Analysis Of The Piano Lesson By August Wilson

The Civil War did not successfully give African Americans freedom. One purpose of Reconstruction was to guarantee rights for African Americans in spite of the prominent racism in the South. To accomplish this the federal government passed several laws during to assure the rights and equality of African Americans in the law. One African American author, August Wilson, describes the perspective of most African Americans living in the time after Reconstruction in his writing. His play, The Piano Lesson, follows multiple characters of different backgrounds and depicts the problems they have in society. Despite many attempts to guarantee equal rights August Wilson’s play The Piano Lesson describes a large lack of political progress due to Jim Crow laws and Black Codes.

There was some

political progress due to the fact that African Americans did not want to stay uninvolved and be discriminated against.

After putting up with political discrimination for decades, many African Americans were willing to “raise the terrible weapon of self-defense.” (The New Negro) Although they should have received equality promised to them after the Civil War, they were left empty handed and instead struggle against biased laws. Their demand for political progress itself is a step forward because white people supporting political equality were uncommon and groups such as the Ku Klux Klan intimidated them out of doing it. Their peaceful protests, and reasonable pleas were often overlooked and ignored. With their demands neglected and scoffed at they wanted to prove they were serious. By refusing to accept their problems forcefully they would not be thought of as bluffing. The problem with this is that even though there were African Americans demanding it, they were a minority and many white people did not want to help them because they benefitted from it and racism was still rampant. One evidence of white people benefitting from racism was when Wining Boy tells a story of how after an African American buys land with berries growing, the former white owner would “go and fix it with the law

that them his berries.” (38) The former owner benefits enough from exploiting the African American that there would be no reason for him to support giving political equality to them. One other reason was that most people’s beliefs about African Americans did not change and they did not want them to be equal to them. By passing laws such as vagrancy laws, they were able to keep many African Americans in the lower class because they racked up large fines that they often could not pay and have to work off. Nothing could be done either because although these laws applied both white and black people, they were only enforced on African Americans. Even though African Americans wanted political equality, nothing would change unless white people changed their way of thinking.
Although promised during Reconstruction, political equality for African Americans were impeded by Jim Crow laws and Black Codes. One way this was shown in The Piano Lesson was when Lymon who, before escaping to the North, was “put in jail for not working” and fined however, “Mr. Stovall come and paid [his] hundred dollars and the judge say [he] got to work for him to pay his hundred dollars.” (37) Lymon not working did not harm anyone, the undeniable purpose of this law was to keep African Americans in a situation as close to slavery as possible. To do this they added fines that were excessively large to the point that most African Americans could not pay them and required to work to pay it off. This whole process leading up to Lymon’s fine being paid for by Mr. Stovall closely resembles slaves being sold after being kidnapped from Africa. These laws applied to everyone however, it was very evident that sheriffs only arrested African Americans. Although there were some sheriffs who did not want to arrest African Americans for these crimes, they were compelled to because they made “between 20,000 and 30,000 each during 1929 in extra compensation for procuring black laborers and selling them to local planters.” (Freedom) Extra compensation urged sheriffs to arrest as many African Americans as they were able to on false charges such as vagrancy even if they did not commit a crime. In a way this is very similar to slave trade where instead of kidnapping them from Africa, they are arrested based on false charges and sold for money. Once arrested African Americans had no chance of getting a fair trial because judges always believed the sheriffs over African Americans and due to the vagueness of the laws. They are then essentially bought by the same planters that previously owned and used them as a source for free labor. The political system in place is clearly comparable to slavery which makes evident that there was no political progress for African Americans.
The political problems African Americans encountered were mostly a result of white people refusing to accept that African Americans were free. These white people passed laws that were discriminatory and their main purpose was to keep African Americans from progressing forward. It limits progress because a portion of society are not able to contribute in making the world a better place to live in. The unnecessary hatred against a race or the belief that any race is better than others is unjustified and will not create a beneficial outcome. Laws should not discriminate against race, gender, religion or social status.