Summary: This skit is about who teaches our children about Black History. Is it really the school or is it us? Presented by Power of the Word Ministries, Nacogdoches, Texas.
Style: Dramatic. Duration: 5min
Actors: 1M, 1F, 1C
Characters:
Mom, Son, Father
Script
(Scene: Son has just arrived home from school, and his mother is not happy. )
Mom: Wait till your daddy finds out what happened at school. You better get ready.
Son: But momma, I told the teacher I didn’t know nothing about Martin Luther King. It ain’t my fault.
Mom: She said if you don’t do this report you are going to fail her class. How can a black boy not know about a famous black man?
Son: But momma, we don’t ever talk about Martin Luther King around here.
Mom: Well you should have been reading it for yourself.
(Father enters)
Mother: Honey, guess what your son did at school today?
Dad: What? Boy what you do this time?
Mom: He failing a class because he didn’t do his report on Martin Luther King Jr.
Dad: Boy, go get my belt. I guess I’m gonna have to beat it in ya. I’m gonna teach you today.
Son: Wait, Dad. It’s not my fault. We only talk about Martin Luther King Jr once a year in school and the rest of the time we are trying to pass STAR tests.
Dad: That ain’t no excuse. You see us struggling every day. Boy, go get my belt.
Son: Please Dad, listen. You and momma is always working. I’m always at practice. And the only time we talk more than a few minute is when we go to church on Sunday.
Dad: Look, boy, don’t blame us cause you being lazy. Just go get my belt.
Mom: Wait, wait. He’s right. We don’t teach him about our history.
Dad: There you go taking up for this boy again. I am his teacher. Boy, go get my belt.
Mom: Well, we need to teach him about our history. If we don’t, who will?
Dad: That’s why I pay my taxes. Let the schools earn all that money they forcing me to pay.
Mom: When I was young, it was my momma and daddy that taught me. My mother and father told me about Martin Luther King Jr. They told me about how they had to sit in the back of the bus or couldn’t go in front doors of diners or use most bathrooms. That taught me about how hard it was. You told me stories that your daddy use to say.
Dad: Yeah, I remember my folks taught me about how negroes had to give up their seats on buses because of the laws until the black folks all got together and boycotted. The struggle was real. Hangings, killings. It was a war on black folk.
Mom: I remember that my mother cried when she talked about the how they bombed Martin Luther King’s house. How people hated us and didn’t even know us. They just hated us for the color of our skin.
Dad: I remember the time my grandmother was telling me that Martin Luther King wanted young men and women to know that new opportunities and privileges don’t come without sacrifice and suffering. And how He was put in jail a lot of times and even sacrificed his life for freedom.
Mom: Look honey, we need to teach our Son how Martin Luther King Jr talked about how anger isn’t the way. And that we have to meet hate with love.
Dad: Yeah. We can’t get mad at our son because he failing. It’s our fault if we don’t tell him about our history. We have to be his teachers.
Mom: You right. If we don’t tell him who will? The schoolbooks won’t tell him the whole story, just bits and pieces.
Dad: Well, let’s start with the first lesson. Go Get My belt. Like Martin Luther King Jr said…The time is always right to do what is right. And right now the time is right.
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© Copyright LaChanda Holcomb Maxie, all rights reserved. The script may not be reproduced, translated or copied in any medium, including books, CDs and on the Internet, without written permission of the author.
This play may be performed free of charge, on the condition that copies are not sold for profit in any medium, nor any entrance fee charged. In exchange for free performance, the author would appreciate being notified of when and for what purpose the play is performed. They may be contacted at: