CRITICAL ANALYSIS & HISTORICAL Context

“Freedom is heavy. You got to put your shoulder to freedom. Put your shoulder to it and hope your back hold up.” — Memphis, Two Trains Running In Two Trains Running, Sterling mentions a rally for Black Power that is taking place to celebrate Malcolm X’s 40th birthday. When he puts up a flyer for the rally at the diner, Memphis gets angry. Memphis has been living and working in the white man’s world for many years to survive. How can a rally restore his freedom? To understand this conflict between Sterling and Memphis one needs to understand the history of the Black Power Movement.

Following the assassinations of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., many young radicals like Sterling became disillusioned about the effectiveness of nonviolent civil disobedience. The federal government was slow to act, and African Americans were being oppressed, beaten and killed while waiting and fighting for their rights. Many African Americans were dissatisfied, even angry, with the pace of change.

The Black Power Movement of the 1960s and the 1970s emerged as a political and social movement whose advocates believed in racial pride, selfsufficiency and equality for all people of black and African descent. The slogan “Black Power” signaled that some activists were shifting from seeking civil rights to demanding national liberation. Many Black Power activists argued that desegregation was insufficient. Only through the deconstruction of white power structures could a space be made for a Black political voice.

The Black Power Movement also sought to celebrate Blackness and restore positive images of Black people from the negative stereotyping in the larger society. Soon, African-American students began to celebrate Black culture openly. Black women who once straightened their hair to conform to white beauty standards were now sporting afros to demonstrate their pride in African heritage. Phrases like “Black is beautiful” and “Say it loud, I’m Black and I’m proud” also emerged.

The period from 1955 to 1968 is known as the Civil Rights Movement. Though the 13th Amendment officially abolished slavery, it didn’t end discrimination against African Americans or their rights being denied on a day-to-day basis. Different ideas of how to achieve equality and end racial prejudice emerged. At the forefront of the movement were two charismatic leaders — Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. believed in civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. King was convinced that enduring insults, physical violence, and imprisonment would eventually gain national attention. When he was assassinated in 1968, the nonviolent action thrust of the Civil Rights Movement continued, but with less frequency and publicity.

Malcolm X, on the other hand, believed in self-defense and in a radical, anti-white position. He preached a message of Black Pride, self-help and separatism. The foremost proponent of Black Power and Black Nationalist philosophies, Malcolm X appealed to the AfricanAmerican middle class, especially the young. He was a mesmerizing speaker, and his analysis of white racism and hypocrisy also energized poor urban dwellers, ex-convicts, and street people, who had experienced the contempt of white society first hand. He was a member of the Nation of Islam (Black Muslims).

Kim Pereira, August Wilson and the African-American Odyssey, pgs 6 & 7:

"Despite the tumultuous times, the spirit of survival among Wilson's characters remains undiminished as they continue to scramble and hope - playing the lottery, stealing if they have to, and working where they can. By the end of the play, Sterling manages to see Aunt Ester, who offers him hope and the promise of love. That same day, the music returns - the jukebox is repaired and, even before Risa plays it, Sterling sings to her in a faltering prelude to the full-blown swells of Aretha Franklin's soulful voice. The odyssey continues."

Sandra G. Shannon, The Dramatic Vision of August Wilson, pgs 166 & 167:

"Set in 1969, Two Trains Running (1990) presents the debris of an explosive era in black awareness. Its very premise suggests what happens when there are no heirs to carry on the legacy established by past black activists, too many of whom now exist only as martyrs. Wilson expresses this sense of loss in his play for the 1960s by invoking a familiar football analogy - 'going back to pick up the ball': 'There's a character in Two Trains Running [Aunt Ester] who says "If you drop the ball, you've got to go back and pick it up. There's no need to continue to run because if you reach the end zone, it's not going to be a touchdown. You have to have the ball"' (interviewed by Bond).

According to August Wilson, current generations of black seem to have abandoned the hard work and sacrifice of their ancestors, paying only lip service to what was their elders' raison d'etre. He also laments the cultural emptiness that plagues black youth. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the commercial bonanza stemming from Spike Lee's 1992 film Malcom X. Sweatshirts, caps, and a variety of paraphernalia bearing the familiar 'X' have become virtually a uniform for many of the same black youth who appreciate little and know even less about their past. Although Malcom Little's famous 'X' originally signified a disavowal of his so-called white name and a celebration of his African roots, in the hands of moneymakers it also became a faddish craze and an emblem of unreflective militance.

Wilson's theme for Two Trains Running addresses the misplaced values of today's youth by imploring them to 'go back and pick up the ball.' Although its metaphor is borrowed from the sport, the theme has extremely serious cultural as well as economic implications for black Americans. In particular, it strengthens Wilson's pleas to them to look to the African continuum as inspiration for their cultural preservation and their continued advancement. It is also an appeal to black Americans to continue to confront white America and to demand that which they deserve as citizens, whether that be equal opportunities for employment, comparable pay, or simple fair and human treatment. In addition to its cultural implications within the context of the play, the simple phrase 'going back to pick up the ball' describes the politics of economics - an area in which blacks have historically been cast as victims rather than benefactors. Even more than cultural redemption, then, Two Trains Running is a play about the economic survival of black Americans and the many entrenched oppressive forces with which its characters often collide as they choose among luck, violence and fair play.

"In Two Trains Running, Wilson goes to the late sixties, 'a turbulent, racing, dangerous, and provocative decade,' and sets his drama in a Pittsburgh restaurant symbolically placed between life (Lutz's Meat Market) and death (West's Funeral Home)."

pg 83, an excerpt from August Wilson: a Casebook, section written by Patricia Gantt

August Wilson grew up in the Hill District, the setting for all but one of the 10 plays in his Pittsburgh Cycle. In the early 1800s, the Hill District was a hub for immigrant families who came to work in the steel mills during the Industrial Revolution. After slavery ended, many African Americans moved to the Hill District. By the early 1900s, the Hill had become a diverse and vibrant community, rich in culture. Then its infrastructure began to crumble. Many of the inhabitants of the Hill moved on to other parts of the city, leaving a significant African-American majority. In the mid-1900s the Hill District became a lively network of African-American-owned shops, restaurants, barbershops and nightclubs.

In 1955, the federal government approved a redevelopment plan which cleared out 95 acres of homes and business on the Hill and displaced more than 8,000 residents. Meanwhile, the federal government built federally funded public housing. The Hill District had more public housing than any other neighborhood in Pittsburgh.

In the 1960s and 1970s the Pittsburgh steel industry collapsed, causing rampant unemployment. This was bad news for the Hill District. The crime rates rose and buildings deteriorated from lack of upkeep. Random demolition of these buildings left vacant lots. The demolitions in the 1950s and the demise of the steel industry left a poor and crime-ridden neighborhood, isolated from the rest of the city.

Link to another map of the Hill District in relation to the plays. From this source:

"Memphis’ Diner, on Kirkpatrick between Wylie and Centre. The diner is based on memories of Eddie’s Diner at Wylie and Kirkpatrick, which is nearby, along with Lutz’ Meat Market (Centre and Elmore) and the West Funeral Home (moved from 2216 Centre to 2215 Wylie in 1970). Late in the play, the address given is 1621 Wylie, to honor Mr. Wilson’s mother, who lived her final years at 1621 Bedford."

Example of a dream book with images, explanations, and more

"Let me get a dime on that nine sixty-eight before you go. I dreamt about snakes." - Holloway, page 52.

According to Freud, snakes signify the genitals of a male. Dreaming of a snake symbolizes sexuality and repressed sexual desire. Other sources claim the meaning of a snake in one's dream signifies the individual is in a state of transition, healing and can represent the spiritual aspects of yourself.

http://www.snakedreams.org/freud/

http://www.snakedreams.org/snake-dream/

"I dreamt about dogs and looked it up in the dream book." - Sterling, page 46.

Dreaming about a friendly dog running towards you is thought to represent a new relationship in your life. While dreaming of a dog running away from you is thought to represent a relationship that you may feel distant from or one that is toxic.

http://www.pawculture.com/pet-wellness/pet-science/dreams-about-dogs-heres-what-they-mean/

The numbers game is a form of illegal gambling or lottery played mostly in poor and working-class neighborhoods. To play, a bettor tries to pick three numbers to match those that will be randomly drawn the following day. A numbers runner keeps records of the betting slips, collects money from the bettors and disperses money to the winners. The runner reports back to the numbers bank, or headquarters, of the lottery. If a person guesses correctly, they are said to “hit the numbers” and are entitled to a split of the total money in the pool.

The bettor can either bet "boxed" or "straight". As numbers are drawn separately, "boxed" refers to the numbers the bettor has indicated are shown in any order and "straight" means the numbers must appear in the exact order they are bet upon.

Lisa Wilde, "Reclaiming the Past: Narrative and Memory in August Wilson's Two Trains Running, pgs 74 & 74

"The insistent rhythm of time and mortality pulses through the play. The restaurant is across the street from Lutz's Meat Market and West's Funeral Home - the characters travel between these primitive sites of slaughter, consumption and decay. People speculate about the last days of the world. The block the restaurant is on is scheduled to be leveled. West, the undertaker, goes about the ancient rituals of preparing the dead for the afterlife. He is a modern high priest officiating over the ceremonies of grief and valediction. Yet an impulse towards action emerges out of this desolation. Risa, Holloway, Sterling, and Memphis try to find their own ways to envisage a future through consulting prophets and oracles, playing with change. Wolf, the numbers runner, offers new lives and different endings for the price of a ticket.

Playing the numbers is a way to try to control fate and get enough money to get ahead. There is no logic to the world: getting ahead happens only through a lucky number or a sudden contract. Working, particularly working according to standards imposed by white America, yields up only a slight variant on slavery. The real battle is revealed to be one not of language or attitude but of economics. Wilson tells stories of people inadequately recompensed for the work they've done, legal clauses written so a property owner can be bought out for a fraction of the price he paid, even lottery winnings are cut in half. The only way to recover what has been lost or stolen is by following the dominant culture's tactics: robbery, burning buildings for insurance, carrying guns to assert power. But these people are arrested or imprisoned for actions that in the marketplace would be considered shrewd business. Wilson's characters are not innocent: they have already tried to make their lives work as the world dictates and lost. Their need to reclaim what has been taken from them, either in actual or symbolic terms - Herald Loomis' lost wife in Joe Turner's Come and Gone, the piano bought with a father's blood in The Piano Lesson, Memphis' farm - becomes the truest form of revolution and affirmation.

In each of Wilson's plays, this liberating moment comes through communicating with the supernatural or occult mysteries. ...In Two Trains Running, travelers seek to consult Aunt Ester, a three hundred and forty-nine year old prophetess. Like the Cumaean Sibyl or the Sphinx, she provides her pilgrims not with answers but with riddles and parables, divinations that they themselves must interpret. Specifically, she offers them the choice of remaining passive or moving towards their fate - if they are ready to walk through fire to reach it. She may extend healing but the comfort comes with a knife's edge. Her presence, reaching back to precolonial days, represents African American memory: the choice is to ignore it or to retrieve it. As Memphis says of his own travels, 'I'm going back there one day... They've got two trains running every day.'"

Post World War II, the nation experienced a tighter labor market that presented opportunities for black men to move up in their occupations. Market discrimination also lowered due to a relative abundance of created jobs. In Pittsburgh, however, the city experienced a severe loss of jobs in the area and entered a period of economic decline. Along with the beginning of the Second Great Migration, jobs and white people moved to the suburbs.

In the 1940s black men found jobs in steel mills and munitions plants. Some worked as elevator operators, industry foremen, gas station/parking lot attendants, salesmen, social workers, cab and truck drivers. In the 1950s, the black community worked in manufacturing, as clerks, bookkeepers, cab/bus drivers, mechanics, managers, foremen, salesmen, policemen, nurses, accountants, auditors, and in residential service

In late 1969, black-American steel and construction workers led a demonstration protesting for more opportunities.

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4th, 1969 sparked a riot in the Hill District. The night of the assassination of MLK, a crowd of black activists broke into a meat market in Centre Avenue. As the night continued the group moved down Centre Avenue destroying property. On Saturday, rioters set fire to markets and stores, while throwing rocks at the firefighters that responded to the chaos. The riot continued 7 days after King’s assassination, by the end of the chaos there had been 505 fires, almost 1000 injuries and one fatality. The mayor of Pittsburgh, Joseph Bar, enforced a curfew until order was restored to the city.

During this time, the National Guard was brought into the city. The soldiers were "..stoned and pelted with bottle from rooftops." The New York Times reported.

Beginning in the 1940s, the church grew as a pivotal center for “Black mobilization”. The church became a space for the Black community to gather and organize.

Risa - Rooted in American history comes the idea that a woman, being physically weaker than the male counterpart, is inherently more sinful in nature. In Elizabeth Reis’ Damned Women: Sinners and Witches in Puritan New England, she explores that idea that women internalize the teaching of the church, creating a self image of damnation and sin (pg.13).

"I just found out she died. She overdosed last night." - Wolf, page 51

In the 1960s and 1970s, the use of heroin rose significantly. This occurrence was possibly promoted by the return of the veterans that fought in the Vietnam War. In 1970 and '71, more young adults of black and Puerto Rican descent in NYC died of heroin related incidents.

In the 1960s, over 80% of people admitted into opioid abuse treatment centers were "inner city" men from urban areas. In 1971 , President Nixon proclaimed the "War on Drugs". In the 1980s, crack cocaine hit poor black-American communities hard.

Black men have the lowest life expectancy and the highest death rate compared to both sexes across all other racial groups. Black men are expected to live about 7.1 years less than other racial groups. 40% of black men are likely to die prematurely from cardiovascular diseases compared to 21% of white men.

Black men also have a high suicide rate, as it is the 3rd leading cause of death in black men ages 15-24 years old.

The leading causes of death of black men in 2013 were as followed (in order):

1. Heart Disease
2. Cancer
3. Unintentional injury
4. Stroke
5. Homicide
6. Diabetes
7. Chronic lower respiratory diseases
8. Kidney disease
9. Septicemia
10. Influenza and Pneumonia