4.1 Black History Play: Life Without Blacks
(the following skit is based on a play found on "The Black Eagle" website)
Life Without Black People
Narrator 1: The following is an eye opening story about a group of white people who were fed up with always hearing about black people as criminals, drug dealers, and troublemakers, so they joined together and wished themselves away.
Narrator 2: They passed through a deep dark tunnel and emerged in sort of a twilight zone where there is an America without black people…
First White person: Did you hear on the news, a black man is wanted for questioning in the grocery store robbery yesterday.
Second White person: No, I was at the DMV reporting my car as stolen. Be on the lookout for an African American Female about this high (show height with hand), between 25-30 years old.
Third White person: I’ll tell you what, I won’t be sending my kids to that public school anymore. They said they saw a gang of black teenagers selling drugs on the corner.
All White people together: I wonder what it would be like if there were no black people at all in America! There would be no more crime, no more drugs, no more…
Narrator 3: Suddenly a “whoosh” of wind swirls around the white people…(Students with a sheet or poster board with a tornado…)
Loud Voice: Be careful what you wish for…you just might get it. Behold, a land without African Americans…
1. The country is a wasteland. There are very few crops that have flourished because the nation was built on a slave-supported system.
2. There are no cities with tall skyscrapers because Alexander Mils, a black man, invented the elevator, and without it, one finds great difficulty reaching higher floors.
3. There are few if any cars because Richard Spikes, a black man, invented the automatic gearshift, Joseph Gambol, also black, invented the Super Charge System for Internal Combustion Engines, and Garrett A. Morgan, a black man, invented the traffic signals.
4. Furthermore, one could not use the rapid transit system because its procurer was the electric trolley, which was invented by another black man, Albert R. Robinson.
5. Even if there were streets on which cars and a rapid transit system could operate, they were cluttered with paper because an African American, Charles Brooks, invented the street sweeper.
6. There were few if any newspapers, magazines and books because John Love invented the pencil sharpener, William Purveys invented the fountain pen, and Lee Barrage invented the Type Writing Machine and W. A. Love invented the Advanced Printing Press. They were all, you guessed it, Black.
7. Even if Americans could write their letters, articles and books, they would not have been transported by mail because William Barry invented the Postmarking and Canceling Machine, William Purveys invented the Hand Stamp and Philip Downing invented the Letter Drop.
8. The lawns were brown and wilted because Joseph Smith invented the Lawn Sprinkler and John Burr the Lawn Mower.
9. When they entered their homes, they found them to be poorly ventilated and poorly heated. You see, Frederick Jones invented the Air Conditioner and Alice Parker the Heating Furnace.
10. Their homes were also dim. But of course, Lewis Later invented the Electric Lamp, Michael Harvey invented the lantern and Granville T. Woods invented the Automatic Cut off Switch.
11. Their homes were also filthy because Thomas W. Steward invented the Mop and Lloyd P. Ray the Dust Pan.
12. Their children met them at the door-barefooted, shabby, motley and unkempt. But what could one expect? Jan E. Matzelinger invented the Shoe Lasting Machine, Walter Sammons invented the Comb, Sarah Boone invented the Ironing Board and George T. Samon invented the Clothes Dryer.
13. Finally, they were resigned to at least have dinner amidst all of this turmoil. But here again, the food had spoiled because another Black Man, John Standard invented the refrigerator.
Now, isn’t that something? What would this country be like without the contributions of Blacks, as African-Americans?
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “by the time we leave for work, Americans have depended on the inventions from the minds of Blacks.”
Black history includes more than just slavery, Frederick Douglass, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Marcus Garvey and W.E.B. Dubois.
