On this holiday in which we pay tribute to the legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., today I pay tribute to a very special high school play.
See, the year before I arrived at Street Academy, the students in that school’s history classes wrote a series of vignettes on the history of African-American relations. The writing assignments, which were assembled into a play called “Black Through The Years,” featured observations on everything from antebellum plantation life, the perils of the Underground Railroad, segregation and Jim Crow laws, a spirited poetic discussion between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, and more. The play first premiered in May 1979 on the stage of Giffen Elementary School. Over time, “Black Through The Years” would be shown at various other Albany-based locations, including a performance at the Arbor Hill Community Center for Martin Luther King Day in 1981; performances at Cathedral Academy in Albany and SUNY-Potsdam, just to name a few locations.
“Black Through The Years” was originally based on a series of writing exercises, in which students recreated famous moments in history as staged dramas. Over time, “Black Through The Years” would add more scenes and vignettes, as students who attended Street Academy added their own perspective to the history project.
The play also included musical numbers, including spirituals and work songs. One of the highlights of Black Through The Years was LaRodd Graves’ riveting performance of the Harry Belafonte song “Sylvie,” performed as a farm work song. So,where did Chuck Miller, who was not African-American, fit into this play?
Oh it was easy. I ended up playing any role involving a white male – whether it was as Chief Justice Roger Taney, as he handed down the Dred Scott case that made slavery legal and binding in America; I played Massa George, the overseer of a plantation cotton crop; I got on the bus and told Rosa Parks to get out of her seat.
While I enjoyed being part of the play, I did not enjoy the fact that the only roles available for me were as essentially the scars and scourges of American race relations. Surely there were white people who helped successfully advance the cause of equality in America; and I approached the teachers involved with the project and asked if a scene could be written that would focus on that.
“Why don’t you write it, Chuck,” they said to me. “Every other part of the play has been student-written, you should write something, too.”
And so I did. I wrote what became two scenes in Black Through the Years – since I had to play Chief Justice Roger Taney in the DredScott decision, I also came up with a scene involving famed abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison. If I was going to be Massa George, then I would also play in a scene as Clem McCarthy, broadcasting the boxing match where Joe Louis defeated Max Schmeling.
I still remember those performances with my classmates. It was a great play, and in addition to learning history from what would essentially be another perspective, I’m also able to say I was part of a community effort among all Street Academy of Albany students.
Chuck The Writer 