of possibility, he shoots through the
window. Shatters it into a million pieces all around us. I grab the gun from him and am
about to yell, about to scream he can’t be throwin’ his life away. He’s got to be smarter,
tougher, that the police’ll shoot him for less and he has to be around to keep the Cause
goin’. And there’s chantin’, ‘Brother King’s dead, keep a cool head,’ but...I don’t say any
of it. Because what’s the point? Ain’t this boy just tryin’ to be me? Tryin’ to die young
with a gun in his hands, before time and old age drains the fight out? Before he becomes an
Uncle Tom like any black folk who live to a certain age? Any black folk who decide to stay
in a world that treats us the way it does? Because the fight is unsustainable. And the fight
cannot be won. So where does that leave us? Where does that leave me?

He breaks down. MIRIAM lets him cry. A beat.

MIRIAM
There was a time when a career in America was the only thing that mattered to me. Nothing
else mattered, none of my success here, at home, if I didn’t reach the charts in that country.
That country that decides for the world which lives matter, and which ones don’t. Decides
what is art, and what is not. All the world rises and falls as that country decides. Why?
Why do we allow it? All my time there, all the people I met and promises that were made,
nothing filled the hole in myself that said, ‘this is not home. This is not art. These people do
not know you.’ Many years ago now, I sang at the Madison Garden--

STOKELY
Madison Square Garden.

MIRIAM
Yes. For the President Kennedy’s birthday. Now, mind you, Marilyn got all the attention.
And when we were done, the press and the cameras and all the men in the room raced up to
her like they could capture her just as she was and trap her forever that way. But the
President, he came over to me, and he said, so kindly, ‘Ms. Makeba, I am very proud to
have an African artist participate in my birthday.’ He seemed a good man. But we never
saw what he could do.

STOKELY
Would it have been any different?
 132.

MIRIAM
No. I don’t think so.

STOKELY
Me neither.

MIRIAM
The black people of the world will never find what we’re looking for in white culture. We
must build our own idols. Find icons in our own image. No right or left, just ‘straight-up’
black. Is that the ‘hip’ way to say it?

STOKELY
Yeah, yeah, that’s hip.

She stands over him, powerful.

MIRIAM
Shaka is a man who fights. Even against impossible odds. Against an empire that he stands
no chance of destroying. But he fights anyway, because to fight is to say, ‘I am still here.
We are still here. And for all of your decades and centuries of seeking to erase us, you have
not succeeded.’ As long as we are remembered, there is hope. Maybe not in this sense of
our time, but here, in the place we all come from, this, our first home, where we shall make
our last return, there is hope. Here, time has no meaning. Shackles have no hold. Here, we
are already free.

Slowly, agelessly, they come together and kiss.

As they hold each other...

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

Bobby Kennedy assassinated today // ‘When will it end?’ // The sad lamentations of a tired
nation // Has white America become exasperated with the endless demands of the civil
rights lobby? // Tommie Smith and John Carlos, medalists in the 200m, raised their fists,
sharing one set of black gloves // Dismissed from the Games, as they damn well should be!

STOKELY and MIRIAM disappear as ROCKWELL

enters, carrying a basket of laundry, corncob pipe in his
mouth. Setting it down, he checks his pockets and turns.

PATLER is there. He raises a pistol and FIRES.

ROCKWELL’s pipe drops. He falls.

 133.

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

(cont’d)
Gunned down today at an Arlington strip mall // Known as Barnum of the Bigots //
Family’s request for the body’s return met with threats from Mr. Koehl // Denied burial at
Culpeper National Cemetery when the procession appeared in full Nazi uniform //

DOC spotlit.

DOC
No, I’m not surprised he’s dead. He had it coming a long time. His ideas? No, I don’t
know where he got them.

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

John Patsolas, known to his Nazi comrades as ‘Patler’ // arrested two miles from the scene
// an ex-Marine described as ‘sullen’ and ‘emotionally immature’ // Patler in court again
today to post bail // Continues to renounce his old ways // has retaken his Greek surname //

PATLER spotlit.

PATLER
The one I really hated was myself. I think joining the Nazis was like attempted suicide.
Hate is like...a virus, a disease. Only it eats your spirit instead of your body. I’ve tried to
find a job, I pass all the tests, dress right, but then they find out about me, they put me off.
It must be...like a black man trying to get hired. Getting every reason why not but the real
one.

NEWSCASTERS OF THE 1960S

Matthew Koehl rises in Rockwell’s place, promising to grow his legacy // Mr. Rockwell
was an American aberration. He leaves a flimsy record and few followers. // The words of
David Duke today, Grand Wizard of the KKK, hailing the founding martyr of National
Socialism // Violence, you see, is as American as cherry pie. So long as we deny social
solutions based on reason and goodwill, violence will destroy not only those who preach it,
but all of us. // The end of a decade // Bringing more sorrow than solutions. // Leaving only
difficult questions for the future--

SCENE 5., NOW, TONIGHT

STOKELY enters alone. Philosophically calm, still fierce.

STOKELY
Brothers and Sisters, I am very, very sorry that I cannot be with you today. This is an event
which I consider one of the most important in our struggle. It is a conversation, and you,
each of you, by being here, has chosen to be a part of it.
(MORE)
 134.

STOKELY (cont'd)
When I look back over ten years to where we are today, it becomes crystal clear that all our
trials and tribulations have led us exactly where we have to go. Where we must go. We had
freedom rides and sit-ins, freedom schools and political consciousness programs. All to
wake our people and heighten the contradictions in American society to a place where
everyone could see them. We fought to eat a hamburger alongside white folks. But that
wasn’t enough. So we reached for power. For community control of our businesses, our
jobs, we wanted to own that hamburger joint! To have people who looked like us, sounded
like us on the school board, the city council, all the way up to the top rung. It hasn’t
happened yet, maybe someday it will.
Along the way, we lost the best of us. So many, too many to name. We’ll remember them.
Not all of them, but as many as we can. But as we get older, it all fades into the past.
Everybody who wasn’t there will remember even less. Maybe a couple. Maybe Malcolm.
Maybe Martin. Maybe not even me.
And what if? What if you don’t remember us? Remember everyone who fought and
disagreed and laughed together and never gave up and died? What if the history books boil
it down real simple and swift, like it wasn’t a decade of ideas and possibilities. Like it
wasn’t centuries of coming to this singular point, where all points converged. Where the
slave on the ship, the sharecropper in the field, the battalions at Gettysburg, and the
marchers at Selma, all knew each other. All recognized each other and said to each other,
‘Just one more time. We’ve got to keep goin’. Keep risin’. Just one more time.’
And we did. And we will. Our voices will always be there for the next ones who’ll rise.
Who’ll keep risin’. Until the thing is done. And if it never can be, then at least they’ll never
have to go it alone. Because that’s what you must know, brothers and sisters. You are
never isolated or weak. Whether you are attacked from the outside or within, you are
strong.
The attacks outside will be whites who aren’t ready to see. Aren’t ready to admit
everything they’ve been and done to us. The poets ask, can a mind condemn himself? Can
white, and particularly those liberal whites, condemn themselves? Can they stop blamin’ us
or someone else, somewhere else, and blame their own system? Tonight, those suburban
towns some of you will go home to, that train you’ll take or car that’ll whisk you away,
will you see? Can you finally see? So quickly you kneejerk to say you’re not racist, but
those towns, those neighborhoods are racist. Forget the people. Forget yourself for a
moment. It’s the place. The place is racist. It is a haven for ongoing resegregation. It’s not
apathy that keeps you there, we can’t call it that any longer. Living there is a choice to raise
your children outside the multiracial world we all need to grow to live in. No white child,
and no black child should go to school with just their own color. Both are the poorer for it.
That is the system. Stop defending the people, defending yourself, saying ‘I’m not racist,’
and look at the place where you live. The place where you live. And when that sinks in, ask
yourself, all of you, are you capable of the shame which might become a revolutionary
emotion?
The attacks from within, brothers and sisters, will be from your own people. The black
folks who will hurt you, abuse you, who aren’t good to you.
(MORE)
 135.

STOKELY (cont'd)
Your fellows who have been hurt themselves by the hardship of just being alive, lookin’
the way they look, livin’ the way they have been forced to live. But remind yourself,
they’re almost there with you, just a few years behind where we are now. Give them
patience, and breath. They will come around. They just need to be shown the way. It is
your job, your ongoing responsibility, to show them the way home. To show all of us the
way home. Our people have waited four-hundred years for such people as you to come
forth.
Most of all, don’t let us forget. We all want to, it seems easier to, but the victimization of a
people happens in two phases: first is the crime itself; the beatings and slavery and
starvation and persecution and injustices and neglects; but second is in the misrecording of
history. That particular crime, that particular trauma as real as the first. The trauma that
deprives us of all the ways we were different, even from each other! That says Malcolm
was bad, Martin was good. That nonviolence didn’t also mean self-defense. That Black
Power wasn’t simply a cry for self-determination. We have to understand our heroes. We
cannot let them be used by other people to say other things. We must know what our
heroes were saying to us. If all the history textbooks remember is two men, a few years,
and one boxer, if civil rights is relegated to a month in winter and not ever-present with us
as both an inspiration and humiliation in this country’s continuum, then we have been
assaulted again. We have been abused again. If you’ve never heard of me before tonight,
that is the world you live in. If you didn’t know about John or Miriam or Floyd or Ruby
Dee, or George Lincoln Rockwell, then that is the world you live in. A world that just
keeps handing down hate and half-history, because it is scared to love and see itself.
My time is almost up, but don’t ever think that Guinea or Africa is far away, or that I have
left you. We are much closer than you think. Whether we’re in Lynchburg, Virginia or
Memphis, Tennessee; Chicago, Illinois or Harlem, New York; Accra, Ghana, or
Johannesburg, we are all a beautiful African people. We came from Africa. Our race is
African. Our history is here, our culture is here. And it is deep. It is endless. And it is
yours. Never feel that your identity is shallow. You have only known a short time in the
places they stole you to, but here, here a million years of ancestors see you and love you.
To them, you are beautiful. To me, you are beautiful.
In closing, do not worry for me either. Not that you were! But don’t. Whether the history
books remember me or not, I have found what I was always looking for. What I fought
and cried for. What was always calling me back. I have found home.

Through this, MIRIAM has entered and helped him dress

in ceremonial African robes. They face each other and
take each other’s hands.

MIRIAM
I have found love, and he wears my ring.

STOKELY
I have found love, and she wears my ring.
 136.

Together, they turn upstage.

LIGHTS CHANGE and SLOWLY DIM as the full,

soothing melody of the African continent welcomes them
into its embrace.

LIGHTS OUT.

END OF PLAY.