Law West of the Pecos
"Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year's presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation's confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the law." -- Justice John Paul Stevens |
"No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs," is the story of a Black family in the South living under the rigors of racism. Rawl Cheeks (Portrayed by Marcus Naylor) is a loving family man devoted to his wife Mattie (played by Elizabeth Van Dyke) and children Joyce (Adrienne Carter) and Matoka (Charis M. Wilson). The Cheeks are a close-knit church going family struggling to make ends meet. In order to supplement their income they allow Yaveni Aarosohn, a sociologist, played by Jack Aaron, to do research on their family. Yaveni, a Jew, is gathering material, comparing the trials and tribulations faced by the Blacks under racism with that of the suffering of the Jews under racism, both in Europe and in America. Director Israel Hicks has managed to extract a deeply heartfelt and genuine performance from his ensemble cast members. Charis M. Wilson is marvelous as the youngest daughter and someone to watch as she evolves in her career. Wilson is a natural born actress. Adrienne Carter is convincing as the pragmatic teenage daughter whose character displays a strength and dignity beyond her years. The story centers on Mattie Cheeks. Mattie is not too pleased to have Yaveni hanging around the house. She tells Yaveni on several occasions to keep his nose out of her family business and lets her husband know she is suspicious of the research Yaveni is conducting. Her good natured husband is happy to get the money Yaveni is giving the family. Rawl is concerned about the lack of work in Halifax and tries to convince Mattie to move to Cleveland where he feels there are better opportunities to earn money. In order to bring money into the household Rawl is forced to leave the family for a period of three months to dig graves. While he is away, Mattie tries to keep the family together and watch over her Aunt Cora (performed by Rayme Cornell). It is primarily due to her attachment to Aunt Cora that Mattie has refused to move to Cleveland. Aunt Cora, a shadowy, enigmatic personality, who dresses in widow's garb from head-to-toe, is a rather mysterious character, who appears and disappears throughout the play. Her secret is finally unlocked when what happened to her years before, happens to Mattie. While Rawl is away, Mattie is raped by one of the white men in town. The same man that had raped her Aunt Cora. Mattie is impregnated. She tells her older daughter Joyce, who is the stalwart member of the family, to keep quiet about the incident. The 17-year-old Joyce rages against the effrontery of white people, who she feels, behave as if Black people are there to be used in whatever way they desire. She too is suspicious of Yaveni, seeing him as just another white man. She holds Yaveni's claim that he is not a white man but rather a Jew in contempt. Joyce tries to get her mother to go to the authorities but Mattie knows from experience this will do no good. Both Joyce and Yaveni (who accidentally overhears Mattie telling Joyce about the rape) try to convince Mattie to tell Rawl but Mattie is terrified of what could happen were he to confront the whites in town, given Rawl's temper. "Black women have held these secrets inside themselves for years in order to keep their men alive and I am not about to lose my husband over this," says Mattie. "I do not want to see my husband hanging from a tree," bemoans Mattie, remembering how Aunt Cora's husband was hanged when he tried to seek retribution for his wife. She relates Cora's tale to her family who thought Aunt Cora was a crazy woman. She explains why Cora dresses in widow's black and never speaks. She tells them how Cora had been desired and lusted after by a white bully in the town. A bully, who eventually gang raped Cora, along with some of his friends. So brutal was the rape, it was impossible for Cora to hide it from her husband. After her husband's death, his family told Cora his death resulted from her having told him about the rape. They blamed her for his death. Cora never spoke again. After Mattie's rape and having heard Cora's story, Yaveni felt compelled to reveal his own shameful secret. His secret of having lived a life as a Goy and denying his Jewishness in order to be with his non-Jewish wife. He changed his name and took off the yarmulke so that he could marry a Goy woman whose family despised Jews. For 20 years he pretended to be Goy even participating in an unplanned violent episode against a Black man. This experience, and denying who he really was, ate at Yaveni, prompting him to seek to make amends to Black people. When his uncle finally wrote him and told him to embrace his Jewishness he felt ashamed and could no longer sit silently in the white world listening to them malign Blacks and Jews. He went to the center of his town where the town members had hung a sign that said, "No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs" and tore it down. "They had equated Blacks and Jews to the level of dogs," said Yaveni. "I tore the sign down but as I was leaving town a few days later, I looked through the rear view mirror only to see they had put the sign back." Mattie swore her children and Yaveni to secrecy and refused to allow them to tell Rawl about the rape when he returned. Rawl suspected something and kept quizzing Mattie until finally Mattie relented and told him about her pregnancy. She told Rawl she was pregnant by another man but did not reveal her rape leaving Rawl to believe she was unfaithful. She refused to tell him who the father was asking Rawl to accept the baby knowing she loved him. Marcus Naylor was entirely believable as the enraged Rawl. He shook the audience with his rage and drew you into his pain and confusion. Van Dyke was equally convincing as the long suffering Mattie who was willing to risk the disfavor of her husband rather than see him senselessly killed. "Cora told her husband and they hung him from a tree. I would rather my husband think me unfaithful than see him dead," reasons a frightened Mattie. Rawl leaves her and the family and goes to Cleveland. This leaves Yaveni there as a friend to see Mattie through the lonely days of her pregnancy and to try and convince her to go to Rawl in Cleveland. The town folks start to call Yaveni "Nigger Lover" and threaten him with bodily harm if he does not leave town. Mattie becomes afraid for the safety of her daughters and for Yaveni. One night she reveals this to the silent silhouette of Aunt Cora who ends Mattie's fears in a most dramatic and violent way when she kills the white man that threatens the family. Redwood a former Marine, became a playwright when he saw a lack of good material for African American actors, "People were producing plays about who they think Black people are. In many cases they are right but that is not all we are," says Redwood. Having been raised primarily by women, Redwood has written his characters through the eyes of women. "I feel an affinity to write in that vein," says Redwood. "Women in the South were frequently threatened and victimized with little or no recourse. This play resonates with historical truth," continues Redwood. "This is a story that is not an unusual story. It happens all the time, and especially during the Jim Crow period--this was something that happened all the time in the South and sometimes in the North, too. Although I grew up in Brooklyn, I had family in Halifax, North Carolina. I spent a lot of summers there, and I heard the stories. Women could be raped there with impunity." "No Niggers, No Jews, No Dogs," was written on a sign that hung at the entrance of a town. A sign not so unlike the signs that read "Don't Buy Nigger Music," "No Niggers Allowed" which was displayed on bathrooms, water fountains, and in restaurants throughout the South, or those less visible ones that hung unseen but felt, in many northern towns. Redwood's play brings these hateful images to the forefront forcing us to acknowledge that many races have fallen victim to racism. Blacks have known racism, Jews have known it, Native Americans have known it, Asians have known it, Hispanics have known it, as well as the Irish and Eastern Europeans. His play dares us to acknowledge the signs of racism. It dares us to write these signs upon our hearts in order to challenge people of good conscience to come together as a united front. It is a battle cry daring people of all races to stand up and say, "No more."
Speed Traps can be costly in dollars; that was before a recent Supreme Court decision. Now to be "trapped" could deny freedom like we've never known. Carl Worden didn't waste a moment before commenting and warning readers to "Shut your mouth and take the ticket!" The Washington Post reports on "lawful" seizure (arrest) of Texas woman. |
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