In White America

by Martin Duberman

Book by Duberman, Martin Bauml

Genres: Plays, Anthropology, Race

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

Martin Bauml Duberman is a scholar and playwright. He graduated from Yale in 1952 and earned a Ph.D. in American history from Harvard in 1957. Duberman left his tenured position at Princeton University in 1971 to become Distinguished Professor of History at Lehman College in New York City.

Reviews

[Sherril · Rating 5 out of 5]

'in white america' is a documentary play that was written by a white man, Martin B. Duberman, who by his own admission writes, "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).” The book was copyrighted in 1964. Blacks, African Americans were referred to as Negroes, at best, at that time. On the cover of the book, the title, 'in white america', is written in all lower case letters. The play was first presented at the Sheridan Square Playhouse, off Broadway, in NYC on October 31, 1963. I wish I could remember when and how I first received the book. It is an original copy and all beat up, mostly from my use. It has a name beautifully written on the top of the first page. What I do know is that it became increasingly important to me from the time I received it until around January 21, 2008/9 (?), Martin Luther King Day.

On that day, 0n WNYC Radio's The Brian Lehrer show, he had an annual tradition on MLK day to have listeners call in with their one-minute readings of a tribute to Martin Luther King. I called in that day, nervous to the hilt that my call would be chosen, but feeling fortunate when it was. This was my tribute, taken directly from the play, 'in white america'.

Narrator: There was no major breakthrough until 1954, when the Supreme Court declared segregation in public schools unconstitutional. Southern resistance to the court's decision
came to a head three years later at Little Rock, Arkansas, when a 15-year-old girl tried to go to school at central high.
Girl: The night before I was so excited I couldn’t sleep. The next morning I was about the first one up. While I was pressing my black and white dress – I had made it to wear on the first day of school – my little brother turned on the TV set. They started telling about a large crowd gathered at the school. The man on TV said he wondered if we were going to show up that morning. Mother called from the kitchen, where she was fixing breakfast, “ Turn off that TV!“ She was so upset and worried. I wanted to comfort her, so I said, ”Mother, don’t worry!“ Dad was walking back-and-forth from room to room with a sad expression. He was chewing on his pipe and he had a cigar in his hand, but he didn’t light either one. It would’ve been funny, only he was so nervous.

Before I left home, mother called us into the living room. She said we should have a word of prayer. Then I caught the bus and got off a block from the school. I saw a large crowd of people standing across the street from the soldiers guarding Central. As I walked on, the crowd suddenly got very quiet. For a moment all I could hear was the shuffling of their feet. Then someone shouted, “Here she comes get ready!“ The crowd moved in closer and then began to follow me calling me names. I still wasn’t afraid. Just a little bit nervous. Then my knee started to shake all of a sudden and I wondered whether I could make it to the center entrance a block away. It was the longest block I ever walked in my whole life.

Even so, I still wasn’t too scared because all the time I kept thinking that the guards would protect me.

When I got right in front of the school, I went up to a guard. He just looked straight ahead and didn’t move to let me pass him. I stood looking at the school – it looked so big! Just then the guards let some white students go through.

The crowd was quiet. I guess they were waiting to see what was going to happen. When I was able to steady my knees, I walked up to the guard who had let the white students in. He too didn’t move. When I tried to squeeze past him, he raised his bayonet and then the other guards closed in and they raised their bayonets.

They glared at me with a mean look and I was very frightened and didn’t know what to do. I turned around and the crowd came toward me.

They moved closer and closer. Somebody started yelling, “Lynch her!” “Lynch her!”

I tried to see a friendly face somewhere in the mob - someone who maybe would help. I looked into the face of an old woman and it seemed a kind face, but when I looked at her again she spat on me.

They came closer, shouting, “No nigger bitch is going to get in our school. Get out of here!” Then I looked down the block and saw a bench at the bus stop. I thought, “If I can only get there I will be safe.” I don’t know why the bench seemed a safe place to me, but I started walking toward it. I kept saying to myself, if I can only make it to the bench I will be safe.“

When I finally got there I don’t think I could have gone another step. I sat down and the mob crowd up and began shouting all over again. Someone hollered, “Drag her over to the tree! Let’s take care of the nigger!” Just then a white man sat down beside me, put his arms around me and patted my shoulder.

White Man: She sat there, her head down. Tears were streaming down her cheeks. I don’t know what made me put my arm around her, saying, “Don’t let them see you cry.“ Maybe she reminded me of my 15-year-old daughter.

Just then the city bus came and she got on. She must’ve been in a state of shock. She never uttered a word.

Girl: I Can’t remember much about the bus ride but the next thing I remember I was standing in front of the School for the Blind, where mother works. I ran upstairs and I kept running until I reached mothers classroom.
Mother was standing at the window with her head bowed, but she must’ve sensed I was there because she turned around. She looked as if she had been crying, and I wanted to tell her I was all right. But I couldn’t speak. She put her arms around me and I cried.

This book, ‘in white america’ continues to move me as much as anything I have read. The intensity of reading the segment on Brian’s show, on Martin Luther King Day, all those years ago, never left me. I hope, if someone reads this, they will also take the time to recognize their feelings about what it was/is to be Black in America!

[Roslyn Reid · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will change minds. I've never seen it staged but the words are powerful on the page.

[Stacia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duberman is (was?) a white American historian & professor, among other roles. His play from 1963/64 is almost entirely composed of excerpts from various historical documents from the late 1600s/early 1700s through the end of the 1950s. I thought it was very impactful & almost like a "highlight reel" of the injustices faced by Black Americans from the US government & people over the centuries. The focus is really on the content & delivery, not the set design (which is supposed to remain very simple). I imagine this was especially radical (re: content) as a play at the time it was first presented.

While today I would like to see this kind of play created by a Black playwright, I still think this play has a lot of important & relevant info as it seems like a good bit of this history has been forgotten or ignored in today's America.

Here's a review of a 50th anniversary production of this play (from 2015).

When Martin Duberman, a historian by profession, composed the play in 1963 exclusively from historic documents ranging from the 17th century to contemporary sources, the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum and would be received with ever more violent reactions. The Voting Rights Act was not ratified until 1964 (and is once again under attack). Schools and universities in the Deep South had to be forced by the federal government to integrate which did not happen without fierce resistance. Remember Little Rock, the case of James Meredith and “Ole Miss” vis-a-vis Governor Wallace, and numerous cases of anonymous violence! Lorraine Hansberry had dealt with the housing issue in a Chicago suburb in her play, “A Raisin in the Sun.” The list of grievances is endless. The history of America is one that divides into the official myth of Manifest Destiny promoted by the white European settlers, and the shadow history of Native American, Black, Hispanic, and Chinese populations who were decimated, displaced, enslaved and exploited--and yet were the real source of American economic success!

Duberman’s play is a litany of real voices. Some express the manifold pain of slavery, the frustration of being systematically locked out of justice and education, of economic progress with decent wages, of habitable housing. Others are the loud voices of hatred and hypocrisy (notably Thomas Jefferson!) and the wily voices of patronizing rationalization (Woodrow Wilson). And there are some, such as John Brown and Nat Turner who rage and rebel against the system that destroys them. And then there is the memorable voice of Sojourner Truth whose thirteen children were all sold into slavery but who articulates, as no other, the double jeopardy of being black and a woman. The first voice in the play is that of a 17th century ship captain who describes in detail (and with empathy) the horrendous conditions in the bowels of a slave ship off the coast of Guinea en route to the Middle Passage.

[Perley Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Performed in this play during High School. Powerful. Did a joint production with a neighboring mostly white high school. Their tabloid newspaper called it “GardenCity rent a nigger.” We did a three week run between the two high schools. Sold out all three weeks.

[Sema · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to have seen this performed. I think it would be very moving, in a way that simply reading it could not be. It is important to read and take in, but because it is drawing from historical documents, it feels a bit more like a text book, but if performed, would be a lesson.

[Gabriel Flechas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like "In Cold Blood", but about black history in America (in a play format).

[Carl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking!!!!!