num_pages: 144
description: In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence--which is loosely based on the notorious 1955 killing of Emmett Till--James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race. For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a boy like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed. And centuries of brutality and fear, patronage and contempt, are about to erupt in a moment of truth as devastating as a shotgun blast.In his award-winning play, Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated--and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion.
language: English
title: Blues for Mister Charlie
titlecomplete: Blues for Mister Charlie
characters: Sister Moore, Brother Boxer, Margaret Alexander, Ida Jackson, Luke, Sister Boxer, Odessa, David (divers)
genres: American, Theatre, African American Literature, Drama, Plays, School, Race, African American, Classics, Fiction
ratings_count: 1904
publisher: Vintage