Jun 25, 2021
Playbill of Mississippi, courtesy of YIVO
INTRODUCTION
This is an excerpt from Leyb Malakh’s (né Leyb Zaltsman, 1894 – 1939) Yiddish-language play entitled Mississippi, which was written and performed for the first time in Warsaw in 1935. Mississippi was based on the trials of the “Scottsboro Boys,” nine African American young men falsely accused of raping two white women in 1931 in Scottsboro, Alabama. After an initial trial, the “Scottsboro Boys” (ages 9 to 20) were sentenced to death. But the case was retried on numerous occasions throughout the 1930s, with the Communist Party USA and the International Defense Alliance (also communist) providing support for the defense. By the time Mississippi was on the boards, the young men had been in prison for more than four years, even after their case had gained considerable international attention.
Mississippi emerged from the transnational reach of communist and left-leaning political movements, as well as Interwar Poland’s dynamic Yiddish art theater scene. Both Malakh and his collaborator, avant-garde director Mikhl Vaykhert (1893−1967) identified with both of these communities. For more on the play and its first productions, see my Tablet Magazine article entitled “Mississippi in Yiddish.” Mississippi played at least one hundred times on a number of stages throughout Poland, including Warsaw, Kraków , and Lodź. It was also mounted in separate productions in New York and Buenos Aires, and was translated into French, Hebrew, and Esperanto before World War II.
An excerpt from Act Two of the play, translated here by Ellen Perecman, reflects the practice of “simultaneous theater” that Vaykhert had implemented in a number of his productions, which was similar to what we know today as immersive theater. The first act takes place in the freight car where the “Scottsboro Boys” interact with each other, meet the young women they are eventually accused of raping, and clash with two white men. Much of the play is performed on multiple sets simultaneously. Act Two’s scenes take place on a split stage. One set depicts the rural home of the poor African American family of Tommy Boster, one of the boys who was arrested. The second is set in the apartment of the two women, Anne and Grace, who were pressed into manufacturing the accusation of rape. The scenes cut back and forth briskly between the two sets. The scene in the Boster’s home ends with the arrival of the sheriff who has come to tell Tommy’s mother, Mary, of his arrest. The scene in the girls’ apartment ends with the arrival of representatives of the anti-Black Lily White Movement, who have come to show their moral and financial support of the women. While the contrast is evident, the audience is also meant to see similarities in the two scenarios in that both parties struggle financially: the white girls are prostitutes, but dream of returning to polite society, while, in the other, Mary shares her home with the second wife of her ex-husband after his death to make ends meet. Earlier in the act, we also witness the arrival at the Boster home of Tommy’s sister, Margaret, with her new infant, whose father is a white man. This plot point may exist to highlight a double standard, where the Black men in an interracial relationship face a presumption that they are guilty of rape of a white woman.
As a final note, we would like to call your attention to two issues regarding translation. The first is the use of the n‑word on the part of the playwright. In Yiddish, the word נעגער is translated as “negro” and the word ניגער is translated as “nigger”; this is true in the play and in other contemporary sources, literary and journalistic. That is, at the time Malakh wrote this play, Negro was considered a “neutral” word —a perfectly respectful term — used to refer to Black people. We therefore believe the appropriate English translation for נעגער in Mississippi is ‘negro’. In instances where Malakh has a character use the word ניגער, he does so to let us know that the speaker means to degrade the character being addressed. It was very important to us to accurately reflect Malakh’s intention to emphasize the bitter hatred of some of the white characters for the Black characters in the play. Our decision is consistent with the position taken by Winfred Rembert , an African-American artist quoted in a recent piece in the New Yorker Magazine called “Hard Labor: Surviving the Chain Gang”:
I understand that seeing that word written flat out on the page may hurt some people. My hope is that they will come to understand why it’s there. As a young person, I was called a nigger so many times I answered to it like it was nothing… My story will not be as clear if I block out the word or even change a single letter. A substitute doesn’t carry the same effect. To me, that means it isn’t the same word. I’ve got to use the word just like I’ve heard it said so many times in my life. I think about all the people who went to their graves because they didn’t want to be called a nigger. Some people died because they wouldn’t put up with it. They were killed. I want the reader to understand the effect it carries when you use that word and how degrading it is.
The second issue concerns Malakh’s decision to use transliterated English words in the Yiddish text of his play. Malakh appears to have intentionally avoided using Yiddish equivalents of certain words and to replace them with English words that he has transliterated into Yiddish. Some of the English words Malakh uses effectively pull his reader or audience into an American context. He seems to have wanted to capture a certain vernacular quality of speech. It is also conceivable that he intended to create a kind of linguistic bridge between political activists in America and Poland’s Yiddish-speaking working class. We believe it is useful for scholars and lay readers alike to know precisely where in the Yiddish text Malakh has chosen to use English words. We will continue to probe linguistic questions as we continue working on our translation and analysis of this play, in anticipation of publishing a critical edition of our translation of Mississippi, which is in progress.
-Alyssa Quint
* NOTE: Words transliterated from English are followed by asterisks.
Excerpt from ACT 2 of Leyb Malakh’s Mississippi
SETS 1 and 2
(The stage is split, two rooms. One belongs to KATY BOSTER, a typical little Negro- house, windows without glass panes, a rag as a curtain in the doorway.
The second room, the apartment of the two girls, ANNE and GRACE, pleasantly furnished. We recognize the signs of a wild previous night: overturned bottles, corks, cigarette butts, and candy. The two girls sleep in a wide bed beneath a silk blanket.
In the little Negro-house, KATY and MARY stand next to a large washbasin of laundry doing wash. MARGARET suddenly appears at the door of her mother’s house, dressed like a city dweller. There is something Madonna-like about her face, about her appearance. She is holding a child in her arms bundled in a swaddling cloth. Pause. She looks at the two women doing the laundry.)
MARGARET
Hello.
MARY
(Surprised) My little girl! (Runs to her with outstretched, wet hands. Lingers. Her work having been interrupted, there is a change in her) ... My little girl?...
KATY
(Dries the wet foam from her hands) Where did you come from out of the blue? A guest!
MARY
(Stammering) A guest...
KATY
Come closer, Margaret, sit down. (Pulls out a stool from under the washtub) Sit down, Marga.
MARGARET
Thank you, Aunt Katy.
KATY
(Notices the child) A child, Margaret?
MARGARET
A child. My child.
MARY
When, whose? (Approaches fearfully, takes a look.) A white child?!
KATY
(Just as fearfully) A... white…child???
MARGARET
Don’t ask, Auntie.
KATY
A cup of coffee, a little milk? (Fusses around in the kitchen).
MARY
How do you dare come back home, child?
MARGARET
I needed some peace and quiet.
MARY
Peace and quiet?... Here? Where both of your father’s wives sleep on a single plank of wood? (Points at a plank bed).
MARGARET
My father built this house. (Pause) Where’s Tommy?
KATY
My Tommy? Where could he be? He went to look for work. He left the house eight days ago and I don’t know where he is.
SET 2
(In the girls’ apartment. Someone rings the bell. ANNE wakes up first.)
ANNE
Who’s there?
CONDUCTOR
(From behind the door) It’s me, the conductor.
ANNE
Oh hell*... so early in the morning?
CONDUCTOR
It’s not early. It’s me, the conductor from yesterday, from the freight car.
ANNE
(Wakes GRACE) Grace, hey, you, it’s the conductor from yesterday. We gave him the address. Should I let him in?
GRACE:
(Turns over and pulls the cover over herself.) I want to sleep. (The bell rings again.)
ANNE
(Shouts). We’re still sleeping! (The bell rings again.)
GRACE
(Annoyed). Let him in and throw him out!...
(ANNE gets out of bed in silk pajamas*, puts on silk slippers, she is reluctant, but opens the door, and the CONDUCTOR comes in, happy, in a good mood.)
CONDUCTOR
Hello* good morning. How can you sleep so late?
ANNE
(Yawns, stretches out her arms) We went to bed late. A cigarette?
CONDUCTOR
(Awkwardly) Regrettably, I don’t smoke.
GRACE
(Under the blanket) Did the gentleman* bring anything with him?
ANNE
(Repeats) Did the gentleman* bring anything with him? We don’t have anything. Everything’s been eaten. (Shows him an empty bottle) Everything…
GRACE
(Under the blanket) He should bring something for us to smoke.
ANNE
(Explains to him) How does someone come to see girls without bringing anything? Downstairs, on the corner, there is a cigarette store, bring us the ones that have a Turkish scent, a hundred to a box.
CONDUCTOR
(Hesitates.) Yes…but I don’t have time. My train is leaving. I …. I had wanted to offer myself as a witness that those disgusting niggers are not to blame, but they didn’t let me come near them. So I thought: Why butt in and risk losing my job?
GRACE
(Sits up, interested) Who told you that we were in the freight car?
CONDUCTOR
Told me? About you? It has nothing to do with you. Someone telephoned from a nearby station that niggers and white girls were together in the freight car.
ANNE
It must have been the two boys*.
GRACE
It would have served them right. They should not have thrown them off. Almost killed them. And were the niggers arrested?
CONDUCTOR
They put them in chains. Thank goodness. If they hadn’t, they would have been ripped apart. They would have been lynched*.
(Set 2 goes black)
SET 1
(In the Negro’s house. MICKEY a young Negro in the uniform of someone who works in a pullman car. Enters)
MICKEY
Hello* everyone. (Sees MARGA) Hello* Marga!
MARGA
(Upset but proud) Hello* Mickey. How are you?
MICKEY
Did you come see your mother, Marga? Very nice. There are still Negroes outside of Harlem, huh?
MARGA
Are you insulting me, Mickey?
MICKEY
(Steps back) I really want you to know. I’m very happy you came back to Mother’s house. Welcome, Marga.
MARY
(Upset) A child, Mickey, a child!
MICKEY
(Astonished). A child? (Goes closer) Did you get married?
MARY
(Sobbing). A white one.
MICKEY
(Beside himself). How dare you, Marga?!
KATY
You’ve always been her good friend, Mickey, you once loved her…you’d be having to… make a cradle for her. (MARGA puts her hand on a piece of wood, as if she is going to hit her with it.)
MARY
(Very upset) A child, by a white man, what a disgrace!
MICKEY
This really is too much. If one of us, a Negro, just glanced at a white woman – he’d be lynched*! -- -- --
SET 2
(The telephone rings. In the middle of curling her hair, ANNE picks up the phone.)
ANNE
Hello!*… That’s right, to who? …. That’s right. Who is this?...
GRACE
(Enters from the bathroom in the middle of washing herself) For me?...
ANNE
(Gestures to her not to interrupt) But who are you? Paul?... Ah, Colvin?… Oh yes, now I know. (Hides the phone. To GRACE) The boys*.
GRACE
Which boys*?...
ANNE
From the freight car. They want to come up. Should they?
GRACE
Maybe…spies, we don’t even know them.
ANNE
The things you come up with, dear Grace. Didn’t they defend us?! (Speaking into the telephone) Ok, come on up. Are you going to bring goodies with you? Fine*. Candy*, too? That’s great, goodbye*. (Hangs up) Grace, do you have a client today?
GRACE
(Raising one finger) One. The manager of the stocking factory. A miser, doesn’t want to bring me silk stockings. Says he doesn’t steal. What do I get out of it for the five dollars he leaves me, when he keeps me busy for three hours.
ANNE
When someone is used to exploiting people…. (Curls her hair)
GRACE
(Pensive) Anne, do you think we’ll ever be respectable people again?
ANNE
What do you mean?
GRACE
I mean go back to a shop*, an office*, stenographers*, typists*. Fifteen dollars a week?... And the boss flirts with us….
ANNE
If that’s all it was, it wouldn’t matter…but usually they don’t stop there…wasn’t it like that before the crisis? And even if the crisis ends, would we get our jobs* back?
GRACE
(Resigned). Crisis, shmaysis, it’s all the same…help me lift the bed.
(They both pick up the bed that goes into the wall. The bell rings. PAUL and CALVIN enter, well dressed. Happy.)
BOTH MEN
Hello*, hello*, girls.
BOTH WOMEN
*Hello, boys*.
SET 1
(At the Boster’s door we see the REVEREND)
KATY
Hello*, hello*, Reverend.
REVEREND
God’s grace. (Sees Marga), Hello*, Marga.
KATY
What good news does the Reverend bring to the home of common and oppressed people? (KATY brings him a chair.)
REVEREND
Thank you, thank you, Missus* Katy. News? First, greet the guest and then ask your question. (Sits.) Thank you, dear Mrs. Boster. Why is the second Missus* Boster so gloomy?
MARY
(With a sigh.) It’s no good, no good, Father.
MARGA
I suspect the reverend* has something to tell you, I shouldn’t be here.
REVEREND
You guessed the first piece, not the second. It’s true it has to do with your returning to your mother’s house, and as people are saying, with a child…but no matter how much people talk it’s not about who God has chosen to be your soul mate, because I hear it’s a white man….
MARGA
Well, and if he is white, what does that matter? Maybe you want to take the child away and raise it?....
KATY
You want us to raise a snake that’ll go on to bite us later.
MARGA
As of yet, no snake has come out of my womb.
KATY
We’ll see about that.
REVEREND
We’re not talking about the fact that there was no wedding. Let’s think about this. Well, imagine, dear Margaret, it grows up and let’s assume it looks like the father. He’ll still be made to suffer because his mother is a Negro.
MARY
(In tears) The white people should take it. It’s as much theirs as it is ours.
REVEREND
I don’t know how to respond to that. But I do know that they want me to warn our Negro girls that they should take their eyes off the white boys. Because there is already talk again about a rape. Here. Read. (He gives her a newspaper. Everyone reads. KATY bursts out laughing.)
SET 2
(Both young men, PAUL and COLVIN, are sitting on rocking chairs, the girls – on their laps. One of them is reading the newspaper. They all laugh.)
GRACE
…Read it again. An interesting story.
COLVIN
(Reading) Nigger youths kidnap two white girls in a freight car and rape them. (They all laugh.)
ANNE
Did you make the call?
PAUL
Of course, we did. They should know, those dogs, what it means when you throw someone off a train while it’s moving. Now they’re going to roast in the electric chair*. I’m just sorry you were hauled off to the hospital to be examined. But no one will know that you…a secret is sacred. (Doorbell rings)
GRACE
(Frightened) That’s not a ring I recognize! (Searches in their eyes) You?
PAUL
What do you mean us, babes*? On my mother...
GRACE
(Ordering them) Hide! (They try to run into the bathroom.) No, not there. In the bed.
(They pull the bed down from the wall. The young boys hide. ANNE opens the door and two BUSINESS WOMEN and a REPORTER* with a camera enter. They are astonished.)
WOMAN 1
I don’t think we’ve made a mistake. Which of you is “Miss” Anne and which is --- “Miss” Grace?
ANNE
I am Anne and she --- Grace, ma’am. What is this about?
WOMAN 2
(Studies them through a lorgnette *.) These girls don’t have much. Innocent children like these can be easily deceived, led astray. Nigger-scoundrels!
WOMAN 1
We have been delegated by the sisterhood of the ‘White Lily Movement’, to express our sympathy.
WOMAN 2
And, also, to offer you a modest check* for one thousand dollars, which has been allocated as the first installment of support, a small consolation for your troubles.
WOMAN 1
Especially for the period during which you will be embarrassed to show your faces in public.
WOMAN 2
(Whispers in their ears) And it’s even possible that you will have to have an operation. We are not against birth control* and we must not allow something like this to happen. May the heavens protect us from bringing little Negroes into the world…
WOMAN 1
We are currently preparing some events, balls and bazaars for your benefit. Your shame will have to be compensated with a large dowry…and now, permit us to leave with you some little trifles donated by big businesses. Stockings…
GRACE
(Joyfully). I actually need stockings. (Steps back.)
WOMAN 1
And here are some other trifles. (Displays blouses, dresses and other things) Just don’t be discouraged.
WOMAN 2
(Eagerly) Don’t be ashamed, children, tell us how it happened as if we were your sisters...
(ANNE and GRACE take stock of themselves.)
GRACE
(Refined) And … the gentleman* …
WOMAN 1
Oh yes. If only the newspapers had not gone on and on about this. It concerns the honor of two girls…
WOMAN 2
(Poses with the check* in her hand) Like this? McGray, snap* a photo if you must.
(The camera flashes. Both girls with the check* in their hands, and things set up on the table.)
SET 1
(At the same time, photographs are being taken in Mrs. Boster’s house. In the light from the camera, we see the SHERIFF and REVEREND.)
SHERIFF
(Setting up the protocol) Good, let people see what kind of home the criminal comes from. So, who is Mrs. Boster?
KATY & MARY
I am, Boss*.
SHERIFF
(Amazed) Both of you? What do you mean you’re both Mrs. Boster? Explain that Reverend.
REVEREND
It’s very simple: this woman (Indicating MARY) is the first Mrs. Boster, and this woman (Indicating KATY) is the second Mrs. Boster.
SHERIFF
I don’t understand.
REVEREND
Old Mr. Boster had a wife, you see, and he separated from her – her name is Mary, this one. So, he took a second wife, (Indicates KATY) this one.
SHERIFF
They live together? That’s bigamy*!
REVEREND
Now they live together. But when Old Mr. Boster was alive – they didn’t. They lived separately. Mary, here, and Katy — not here. But Old Mr. Boster died from an explosion of a steam-engine on a train, and Katy didn’t have anywhere to go with her child, Tommy, so Mary, the first Mrs. Boster, took her in. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, since Old Mr. Boster built this house.
SHERIFF
Really? Quite confusing. And who is the young woman over there?
REVEREND
Miss* Margaret, a daughter. Mary’s daughter by Old Mr. Boster.
SHERIFF
She seems to me to be dressed in poor taste. Is she a prostitute?
REVEREND
God forbid! Is that even permitted here? … But there has been a misfortune. A child, a white child, and we don’t know whose?
SHERIFF
There’s something mystifying in this house…
MARGA
You don’t know, but I do.
SHERIFF
Be quiet! Ok. Lineage is not the issue. So, who is Tommy Boster’s mother?
KATY
I am, Boss*. What’s happened to my child?
SHERIFF
A child? He’s not a child anymore! And do you know where he is right now?
KATY
No, I don’t. He went to look for work. It’s been eight days since I last heard from him.
SHERIFF
Went to look for work…everybody has the same excuse.
KATY
I’m not complaining. I have a tub full of laundry to do here. But a boy of thirteen, why shouldn’t he work?
SHERIFF
Then I’ll tell you where he is: he’s in jail!
KATY
In jail? My child is not a thief!
SHERIFF
Worse than that. He seduced two white girls and raped them.
SET 2
(The radio is playing. The two girls dance separately.)
GRACE
And now that I have all this money, dresses and stuff, I’ll finally know how to live. Really live!!
SET 1
(In the Negro’s home there is silence. Everyone has lowered their heads.)
MICKEY
And this smells like a death sentence!
(KATY collapses onto the rim of the washbasin full of laundry, bursts out crying loudly and bitterly.)
SET 2
(In the girls’ room the radio is playing jazz*. The girls are dancing with the boys.)
SET 3
(The prison chapel. Grey, vaulted. A deep wall of windows. A black cross on the bars on the window. The REVEREND stands in front of the cross, reciting Sunday prayers. The Negroes are crowded together, choked with anger.)
REVEREND
(Praying)… God is angry, because people are so sinful. And God is full of mercy when the person being judged has remorse in his heart. Therefore, take heart, be forgiving and submissive to the one who brings light to your eyes during the day and sleep to your eyes at night. Therefore, bless the power that your common sense does not understand, but you feel in your heart. The power that gives sun and rain to the grass and corn-stalks, bread, and rest to people. God, who nourishes the bird in the tree, the worm beneath the soil, the fish in water, animals in the forest, cows in the forest, will not neglect you, son of Adam. Therefore, be not recalcitrant toward your master who clothes you and puts shoes on your feet, puts bread on your table and water in your jug. Because by the hand of your master does God give it to you. And if you express anger toward your master, you express anger toward God….
GEORGE
(Interrupts him) But why are they keeping us here?!
