Pulitzer Prize 100th anniversary celebrated with reading of "In Abraham's Bosom"

The scene is set in the early 1900s in the train station of a small town a few miles south of Raleigh.

A black teacher is taking his class to Durham for an excursion, and as the train stops, he steps outside to ask the white engineer working on the locomotive at what time the train will reach its destination. 

The engineer scowls, spits out a few words before grabbing the walking stick of an old Confederate soldier standing nearby and striking the teacher in the face. 

As the blood starts to pour, the teacher lets out a simple, "Lawd, white folks, you done ruined my shirt." 

Paul Green, a playwright and UNC graduate, witnessed this occurrence when he was a child and related it in a letter to a drama critic. He said this is what inspired him to write the play "In Abraham’s Bosom," for which he received a Pulitzer Prize. 

And tonight, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize, the Department of English and Comparative Literature, the Center for Dramatic Art and the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History are partnering with the North Carolina Humanities Council to present a stage reading of the play. 

The play takes place in the South 20 years after the end of the Civil War and relates the story of a black man — the illegitimate son of a white former slave owner — and his attempt to build a school for black children, as well as the obstacles he encounters. 

“Because it is of such a challenging nature, it really needs some clarification, some historical context — and that’s where the scholars come in,” said Marsha Warren, the executive director and literary executor of the Paul Green Foundation.

Warren supervised the organization of the event. Since the play had never been adapted since it was written in 1926, Warren said she was looking for someone who could take a traditional piece and adapt it to the modern stage. 

She asked Joseph Megel, an artist-in-residence at UNC's Department of Communication and artistic director of UNC's Process Series, to direct the reading. 

“He does a lot of experimental work and looks at cutting-edge, interesting ways of presenting drama,” Warren said.

North Carolina-based playwright Samm-Art Williams and two UNC professors, Laurence Avery and Reginald Hildebrand, will discuss Green’s work after the reading.

While the play is about another time, Megel stresses how its themes still resonate today.

“The play makes us aware of what white power does,” Megel said. “It may seem like something from the past, but it’s important to understand where we came from.

Carly Jones, an actress in the play who has also worked with Megel on other productions, said the inequality portrayed is still relatable. 

“We still have struggle with the achievement gap in education, and we still have struggle racially,” she said. “It is really interesting the parallels that you can actually draw.”

The event is part of the statewide program, Pulitzer NC: The Power of Words, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prizes this year. It is one of the many events funded through the Pulitzer Campfires Initiative for the centennial.

The North Carolina Humanities Council, a nonprofit affiliated with the National Endowment for Humanities, received a $35,000 grant from the Pulitzer Prize Board for the program. The Paul Green Foundation, which was created a year after the death of the playwright, was asked to participate. 

Even if the story is fictional, it was inspired from the real event witnessed by Green, which contributes to its realism.

“I would have thought that a play written about African-Americans in the South by a Southern playwright would have relied on stereotypes, but that was not the case at all,” said Thomasi McDonald, an actor in the play. 

“I was struck by the honesty of the writing, the integrity and intelligence of the characters, discussing issues that are still relevant today.”

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