Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation

"Black Patience" is a 2023 book that rethinks the Civil Rights Movement through the lens of Black theater. It argues that Black artists and activists used theater to challenge the persistent command that Black people wait for their liberation and to expose, critique, and repurpose structures of white supremacy. The book features interviews with James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Douglas Turner Ward, Duke Ellington, and Oscar Brown Jr.

Format: Hardback
Length: 320 pages
Publication date: 07 March 2022
Publisher: New York University Press

A groundbreaking exploration of the Civil Rights Movement through the lens of Black theater, "Freedom, Now!" emerged as the most powerful and enduring slogan of the movement, boldly challenging the persistent demand that Black people endure prolonged waiting—whether on the decks of slave ships, in the auction blocks, at segregated bus stops, or in schoolyards—for their long-delayed freedom.

In his compelling book, Black Patience, Julius B. Fleming Jr. makes a compelling argument that during the Civil Rights Movement, Black artists and activists harnessed the power of theater to ignite a radical rejection of the notion of waiting. Engaging in a vibrant culture of embodied political performance that encompassed a wide range of activities, including marches, sit-ins, jail-ins, and speeches, these artists turned to theater as a means to disrupt and challenge the oppressive racial project that Fleming refers to as "Black patience." By bringing forth the voices of renowned figures such as James Baldwin, Lorraine Hansberry, Alice Childress, Douglas Turner Ward, Duke Ellington, and Oscar Brown Jr., Black Patience sheds light on the profound ways in which Black artists and activists of the Civil Rights era employed theater as a vital tool for exposing, critiquing, and repurposing the structures of white supremacy.

Through this innovative reinterpretation of the Civil Rights Movement, Fleming posits that Black theatrical performance played a crucial role as a vital technology of civil rights activism, and simultaneously served as a vital platform for the expression and cultivation of Black artistic and cultural traditions. Black Patience thus emerges as a seminal work that not only sheds light on the historical significance of Black theater during the Civil Rights Movement but also offers a profound testament to the enduring power of artistic expression in the pursuit of social justice and equality.

Dimension: 9 x 6 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781479806829