In White America [antikvár]

PREFACEPlays do not usually require prefaces^unless, like Mr. Shaw, we are not yet certain if the point has been won. The reason for this note is less combative: I would like to explain why I tried to make a "play" out of historical documents.My starting point was the wish to describe what it has been like to be a Negro in this country (to the extent that a white man can describe it). Neither popular journalism nor professional history has made much effort to tell this story. Both have been dominated by whites, and the whites, whether from guilt, indifference, or hostility, have been slow to reveal the American Negro's past. The revelations are painful, but they must be faced if the present is to be understood, and the future made more tolerable.Negroes are themselves often unfamiliar with their history. The truth has not been easy to come by in a society dominated by whites, nor easy to digest; old wounds, old degradations, must in the name of self-respect be avoided. Yet if there is much in this history to enrage or sadden the Negro, there is also much to make him proud: here is a people who maintamed their humanity while being treated inhumanly, who managed to endure as men while being defined as property.I chose to tell this story on the stage, and through historical documents, because I wanted to combine the evocative power of the spoken word with the confirming power of historical fact. The spoken word is able to call forth the