May 15, 1964: 654

‘Notes on Integration’, Arnold Beichman

A white liberal’s reaction to Blues for Mister Charlie is recounted in a long piece about white liberals abandoning the Civil Rights Movement.

“A friend who teaches drama at a major American university–also a liberal–went to see the new James Baldwin play, Blues for Mister Charlie. During the first intermission, he and his wife went out into the lobby for a smoke, a normal custom in Broadway theatres. At the second-act intermission, and thereafter, the couple sat immobilised in their seats. ‘I was just horrified,’ he said, \at the hate for the white man–for me–on the stage. But I could have taken that. What fightened me is how the Negro part of the audience greeted each expression of hate for the white man. I simply couldn’t go out to the lobby and look at the Negro faces who had just been roaring with appreciation at what was was being said and done on the stage.’”