ankies father calls Honey boy and nigger and Honey does not relish that. He does not call Frankies father sir or treat him with any great respect. Honey is later arrested and put in jail. He hangs himself. This is a case that was seen often in the early 1950s. Public lynching was outlawed, so private lynching became common practice. Blacks, like Honey, were often found hanging in their jail cells. These suicides were often actually homicides, mini lynchings in the jail cell. That action is what is hinted at near the end of Member of the Wedding. All in all though, this play and theatre in general tended to skirt around the really intense racial subjects.Not only were issues skirted around, but roles for African Americans throughout the majority of the 1950 movement were few and far between, and the roles were often stereotypical. Alice Childress play Trouble in Mind offered a look at the theatre from both a generic and racial point of view. The black characters struggle with the expectations placed upon them to play into stereotypes. They were expected to play typical black characters, the Jims and Jemimas. It also shows the relationships, understandings, and misunderstandings between cast mates, white and black. It also takes a slight dig at the generic theatre being offered. Every show was like the show before. Directors were trying to recreate other plays in new plays. They tried to play off the success of story-lines. So not only the black characters had to deal with stereotyping because everyone was being expected to regurgitate the same roles. So while dealing with racism and stereotyping Childress lessens its blow to the thoughts of white America by including some of the same issues for the white characters. It did, however, offer major roles for African American actors.The 1959 Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun was a major stage in theatrical history. At a time when there was thought to be no black B...
