Life Lit by Some Large Vision Selected Speeches And Writings

ADDRESS AT THE PALM GARDEN October 10, 1952(Originally distributed by the National Council of the Arts, Sciences and Professions) R.D.:No doubt about it! It was not the best of times -- especially for white America. Black America already knew about witch hunts, about what happens to troublemakers wanting to vote -- lynching, castration, job discrimination. Say what? Communism? Socialism? Liberalism? Are you now or have you ever been...' Weren't you one of those at a meeting on...' Isn't this your picture published in...' People fired. Dying. Broke. Running. Lying. Being brave. Selling out. Betrayal. It was definitely one of the worst of times. It is my honor and my privilege to be with you tonight in this meeting of protest. The inquisition is upon us, and our very right to meet together and talk like this is under fire. All over the country, men and women are becoming increasingly aware of what is happening to their freedom. Teachers of many years of service are fired without hearings. Actors are barred from employment because they refuse to be bullied about their politics. Lawyers, doctors, miners, longshoremen, newsmen, and publishers are all being violently pushed around in the grossest violation of civil rights in the history of the Republic. But, thank God, they are fighting back. The McCarran Committee has not found itself welcomed everywhere. Men are beginning to remember what liberty means to them and have not hesitated, in some places, to drive the witch hunter from their midst. We here tonight can take courage from all the various groups and individuals who have had the guts to put the boot to this evil thing. They have shown that it can be fought. And it must be fought -- with every weapon an aroused democracy can lay its hands upon. I wrote a play calledAlice in Wonder,which we presented briefly -- all too briefly -- up in Harlem a week or so ago. And on the basis of that I was invited to come here tonight and speak to you. It wasn't much, this play, but it was mine. And it gave my wife, Miss Ruby Dee -- whom I consider the potential equal of any actress in the land -- a chance to practice her craft. Few Negroes get that opportunity these days. "Black Channels," you know -- For I must tell you that economic interdiction (which means that nobody will hire you, no matter how good you are) is not a new thing to us. Negro teachers have long been the victims of the most arrant job discrimination in this city. And Negro actors who work once every five years are doing pretty well. I myself have been lucky -- in six years I have managed to work in eight shows on Broadway; and five times out of that eight I carried a tray. I had to. There was nothing else for black performers to carry. Oh yes, I have heard ofRed Channels,and I am horrified every time I see it in action. That a man should be banished from his profession without recourse, merely as a consequence of the color of his politics, is as grossly unjust as that a man should suffer the same punishment merely as a consequence of the color of his face. Red Channels or Black Channels -- there's precious little difference to a man with a family to feed. Both these evil things attack me through my need for security, and I cannot hate the one without detesting the other. The good citizen is at war with both! But back toAlice in Wonder.In it, I tried to show two things: first, how absolutely heartbreaking it is to ask a man to give up his bread for his principles; and second, how absolutely necessary it is that he should do just that. For the true function of drama is to remind us that man is dedicated to the pursuit of the good, in spite of himself, and that to pursue the good successfully, he must know the alternatives and choose wisely from among them. The man I wrote about found himself in a predicament increasingly familiar to us all: he haDavis, Ossie is the author of 'Life Lit by Some Large Vision Selected Speeches And Writings' with ISBN 9780743289887 and ISBN 0743289889.