Reviews for The Longman anthology of American drama

The average rating for The Longman anthology of American drama based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-07-06 00:00:00 Mark Pozsgai Howard Sackler wrote the play "The Great White Hope" in 1967. "The term, "the great white hope," reflects the racism and segregation of the era in which [Jack] Johnson fought. Johnson, the first African American to hold the World Heavyweight Championship title, was the best fighter of his generation." Jack Johnson held the title from 1908 to 1915. (Wikipedia) Read more about Jack Johnson from NPR. The play's protagonist is Jack Jefferson, who after winning the World Heavyweight Boxing title, eventually flees the US because of fabricated convictions against him. A group of shady newspaper men, former boxing champs, managers, lawyers, and FBI agents scheme together to either put Jefferson in prison or find a "new white hope", a white guy who can beat Jefferson in a fight. They try to make the case that his fiance, a white woman, is like a prostitute, and he is transporting a prostitute across state borders. While Jefferson is in Europe with his fiance, he tries to arrange fights and make a living. Barely any boxers will face him and he is frustrated, losing money, and can't be with his mom when she dies. Still he calls out discrimination and people who stand by doing nothing. The FBI agents and boxing managers offer many times that if Jefferson comes home and loses a fight on purpose, they will lessen his sentence. His fiance and him have an argument and break up about his decision to decline these offers and not return to the status quo. When his fiance kills herself, Jefferson concedes to a rigged fight with the new white hope and loses. I was shocked by the number of things Jefferson gave up to not concede to racist white men. He was more determined than the twisted men who abused their power to accomplish their agenda. These white men talked about their fear of a large number of black Americans having social conscience and organizing. (other white men still fretted about this in the 60s when this play was written) The book also shows a lot of disagreement from the characters in the book who are black about society, religion, and the right reaction to barriers created by white society. In this book, some characters who were also black criticized Jefferson's noncompliance with social norms for blacks at that time (e.g. flaunting wealth, having an interracial relationship). I think this play is still relevant because of Jefferson's very strong individualism. He could have benefited from conceding to pressures from white and black people. He would have had opportunities to help people he cared about if he sacrificed part of his pride. Jack Jefferson advocated for each person to challenge collective control and believe in theirself.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-07-12 00:00:00 Arthur Black This was loosely based on the story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American world heavyweight champion. Johnson infuriated whites by roundly drubbing every white boxer he fought. He also dated white women, a taboo into the early 20th century. Eventually authorities charged Johnson with violating the Mann Act, for which there was little evidence and is recognized as having been motivated by racism. The play uses all of this as a frame for its story, and makes it a compelling one, though it is highly fictionalized. Sackler renames the character "Jack Jefferson", allowing him that license...and it is a play, after all. The play was made into a film that earned James Earl Jones an Academy Award "Best Actor" nomination. I haven't seen it...but now I want to.