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| Photo from Our Lan' by Theodore Ward (1947) |
Chapter 2 of Readying the Revolution is a study of 3 somewhat forgotten plays by Black playwrights of the late-1940s and early-1950s: Our Lan' by Theodore Ward, Gold Through the Trees by Alice Childress, and In Splendid Error by William Branch. These plays are not widely recognized as "revolutionary" or as connected to the Black Arts movement's radicalism. As products of the Black Popular Front (the cultural wing of the Communist Left), their historical legacy is complicated. My analysis highlights how each one offers a vision of collective Black resistance, and explicit support of violence as justified response to violent white oppression, foreshadowing the revolutionary temperament that became more prominent in the 1960s.
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