TACKLING

HUMANITY
AN INTERVIEW WITH TONY KUSHNER
BY KELUNDRA SMITH

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner

earned his place in the theatrical landscape as the
writer of Angels in America, A Gay Fantasia,
which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2011.
Kushners plays tend to incite controversy, and tell
stories that question notions of race, sexual orientation and religion. In his semi-autobiographical
musical Caroline, or Change Kushner takes
on the civil rights movement, black and Jewish
relations and the emotional life of people on the
verge of change. Or as he wrote in the October
31, 2004 Playwrights on Writing feature in
the Los Angeles Times, Change was coming.
Change is exciting. And in change there is loss.

KS: Ive heard that you once

said Caroline, or Change is
your most perfect play.
What makes Caroline so
perfect for you?
TK: I never said it was my
most perfect play, I would
never say anything like
that. I have said that Caroline is probably the play
that Im proud of most.
Sometimes you have plays
that you feel you could
continue working on after
its been published or seen
by lots of people. And then
there are plays you feel finished with, and Caroline
is in that category. It did
exactly what its supposed
to do and thats why Im so
proud of it.
KS: What makes you so

14

proud of it?
TK: One of the things I
love about it is the score.
I think Jeanine is just a
great, great composer. In
my opinion shes one the
greatest musical theatre
composers of my generation, and really a magical writer and composer,
and I feel as if the music
for Caroline is one of the
most beautiful musical
theatre scores in recent
years. She has an astonishing gift for melody and
an incredible gift of how
music works in theatre
If you ever have the privilege of working with her,
she inhabits the souls of
the characters you write.
Theres a musical equivalent and language for

these people and she understands on a deep level

how the energies of these
characters interweave to
create the play.
Its also a meaningful
piece for me because its
the closest thing to an
autobiography Ive done
on stage. I grew up in
Lake Charles, Louisiana, and in 1963 I was 7
years old I think. I grew
up in a family with a father who was a clarinetist
and a mother who was a
bassoonist. My mother
didnt die when I was
a little kid, but she got
cancer when I was about
11 and my brother was
the age Noah is in the
play. And theres an African American woman,
15

her names Maudie Lee

Davis, and she worked as
a maid, she worked for
my family and I had a
very intense relationship,
an actual relationship,
with Maudie. Were still
very close.
And it almost always
makes me cry when I
hear it. I think its a very
ABOVE GRETA OGLESBY,

TONY KUSHNER AND COMPANY AT THE GUTHRIE THEATRE.

PHOTO: MICHAL DANIEL.

moving piece and Im

proud of what it thinks
about and what it asks
an audience to think
about.
KS: When youre talking about the autobiographical elements of
this play for you, did
you and Maudie Lee
ever have any type of
encounter like the one
between Noah and
Caroline where she
lashes out and says hell
is a place where Jews go
when they die? Did
you and Maudie ever
have any type of intense
encounter like that?
TK: I think that something like that happened. Let me put it
this way. My mother,
who grew up during
the Great Depression
on welfare in the Bronx,
was certainly conscious
of money. We each had
an allowance of like
$0.50 or something
when we were little
kids, but it really bothered her as a good liberal Jewish lady to have
Maudie pick our clothes
up off the floor It especially bothered her if
we left pocket change,
and I think I was especially bad about that....
I believe there was a
cup in the basement

of the house I grew up

in, where my father still
lives, where for a little
while my mother used
to tell Maudie that if
she found money in our
pockets, she should put
it in a cup in the laundry
room. I dont remember
that she said Maudie
could take the money; I
think thats something I
invented.
The thing that fascinated me about Maudie
is that a lot of African
American women who
worked in the Deep
South for white people
in the 1960s were expected to be cheerful,
but she wasnt. Maudie
was a nice person, but
she was very severe
when I was a little boy
and I thought that that
was kind of glamorous
and interesting and it
made her very different
than the African American women that worked
in other white homes I
would visit.
I was also fascinated,
because I think she was
a very religious person;
she was a Christian and
I was intrigued by what
she must think about us
being Jewish. And I was
told repeatedly by other
people that Jews were
damned because we

16

didnt accept Christ as

the Messiah. I know that
I asked her on several
occasions, and I tried to
trap her into admitting
that she didnt think we
were saved. It was nothing like what happens
in the play; that was a
dramatization.
Although we did have
real, knock-down, dragout fights. I think I said
to her when I was 5 or
6 or 7 what Noah says
to Caroline after she
says Hell is a place Jews
go when they die, that
President Johnson has a
bomb. And I remember being very worried afterward that she
would tell my parents,
because I wouldve been
punished. My parents
wouldve been horrified that I had said such
a thing. She never told
them.
KS: What are some
qualities that you think
that an actress playing
Caroline should bring
to the role? What makes
a good Caroline have?
TK: Well, I mean, you
have to have a great
voice because we wrote
the part for Tanya
Pinkins who has this
super human range and
vocal power. Its a very

What I was intrigued by in thinking

of Caroline as a fictional character
was somebody who cant let go, cant
surrender the anger of the injustice in
the name of hope, in the name of a
belief in transformation.
demanding role. You
go all the way up to
this really high soprano
voice and down to this
lower belt; its tough to
sing it. Marcela Lorca
directed it spectacularly
in Minneapolis and had
a spectacular woman
[Greta Oglesby] singing
it and thats enormously
important. I think you
need to beas Tanya
is, and as Greta was in
Minneapolisa really
amazing actress. Its a
very difficult part. Shes a
person who is unable to
stop mourning her own
life and unable to stop
feeling that shes been
robbed of something
because she has been
robbed of many things.
And shes a person of
immense heart and soul
and intellect who really
suffers from her circumstances really terribly. Its
really hard to play someone like that and dig
past the brusqueness to
the vulnerability and the

longing. And there are

certainly a lot of opportunities for those things
to be shown.
KS: Something Ive noticed about the character Caroline is that she
seems content with being discontented. You
talk about the anger and
the brusqueness. Is this
what you think southern African Americans
were feeling before the
Civil Rights Movement?
TK: I dont feel shes
content with being discontented. I mean her
friend Dotty is more
typical from what I
imagine, from my understanding what was
going on in the African
American community.
Dotty is somewhat representative of people
who were feeling the
tide of history turning,
and feeling themselves
being lifted up by it and
moved forward.

17

And Caroline is someoneIve always been

very interested in periods
of very radical and revolutionary transformation, and for whatever
reason I am intrigued by
figures who are able to
catch the wave and also
people who arent; and
people who get left behind in a way and cant
quite join in. And what
I was intrigued by in
thinking of Caroline as
a fictional character was
somebody who cant let
go, cant surrender the
anger of the injustice in
the name of hope, in the
name of a belief in transformation. And when
she engages this 8-yearold in a battle, when shes
destabilized enough by
the indignity of the deal
with the pocket change
to say the things she says,
it horrifies her. But her
solution, sort of tragically, is to punish herself
and even more furiously
refuse change. This is

Theres a way in which music opens

up parts of you that are difficult to
open through language, and frees and
exalts the psyche of the mind and the
heart in a way language simply cant.

what her big number

Lots Wife is about.
She asks God to give her
the strength to give up
the things that are most
human and most precious to her, apart from
her kids--her love, her
desire, she asks God to
take hers away because
she feels that she cant afford to be human. And
I think thats the tragedy
of the character, and one
of the things thats sort
of heartbreaking about
the play.
KS: When youre writing about typically
oppressed
minority
groups like homosexuals and African Americans, sometimes depiction can be taken as law.
Do you ever feel any
responsibility to those
groups you write about
to depict them more
positively or extremely
accurately so youre not
creating a caricature?
For example with Caro-

line or Change has it

ever scared you that you
might be feeding into
the stereotype of the
angry black woman?
TK: I think if I ever wrote
anything that didnt
scare me then I wouldnt
be doing my job. I dont
think a writer worth
anything writes from a
place of comfort.
I would hate to think
that it was that case that
if one writes an African
American woman who
is simply angry then its
a stereotype. The stereotype is another way of
saying that the character
is only representative of a
clich about people and
little more than that. I
dont think thats true of
the character I created
in Caroline. Youd have
to approach it having
decided that. If you really listen and look at
the differences you hear
a variety of human expe-

18

rience. It would be hard

to make the case that
the African American
characters or the Jewish
characters are clichs, I
dont think they are. I
guess I would say that
because I wrote them.
KS: I read something in
the LA Times where you
said, Music rounds out
suffering, it reveals its
obverse. How do you
think music does that in
Caroline, or Change? Or
do you think there are
some things music cant
round out?
TK: Theres a way in
which music opens up
parts of you that are difficult to open through
language, and frees and
exalts the psyche of the
mind and the heart in
a way language simply
cant. Theres a certain
kind of sorrow and ecstasy that you can access
with musical theatre
that you sort of cant

with language, unless

youre Shakespeare. Ive
experienced that with
Caroline. People are really moved by it and I
know the music is doing part of that.

ly a musical about grief

and loss among other
things, then music can
get at grieving places in
a way language doesnt;
I imagine thats what I
was trying to say.

Im not saying its superior. There are things

language can do that
music cant. I grew up in
a house with music with
two parents that are professional musicians, so I
understand the power
of music, and working
with Jeanine gives me
access to that power. If
one of the logical consequences of suffering is
grief, and this is certain-

KS: You were talking a

little bit earlier about
being a playwright versus a novelist or something else. In a time
when it seems like plays
and theatre are losing
a place in the cultural
arenawhy do you still
feel the urge to write
plays? Would you still
write them if no one
went to see them?
TK: Well no ones ever

19

asked me that last part

of that question before.
I think the answer is no.
I wouldnt because you
couldnt. I suppose you
technically could write
a play and have nobody
see it done in front of
an audience. Its like

ABOVE GRETA OGLESBY,

DOUG ESKEW AND COMPANY. PHOTO: T. CHARLES
ERICKSON.

Brecht never got to see

Good Person of Szechuan
in front of an audience
because he died when
it was in production,
but for the most part
the play to me, putting
it up on its feet in front
of an audience, is a part
of the writing process
and I dont feel like I
could feel its finished.
Theres a way theatre
teaches critical consciousness. You have to
grapple with whats artificial and whats not,
whats a dream and
whats being awake. I
dont think any other
art form is as dependent on those kinds
of dialectics as theatre.
Plus the live, unfinished
event, its never done.
Its not a commodity.
Everything is changing
and that infinite ability,
the fact that it cant be
completed and it disappears when its done, it
teaches incredibly human lessons. The fact
that theatre is absolutely impossible to commodifyyou can sell
t-shirts and coffee cups
in the lobbybut its
not the event. You can
record it, but thats not
the event. Its an inherently political medium
for that reason. Theres
nothing we need more

than to be able to look

at the world with a
double awareness.
KS: Do you ever have
the desire to direct your
own work?
TK: Well I trained as a
director originally (he
received his MA in directing from NYU). I
think I was too afraid
to go into writing immediately. The playwright who in my early
years I revered more
than any other playwright, Bertolt Brecht,
was also a director of
his own work. Ive become more and more
interested in the possibility of doing that.
I think theres a certain value to directing
your own work if you
know how to do it. A
lot of times when playwrights direct, and I
dont know who said
this, he said this in reference to when Samuel
Beckett directed something like Godot or
End Game, that when
Beckett directs them,
theyre impressive, but
dead. He wonders about
the weight of the playwrights authority, when
you show up knowing
everything. Its very
hard to discover new
stuff when the writers

20

there telling you what

things mean. So, maybe sometime in the
near future if I had a
play that wasnt huge
and enormous and
complicated.
KS: Well my last question is a simple one, or
perhaps its a complicated one, and that is
what inspires you?
TK: God you have to
define inspire. The
need to pay the rent
inspires me. I really
do worry if I was rich
would I write. I do this
to make a living. What
turns me on? What
gets me excited? I love
contradictions. Narratives. The dream of
writing a really great
narrative, a story that
as its unfolding is telling you why things
happen and helps you
explore the nature of
reality. Im proud of
the gimmicky plot of
Caroline. Im turned
on by humor, history
and reading history
and difficult poetry
especially makes me
want to write. When
Im feeling stuck or dry
I turn to that. Politics.
I love political struggle. I find it endlessly
fascinating and challenging. l

F U L F I L L I N G A N A N C E S TO R S

DESTINY
Broadway and film composer Jeanine
Tesori says she sees music as her way
of honoring her grandfathers dreams,
and her unique approach to composition comes from her varied musical
tasteeverything from Stephen Sondheim to the Talking Heads. She took
inspiration from the turbulent social
and political atmosphere of the 1960s
to create a musical mosaic for Caroline, or Change. Tesori says whenever
she talks about Caroline, or Change
she learns something, something always sneaks out.

JEANINE TESORI

it was so dense. I thought, Theres

no room for music in this. Its not
that I didnt want to do it. Then we
ended up working on something
else together later, and he said to me
I think you said no to something a
little quickly, because I wasnt able
to explain things about it. Then he
went through it with me and then
I understood what he was trying to
do with it and what my role could

INTERVIEWED BY KELUNDRA SMITH

KS: You originally said No to

playwright Tony Kushner when he
asked you to compose the music for
Caroline, Or Change. Why? What
made you change your mind?
JT: The reason I didnt want to do it
at first is because the presentation of

21

 GRETA OGLESBY IN CAROLINE, OR CHANGE AT THE GUTHRIE THEATRE. PHOTO: MICHAL DANIEL.

be. I never want to do anything unless I understand because thats a disaster and a bad time.

Were very interested in discarded

stories. I think Caroline is not an
often-heard story. I think the same
with Mother Courage (another musical Tesori and Kushner collaborated
on, based on the political play by
German playwright Bertolt Brecht),
certainly when we worked together
in writing those songs we were asking ourselves what hasnt been stated
in a certain way? What have we already stated? Every theatre piece
I do, I like to challenge myself. I
dont like to repeat. I like to stretch
myself. He feels the same way.

KS: You recently collaborated

with Tony Kushner on Blizzard at
Marblehead Neck at Glimmerglass
Operahow did that experience
compare to working with him on
Caroline, or Change?
JT: Well, you know, we have a process and I understand him and I
know him so well. I think we can
predict each other and know each
others thoughts, and theres an incredible short hand, which saves a
lot of time. Im interested in things
hes interested in and were always
playing with formnot as an agendathats just the [type of ] writing
thats exciting to me.

KS: You talk about playing with

form. Caroline, or Change has been
said to blur the lines between musical theatre and opera. Do you think
this is a fair judgment? How would
you describe the musical style?

22

To me, its a mosaic of people who have a

lot of different rhythms, in a time when
America had a lot of different rhythms
that were clashing in an intense way.
JT: I just cant describe it. I know
Ive tried to describe it, and every
time I look at what Ive called it,
it just sounds stupid. Ive called it
folk opera. Its a magical piece. Its
a piece thats through-sung, I dont
know what the label is. I think that
perhaps it operates sometimes as a
play, sometimes as an opera, sometimes as a musical. I dont know if
everything can be summed up as a
label all the time. Thats how I feel
about my work with Tony. I dont
quite know what it is.

Then you have the music coming in

from the north with the family, so
there are all of these influences that
are working themselves out and trying to find a way to sit together, literally, at a comfortable counterpoint.
Trying to do it, without seeming
cacophonous, is a challenge.
It was interesting to me to see if
Caroline can sing to classical clarinet? Yes she can. Could they sing on
top of this klezmer for Hanukkah
and [have] it be an expression of a
husbands breakdown? Yes, it could.
So that was what we were trying to
achieve.

KS: The show has an amalgamation

of musical formsLatin influences,
gospel, jazz, Jewish, nursery rhymes,
Christmaswhat made you choose
to blend all those musical styles in
the show?

KS: Before Thoroughly Modern Millie closed in 2004, you were the first
woman composer in history to have
two original musicalsthe other
being Caroline, or Changerunning
concurrently on Broadway. Is that a
milestone for you? What was that
time like in your life?

JT: The reason I did it is not just to

exercise my own versatility, but to
show how the world was working.
To me, its a mosaic of people who
have a lot of different rhythms, in a
time when America had a lot of different rhythms that were clashing in
an intense way. For Caroline, its her
own life, and the idea that she, as
her ancestors have toiled, is working
in this hot basement. Shes singing
holler songs, field songs. Piped in
are these songs that are happening
in 1963 with girl groups.

JT: Well I think having anything

on Broadway is a milestone for me.
Having anything up that people are
potentially paying money to see is a
milestone. As much as I love New
York and I love Broadway, its not
the end all be all for me. Its a great
place to work, but its not the place
23

where I have the most fun because of

the economic pressure.

Hopefully they see

something
theyll
be able to hold for
a long time. Thats
the kind of art I love
to see, where the
half-life is long, and
you can consider it
and think about it
time and time again.

You know, Im always doing a lot of

projects because I started late in some
ways. Even though I trained from a
really early age, I gave up music for
a solid four years when I was young,
and I think those four years were almost 15 in some ways. I stopped from
14-18, and that incredible energy that
you bring into music as a teenager
I can see it with my 14 year oldI
missed it. So I always have three or
four projects going on, because I always feel like Im playing catch-up.
KS: Do you have a favorite instrument
you like to play?
JT: I play the piano mostly. I started
when I was 3 and Im 50, and I love
playing it. Its part of me when I play.
Im so grateful that my parents pushed
me. And Ive also said to kids, I know
everyone says dont stop, but they dont
tell you how boring and tedious it can
be, and do it anyway. The idea that
except for those four years, which cost
me for a whileI feel that when I sit
down to play that instrument is an extension of who I am.

but I get the impression that he wasnt

able to do much. I find it a big inspiration that somehow I was given the
opportunity that he was denied. I
definitely feel that, thats my greatest
inspiration.
KS: What do you want audiences to
get from Caroline, Or Change?
JT: You know, I dont think that way.
I think people should get what they
get. From having done shows where
the audience comes in with a lot of
information, like Millie and Shrek, I
like that Caroline is there with little
information. Hopefully they see
something theyll be able to hold for a
long time. Thats the kind of art I love
to see, where the half-life is long, and
you can consider it and think about
it time and time again. My hope for
Caroline is that people will consider it
long after they see it. l

KS: What inspires you?

JT: You know I think Im pushed
bywhen I work with George Wolfe
(playwright and director who directed
the Broadway production of Caroline,
Or Change)whos a close friend
he says were always pushed by what
our ancestors couldnt achieve. My
grandfather was a musician and composer and conductor and he died at
a very young age, and was not able
toand I know so little about him,
24

A MUSICAL
WITH THE DEPTH OF A

DRAMA
very rich. Then when I heard the
music, I was swept by its rich emotional power... and I became determined to find a way to direct it.

AN INTERVIEW WITH
DIRECTOR AND CHOREOGRAPHER
MARCELA LORCA BY JOSEPH WHELAN

JW: What appealed to you about

Caroline or Change when you first
thought about directing it?

JW: It caught your interest.

ML: It is always interesting to look
at what divides us across culture and
across social class and across nationalities, religion... all the divisions
that we have. There are always going to be divisions and there are always going to be contrasts, but deep
inside we all want the same things,
and the play reveals this in a very
subtle and beautiful manner. There
are no evils in this play, which is a
wonderful thing. Every character is
a good, well-intentioned being who
is looking to communicate and act
in the best possible way. The play
reflects on how we respond to events
from our own perspective, culture
or generation, and how differently
we digest life, and at the same time
seek such similar things.

ML: The first time I read it, I really

loved the interplay of the fantastical and realistic elements in the play.
This kind of work requires a deep
investigation and provokes you to
be very creative in your solutions. It
was a good challenge for me. Also,
at the time, the Hurricane Katrina
disaster was heavy on my mind. It
had happened six months before I
read it. Caroline, or Change is set
in Louisiana in 1963 and brings up
issues of class and racial inequality.
I was very passionate about putting
a play on stage that would ask how
far have we come since the 60s, and
whats happening now. So the play
encouraged a social-political investigation as well as a theatrical-artistic
investigation, which I thought was

JW: Tony Kushner doesnt leave the

25

evil out altogether, Carolines son is

in Vietnam, theres the statue of the
Confederate soldier . . .

It deals with a conflict of

another time that concerns racial tension. I
was very passionate about
speaking about race relations and putting a play
on stage that would
ask how far have we
come since the 60s, and
whats happening now.

ML: And thats a true story by the

way, that statue is still a centerpiece
in Lake Charles. It is the time of the
civil rights movement and theres national turmoil after so many years of
discrimination... I think the circumstances of the time are striking and
continue to be pretty striking to this
day. I visited Louisiana recently. I
went for research and I felt a lot of
the coordinates have not changed significantly since the 60s. Theres still a
lot of inequality and lack of opportunity for certain people, its very obvious. Theres a line in the play that
says, Change comes slow, change
comes fast, but change comes, and
that is true for different regions, cities, nations, as well as for individuals.
But in terms of the characters in the
play, they all want to connect, they
all want to survive, and they all want
to thrive. Some thrive more eas-

ily and some are having a very hard

time surviving, or adapting to changing times, like Caroline, an African
American woman, single mother of
four, working as a maid and struggling to make ends meet.
JW: So the play operates on numerous levels.
26

 LEFT: HURRICANE KATRINA AFTERMATH, AUG. 29, 2005. PHOTO: JOCELYN AUGUSTINO/FEMA.

ML: The subject matter is universal. It

is about change, about social change,
about money and its value, and also
about internal change and about small
moments we have with people and
how we choose to relate to each other
across social class and cultural backgrounds. Those issues are universal
and so important, and they make the
play, I think, a catalyst for communities to come together that otherwise
would not come together and talk to
each other in really direct ways.

portance and very inspiring. Many

who remembered those times were
deeply moved, and for those who,
like Caroline, felt stuck in their lives
it was transformational... But for
young people to be reminded in a
direct and powerful way of the kind
of commitment and unity that the
civil rights movement inspired was
extraordinary to witness. That despite being such difficult times for so
many, it was also a time when African American kids were out in the
streets, together with people of Jewish and white descent right alongside them working for equality and
justice. To be reminded that small
changes and big movements are possible, reminded of that kind of coming together and fighting for whats
right in a peaceful way, and that the
future belongs to them.

JW: Was that your experience of the

Minneapolis production?
ML: Indeed, there were great discussions around the production,
across generations and cultures. I
had the fortune to live in the same
city where the play was running and
I saw it multiple times and felt the
audiences reaction through the run
of the show. It is such a rich journey,
so beautiful and it moves audiences
in such a profound way. It created
a sense of social movement in the
community and it became very important for many people to see it. I
was very moved by the response to
the play and to Carolines story. The
very last moment of the play, you see
this young girl, Carolines daughter,
16-years-old, a civil rights activist,
strongly speaking about how proud
she is of being her mothers daughter,
and looking into the future with an
incredible fierceness, like she is going
to conquer the world. For audiences, young and old, to see characters
who have incredible strength and
power on stage, and who embody
the best, most courageous aspects
of our recent history is of huge im-

JW: Thats a lot for a musical.

ML: Thats whats unique about this
particular musicaland I dont
think of it as a musical. It has the
complexity and dimensions of a
dramatic play but it is almost entirely sung, and the singing allows
the internal life of the characters to
be richly and deeply expressed. It
feels more like a modern opera with
styles that include gospel, Motown,
Jewish and classical music. You cannot attack this play like you would
a musical. I think whats extraordinary about Caroline, or Change is
that Jeanine and Tony have created
a most unique form of theatrea
play where music, text and dramatic
action are intricately woven into a
form that feels profoundly moving
and surprisingly natural.l

27

None has been barred on account of his race from

fighting or dying for America; there are no white or
colored signs on the foxholes or graveyards of battle.
John F. Kennedy, speaking in support of civil rights legislation.

TIMELINE: EVENTS OF

1963

APRIL: Dr. Martin Luther

King, Jr., Dr. Ralph Abernathy, and 58 others are
arrested in Birmingham,
Alabama after leading a
peaceful protest against
the citys segregationist policies. The arrests
prompt violence between
police and demonstrators. Alabama Governor
George Wallace defies
federal regulations ordering the desegregation of
schools in the State. MAY:
President John Kennedy
orders troops to Alabama
to restore order after
28

clashes between police

and civil rights activists.
JUNE: Vivian Malone and
James A. Hood become
the first African American students to attend the
University of Alabama.
The students are enrolled
despite Governor Wallaces pledge that no black
students will be admitted
to the school. | NAACP
Secretary Medgar Evers
is assassinated by a sniper
in front of his Jackson,
Mississippi home. | Pope
John XXIII dies and succeeded by Pope Paul VI.

I submit that an individual who breaks a law

that conscience tells him
is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in
order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is
in reality expressing the
highest respect for law.
Letter from the Birmingham Jail, Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr.

President Kennedy is
cheered by more than a
million in the streets of
West Berlin on his way
to deliver his famous Ich
bin ein Berliner speech.
| Ayatollah Khomeini is
among 30 clerics arrested in Iran for protesting
the regime of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlevi.
AUGUST: More than
200,000 gather in Washington to demand the
passing of civil rights legislation. Speaking to a crowd
on the Mall, Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. delivers his

I have a dream oration.

SEPTEMBER: Four African American girls
Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, Addie
Mae Collins, 14, and
Cynthia Wesley, 14are
killed in Birmingham
when a bomb planted
by the Ku Klux Klan explodes during a Sunday
church service. Two African American boysVirgil Ware, 13 and Johnnie
Robinson, 16are shot
dead later in the day,
Robinson by a policeman.
OCTOBER: The film Lilies
29

of the Field starring Sidney Poitier is released in

the United States. Poitier
will become the first African American to win
the Academy Award for
best actor. NOVEMBER:
South Vietnams Premier
Ngo Dinh Diem and his
brother are murdered by
a group of military leaders headed by General
Duong Van Minh. Dozens of American soldiers
are killed in the growing
conflict. | President Kennedy is assassinated in
Dallas on November 22.