1950s and 1960s in the black revolution of [the
twentieth] century” (McKay, xxxiv).
Bibliography
Jones, Beverly. Quest for Equality: The Life and Writings of
Mary Church Terrell, 1863–1954.Brooklyn, N.Y.:
Carlson Pub., 1990.
Mary Church Terrell Papers, Moorland-Spingarn Collec-
tion, Howard University, and the Library of
Congress.
McKay, Nellie. Introduction to A Colored Woman in a
White World.1940, reprint, New York: G. K. Hall &
Co., 1996.
Terrell, Mary Church. A Colored Woman in a White
World.1940, reprint, New York: G. K. Hall & Co.,
1996.
Wells, H. G. Preface to A Colored Woman in a White
World.1940, reprint, New York: G. K. Hall & Co.,
1996.
Color Struck: A Play in Four Scenes
Zora Neale Hurston(1926)
A provocative play about insecurity, internalized
racism, and devotion by ZORANEALEHURSTON
that was published in the first issue of FIRE!!,the
short-lived but dynamic magazine of which WAL-
LACETHURMANwas the editor. Hurston’s play was
one of two works included in that issue; the second
was “SWEAT,” a story of one’s woman’s painful tri-
umph over her husband and his acts of domestic
and emotional abuse.
The play opens as a boisterous group en route
to a cakewalk contest in St. Augustine, Florida,
boards a segregated train in Jacksonville. The
group, which is described as “a happy lot of Ne-
groes... dressed in the gaudy, tawdry best of the
1900s” includes Effie, a young mulatto girl who is
traveling without her partner, Sam. When quizzed
about his absence, she explains quite righteously
that “the man dat don’t buy me nothin’ tuh put in
mah basket, ain’t goin’ wid me tuh no cake walk.”
The train begins to leave as the group realizes that
John and Emmaline, the couple favored to win,
have yet to board. The two run for the train and
with some effort manage to board. It becomes clear
that Emmaline is prepared to sacrifice much for
the sake of her uncontrollable jealousy. Convinced
that her partner, John, was smiling at Effie, she in-
sists that they take another streetcar even if it
jeopardizes their chances of reaching the train sta-
tion on time.
Over the course of the play, Emmaline’s jeal-
ousy becomes increasingly oppressive. In response,
John defends his interactions with the few women
who approach them and insists that he is being
courteous, not flirtatious. Once the cakewalk com-
petition begins, Emmaline becomes convinced that
winning will only make her partner and beau more
attractive to the “yaller wenches” with whom she
is fighting an endless and often imaginary fight. In
a moment of pique, she allows John to go on stage
without her, and it is Effie who takes her place. It is
no surprise that the newly matched couple then
win the competition.
The final scene of the play, set some 17 years
later, opens in Effie’s dilapidated home, a “one-room
shack in an alley.” Emmaline is there nursing her
sick daughter when she answers a knock at the door.
Much to her surprise, it is her former cakewalk part-
ner John. Recently widowed, he has come in search
of the woman he loved sincerely so many years ago.
He is unfazed by the fact that Emmaline bore her
daughter out of wedlock and that the child is clearly
of mixed race. He insists that he wants to marry
Emmaline and welcomes the chance to become a
father to her daughter. The couple agrees to marry
the very next day. Once that arrangement is made,
John convinces Emmaline to bring a doctor, gives
her money for the fee, and sits with the girl while
her mother is away. Emmaline returns, but when she
sees John with his hand on the girl’s forehead, she
explodes. Her irrational and poisonous ideas about
his unchecked desire for light-skinned women resur-
face, and she accuses him of preying on her daugh-
ter. John cannot fathom the depths of her paranoia
and self-hatred. “She so despises her own,” he mar-
vels, “that she can’t believe any one else could love
it.” He leaves, disappointed that after 20 years of
waiting, he will never be united with the woman he
loves. The play closes as Emmaline sinks into a
rocking chair and lapses into sobs.
Hurston’s play advanced her further into
Harlem Renaissance circles and identified her as
one of the rising talents of the movement. She
reveled in her good fortune and the recognition
that she received as a triple winner in the 1925
Opportunityliterary awards. In what reigns as oneColor Struck: A Play in Four Scenes 87