Black City Stage

If you are a white liberal, hurt and bewildered by the curtain which suddenly fell between you and the black Americans you cared about, these pages may have something to offer. Little for your comfort, perhaps, and nothing of an instant remedy; but an attempt to record, briefly, something of an experience in which the pale hand of a dyer acquired, in the course of his trade, a shading towards black.

The dyer’s trade in this case is entertainment. And why, on this painful though vital subject should you listen to an entertainer? One whose involvement in race relations was unplanned, incidental, and unawares? The answer emerges from the experience, as I hope you will see. I have the temerity to attempt this recollection because my involvement was incidental and unawares. And besides, the telling carries some good entertainment in its own right.