Racial discrimination towards African Americans in the 1950S reflected through the setting in Alice childress` florence.

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RACIAL DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS AFRICAN
AMERICANS IN THE 1950S REFLECTED THROUGH THE
SETTING IN ALICE CHILDRESS’ FLORENCE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
SISKA ANGELINE SUGANDA
Student Number: 084214087

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

RACIAL DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS AFRICAN
AMERICANS IN THE 1950S REFLECTED THROUGH THE
SETTING IN ALICE CHILDRESS’ FLORENCE
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
in English Letters

By
SISKA ANGELINE SUGANDA
Student Number: 084214087

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA
2012

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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertandatangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma :
Nama
Nomor Mahasiswa

: Siska Angeline Suganda

: 084214087

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dharma kerya ilmiah saya yang berjudul :
RACIAL DISCRIMINATION TOWARDS AFRICAN AMERICANS IN
THE 1950S REFLECTED THROUGH THE SETTING IN ALICE
CHILDRESS’ FLORENCE
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan
kepada perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,
mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan
data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau
media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya
maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya
sebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal : 30 November 2012
Yang menyatakan

Siska Angeline Suganda

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If you take responsibility for
yourself...
You will develop a hunger to
accomplish your dreams.”
-Les brown-

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This Undergraduate thesis is dedicated to
Jesus Christ
My Beloved Parents
My Dear Soulmate

Sanata Dharma University

For a brighter future

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like like to deliver my first gratitude to Jesus Christ for His
blessings and love all the time in my life. Without Him, it is impossible for me to
finish my study.
I shall not forget to say thank you for many people around me, for their
support and help in finishing this thesis. My advisor, Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd.,
M.Hum. for having spent so many hours reading and correcting this thesis, and
my co- advisor for the suggestions and corrections. Thanks for the patience and
valueable advise.
For my beloved family, my father, mother, brother and sister and my
boyfriend, I thank them for the unlimited love,care, support, prayer, and also the

“warning” to get this thesis done. They will always be the most precious people in
my life.
I also thank all my friends English Letters 2008, especially Gustin, Riris,
Peb, Jeng, Vita, Palut and Jep. I enjoyed spending my days with them during four
years in Sanata Dharma University. All of them are great friends.
Finally, I would like to thank all the lecturers of English Letters
Department, all the staffs of Sanata Dharma University, and many other people
that I can not mention. I thank them for everything.

Siska Angeline

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE........................................................................................
APPROVAL PAGE..............................................................................
ACCEPTANCE PAGE.........................................................................
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI.............

MOTTO PAGE.....................................................................................
DEDICATION PAGE...........................................................................
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS..................................................................
TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................
ABSTRACT...........................................................................................
ABSTRAK..............................................................................................

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ii
iii
iv
v
vi
vii
viii
x
xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.........................................................
A. Background of the Study.......................................................

B. Problem Formulation.............................................................
C. Objectives of the Study..........................................................
D. Definition of Terms................................................................

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1
4
4
5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW.........................................
A. Review of Related Studies......................................................
B. Review of Related Theories...................................................
1. Theories of Setting...........................................................
2. Theory of the Relation between Literature and Society....
C. Review on History..................................................................
D. Theoretical Framework...........................................................

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7

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9
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CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY......................................................
A. Object of the Study.................................................................
B. Approach of the Study............................................................
C. Method of the Study................................................................

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CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS....................................................................
A. The Description of the Setting in Florence.............................
1. Setting of Place..................................................................
2. Setting of Time..................................................................

3. Atmosphere........................................................................
4. Social Conditions...............................................................
B. Racial Discrimination towards the African Americans around
the 1950s..................................................................................
1. Public Places......................................................................
2. Education...........................................................................
3. Occupations........................................................................
4. Economy............................................................................
5. Social Class.........................................................................

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6. Negative Stereotyping.........................................................

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CHAPTER V:CONCLUSION..............................................................

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BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................

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APPENDIX...............................................................................................

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ABSTRACT
SISKA ANGELINE. Racial Discriminations towards African Americans in
the 1950s Reflected through the Setting in Alice Childress’ Florence.
Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma
University, 2012.
The writer analyzes a play, Florence, written by Alice Childress, an
African-American writer. Childress’ works usually talk about racial issues and
black people’s struggle to live. Through her works, she wanted to describe
inequality toward the black society. This play contains an issue about
discrimination. Discrimination itself is one of the biggest controversies in history
of human’s life. Slavery and racial discrimination are mostly caused by the
differences of the race. Slavery and racial discrimination become two important
parts of the history of America
The objective of the study is to give a brief explanation to the questions in
the problem formulation. The questions are about the settings and the racial
discriminations in this play. In the first question, the writer identifies the setting of
time and place in this play and what is implied by it. For the last question, the
writer will try to reveal the racial discriminations towards black people, which is
the main point of this study,through the setting in this play.
The method used to analyze this study is library research method. The
writer used two kinds of source. The primary source is the play itself, Florence,
and the secondary sources are taken from some books, undergraduate thesis and
since this novel had never been analyzed before, the writer used not only sources
from library, but also some other sources from internet. The approach of the study
used in this thesis is sociocultural historical approach as it gives social cultural
and historical facts of the 1950s.
In the first part of the analysis the discriminations can be seen through the
setting. Through many separated places between whites and blacks and the law
which controlled blacks under the power of whites, it is clear that there is a gap
between them. Blacks are discriminated in their social life, also they are treated
unequally in ocuppations which influences their economic life. Those unequal
treatments make them live miserably. For the second part of the analysis, the
writer finds racism issues experienced by blacks that are seen through the setting.
They are discriminations in public places, education, ocuppation, economy, social
class and negative stereotyping. The analysis also discovers that both setting in
the real condition and the setting in this play have some similarities according to
the historical records. So it was no doubt that the play reflected the racist
treatments which blacks had to accept at that time.

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ABSTRAK
SISKA ANGELINE. Racial Discriminations towards African Americans in
the 1950s Reflected through the Setting in Alice Childress’ Florence.
Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma,
2012.
Penulis menganalisis sebuah drama Florence yang ditulis oleh Alice
Childress, seorang penulis berkebangsaan Afrika-Amerika. Sebagian besar
karyanya membahas mengenai isu-isu rasial dan perjuangan orang kulit hitam
untuk hidup. Melalui karyanya, Childress ingin mengungkapkan ketidaksetaraan
terhadap masyarakat kulit hitam. drama ini berisi isu diskriminasi. Diskriminasi
itu sendiri adalah salah satu kontroversi terbesar dalam sejarah kehidupan
manusia. Perbudakan dan diskriminasi rasial sebagian besar disebabkan oleh
perbedaan ras. Perbudakan dan diskriminasi menjadi dua bagian terpenting dalam
sejarah Amerika.
Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menjawab permasalahan yang telah
dirumuskan. Permasalahan tersebut mengenai latar dan diskriminasi ras dalam
drama ini. Dalam perumusan masalah yang pertama, penulis mengidentifikasi
waktu dan tempatdari drama ini, dan apa yang tersirat dari latar tersebut. Untuk
perumusan masalah kedua, penulis akan mencoba mengungkapkan diskriminasi
rasial terhadap orang berkulit hitam, yang mana menjadi tujuan pokok dari
penelitian ini, berdasarkan analisis latar dari drama ini.
Metode yang digunakan dalam menganalisa studi ini adalah metode
penelitian pustaka. Penulis menggunakan dua macam sumber. Sumber yang
utama adalah drama itu sendiri, Florence, dan sumber sekunder yang diambil dari
beberapa buku, skripsi, dan karena sandiwara ini belum pernah dianalisis
sebelumnya, penulis juga menggunakan sumber lain dari internet. Pendekatan
penelitian yang digunakan dalam studi ini dalah pendekatan sosial-budaya dan
sejarah, karena membahas tentang fakta- fakta sosial, budaya dan sejarah pada era
tahun 1950.
Dalam analisis pertama, diskriminasi dapat terlihat melalui latar. Dengan
banyaknya tempat-tempat yang dipisahkan antara orang kulit hitam dan putih,dan
juga hukum yang mengatur orang kulit hitam dibawah kekuasaan kulit putih,
sangat jelas bahwa ada pemisah diantara mereka. Orang berkulit hitam
didiskriminasikan dalam kehidupan sosial mereka dan diperlakukan tidak sama
dalam pekerjaan yang berpengaruh pada kondisi perekonomian mereka. Perlakuan
yang tidak sama tersebut menyebabkan mereka hidup dalam keadaan yang sangat
buruk. Dalam analisis kedua, penulis menemukan bahwa isu rasisme yang dialami
oleh orang berkulit hitam dapat terlihat dari latar, antara lain diskriminasi di
tempat umum, pendidikan, pekerjaan, perekonomian, kelas soasial dan klise
negatif. Analisis ini juga menemukan bahwa baik latar drama ataupun dalam
kondisi sesungguhnya terdapat beberapa kesamaan menurut catatan sejarah.
Karena itu tidak diragukan lagi bahwa sandiwara ini mencerminkan perlakuan
rasis yang harus diterima oleh orang berkulit hitam pada masa itu.
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study
Before analyzing a literary work, it is better for us to understand more
what literature is. Graham Little, in his book Approach to Literature says:
Literature is the principle element of a culture. It contains the record of the
people’s values, their thoughts, their problems and conflicts, that are
transmitted either through written or spoken words. With such
acknowledgement, literature stands as a tool to pass the experience from
one generation to the next. Literature, then, functions as a representation of
the situation and the thoughts happening in a certain setting of time and
place (Little, 1963: 1).
From that statement, it is clear that literature is part of culture. It is not
only made in the written form, but also in spoken words. It can be a tool which
records the history of the past and the present that can be used for the next
generation. Literature is the record of people’s feelings and problems. It represents
society’s life, social condition and reality.
A literary work can be a representation of reality. Through the work, the
author tries to criticize the conflict that happens in the real life. A literary work
can be found as a criticism toward reality. In this study the writer uses a play,
which is easier to be understood because the readers see the characters based on
their acts and mostly by their speech . also, the situation, the setting, atmosphere,
and the condition are described more detail.
The writer analyzes a play Florence which contains an issue about
discrimination. Discrimination itself is one of the biggest controversies in history

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of human’s life. Slavery and racial discrimination were mostly caused by the
differences of race. They become two important parts of the history of America. It
is stated by Diana Owen in her article American Identity, Citizenship and
Multiculturalism.
Survey data indicate that 95% of Americans believe that the United States
is “the world’s greatest melting pot where people from all countries can be
united in one nation” (Hunter and Bowman, 1996). A study conducted in
June, 2005, found that 67% of respondents believe that immigrants should
“adopt America’s culture, language, and heritage,” while only 17% believe
that they should “maintain the culture of their home country.”
(http://www.civiced.org/pdfs/germanPaper0905/DianaOwen2005.pdf).
America is a very big country, which has many cultural and social
diversity. Those factors can easily lead to racism, discrimination, segregation, and
oppression. It also happens because there are some groups who feel themselves
better than others.
Black people arrived in America as immigrants. Some of them were
brought by the traders. The traders went to Africa and bought African slaves from
African traders, but most of them were kidnapped from their family and forced to
be slaves.
Africans had been brought to Jamestown As early as 1619 but as late as
1670 they numbered only about 2000 in Virginia (out of a total population
of some 35.000 persons) and about 7% of the 50.000 people in the
southern plantation colonies as a whole. Most of the slaves who reached
North America came from the west coast of Africa including the area
stretching from present day Senegal to Angola (Bailey and Kennedy,
1987:42).
Blacks were separated from the society without exception. They had a
very limited right. For example, as slaves, they had to work in the plantation and
got very low salaries, bad facilities in public area, they might use only what is

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provided for blacks. There is already a law rules this, and if they broke it, they
will get some punishments. The government was powered all by whites. There
was no black could work in government and they also had no right to vote. The
rules were made to provide as much profit to white people. It made blacks became
poorer.
The year when the play Florence was written, 1950, was a difficult and
hard time for blacks in America. There was a very clear separation between
whites and blacks. It is also explained in Karenga’s Introduction to Black Studies.
…denials of food, clothing, shelter or recreation, splitting up families;
imprisonment in private plantation jails; placing in stocks; branding;
whippings; torture; mutilation; and murder… (Karenga, 1993: 126).
This play was written by Alice Childress, an African-American writer.
Childress’ works usually talked about racial issues and black people’s struggle to
live. Through her works, she wanted to describe inequality toward the black
society.
Alice Childress (1920-1994) is an author whose writing is characterized by
its frank treatment of racial issues. Because her books and plays often deal
with such subjects as miscegenation and teenage drug addiction, her work
can
be
controversial.
(http://www.answers.com/topic/alicechildress#ixzz1T3fe8vB4)
Alice Childress wrote many controversial works, such as A Hero Ain't
Nothin' but a Sandwich, as one of her most popular work. Although some of her
books were banned in several libraries, she did not stop writing. She used work as
a form to show her concern and also to criticize what happened around her.
The play, Florence, describes a story about an old black woman who was
optimized to support her daughter’s dream as an actress. She got some oppositions

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from the people around her who are pesimistic with her belief, because at that
time, having a good job was such an impossible dream, especially for black
people.
Florence is a very interesting play to be analyzed and it is suitable for the
topic in this study because the racial discrimination can be seen very clearly
through its setting and also it represents the true events and conditions that really
happened in the world around the author at that time.
The writer chooses this topic because the writer wants to understand more
about the of discriminations and the impact of slavery that exist in Southern
America in the 1950s. Being touched and impressed with the struggle of black
people’s life becomes one main reason for analyzing this story deeper.

B. Problem Formulation
In order to analyze the topic of this study, the writer formulates two
problems to be answered. They are presented as follows.
1. How is the setting described?
2. How are racial discriminations revealed through the setting in this play?

C. Objectives of the study
The objective of the study is to give a brief explanation to the questions in
problem formulation. The questions are about the settings and the racial
discriminations in this play. In the first question, the writer identifies where the
settings were and when the play happened and what is implied by it. For the last

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question, the writer will try to reveal the racial discriminations towards black
people, which is the main point of this study, through the settings in this play.
D. Definitions of Terms
In order to avoid the misconception and to make a clear understanding
about this thesis, there are some important terms that need to be defined in order
to give clear explanation. The terms are:
1. Racism
The word “racial and racism” are derived from the word “race”. Thomas
Sowel in his book Race and Culture: A World View states that the terms “race”
was one widely used to distinguish groups more sharply differing in skin color,
hair texture and like (1944: 6).
While the word “racism” according to F. Merill and H. Wentworth Elderge
in their book entitled Culture and Society : An Introduction to Sociology, racism
comes from attitudes that has arisen for the physical differences, and it has
separated some groups of human being (1952 :231).
2. Discrimination
In The International Encyclopedia of Ethnics, discrimination means the
differential treatment based on physical and social affiliation (Roth, 1995 : 156).
In this case, discrimination also refers to the practice of treating someone or a
particular group in society less fairly than others, based on their races.

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3. African American
According to The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, the
African American refers to an American whose family originally came from
Africa, especially as slaves. In this study, the writer defines the African American
as the blacks American who live in America because of slavery trading. They live
in a segregated community of black people neighborhood (Gadsby, 2001: 52).

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CHAPTER II
THEORETICAL REVIEW

A. Review of Related Studies
Florence is a play which contains about racism issues. It tells about a
black girl named Florence, who goes to New York to catch her dream to be an
artist. She has tried for many years, but has not been successful as well. Her
mother, Mama, wants to bring her home, but suddenly Mama changes her mind
after she had been aware of the racial stereotypes put by a white woman. She
cancels to take Florence, but she send her a letter containing message not to give
up there. She believe that it is possible for black people to be succeed.
Omofolabo Ajayi-Soyinka, an Assistant Professor at the University of
Kansas, in the article Black Feminist Criticism and Drama: Thoughts on Double
Patriarchy, says:
In her first play, Florence (1949), Alice Childress demonstrates how a
young black woman in the title character finds it difficult to make a living
in the theatre as a performer; she is a victim of racist stereotyping even by
a self-styled liberal white woman, and nobody sees a profession for her
except as a maid or cook (Ajayi- Soyinka, 1993).
From this statement, the reader can see that Childress's first play Florence
also reveals one of the difficulties that black artists faced in the past, which is the
difficulty to find jobs. In this case, to join the white-dominated theatrical world. It
does not only happen in the theatrical world, but it is just an example that they
have a very limited freedom and rights.

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Rosemary Curb, in her article An Unfashionable Tragedy of American
Racism stated as follow.
The one-act play, set in a Jim Crow railroad station in the deep South,
features an encounter between a black woman and a white woman across a
little fence separating them. The white woman attempts to demonstrate her
cordially and lack of prejudice towards Negroes by recounting the plot of
her brother’s best-selling novel about a “tragic mulatto” girl (a favorite
black stereotype for white writers of the thirties and forties) but she
unmask her racist condescension (Curb, 1980).
Rosemary Curb indicated that Alice Childress’s works are mostly based on
the true story. In this case, it talked about the practices of Jim Crow Laws. The
Jim Crow is a character created by white comedian called Daddy Rice. He used
this character to make fun of black from the way they act and speak. The term Jim
Crow come to be used as an insult against black.
Childress’s life experience as a black woman may influence her work. She
used literature as a tool to criticize the racism and inequality in the society. Denise
Bauer in her article Alice Neel’s Feminist and Leftist Portraits of Women states:
...Alice Childress (1951), whose work addressed disparities between the
rich and the poor and the burdens of racism and sexism for poor women of
color... and became an important role model and supporter of early radical
feminists during the women's movement...one of her best-known plays,
Florence, a semi-autobiographical drama about a Black mother who
struggles to support her daughter in spite of the world's indifference to her
plight...Childress is clearly depicted as a woman of the theater (Bauer,
2002).
The statement above showsthat Alice Childress is a feminist, she is a
supporter of women’s movement and she is the first black woman whose play
produced on American professional stage. Florence is one of her best known plays
and it is a semi-autobiographical drama which tells about the struggle of black
mother to support her daughter dream in a world that is difficult to her.

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The analysis concerns about the practices of racial discrimination that
blacks must face almost in all their aspects of life. This study explores the setting
of a play Florence by Alice Childress, an African-American writer. This analysis
will reveal how the setting reflect the condition of blacks as the impact of
discriminations and the historical facts which were really happened in the past is
also revealed through this play.
B. Review of Related Theories
The writers use some theories in order to help us analyze the problems.
They are the theory of setting, theory of relation between literature and society,
and the theory of racial discrimination.
1. Theories of Setting
Before discussing setting, it is important to discuss the dramatic
conventions. According to the theory on dramatic conventions, the setting on
stage is only a device to picture the reality.
In the book A Handbook of Literature written by Holman and Harmon, the
term dramatic conventions are described as devices that are employed as
substitutions for reality in a drama, so that the audience accepts it as real. The
actors on the stage must be taken as the persons of the story and the stage must be
regarded as the actual scene or geographical setting of the action (Holman and
Harmon, 2003: 163- 164). In drama, there are some devices used to substitute
reality so that the audience can accept the actors as the persons of the story and
the stage as the actual scene of the action.

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The second source was taken from Reaske in How to Analyze Drama,
which explained that a play is only a representation of an action, and it attempted
facsimile of real life, so the audience must be willing to accept certain things in
the imagination. The convention has function to help visualize mentally the way
the play works when performed on stage (Reaske, 1966: 14). A play is only a
representation of an action which imitates real life, and through the conventions,
the audience was helped to visualize certain things in the imagination.
Thomas R. Arp and Greg Johnson in Perrine’s Literature: Stucture Sound
and Sense said that drama attempts to imitate the sights and sound of real life,
insofar as these can be represented on a stage. In most plays, the world which we
are taken, however unreal it may be. It is treated as self- contained, and we are
asked to regard it temporarily as a real world. Some plays did much attempt to
give their work an illusion of reality. A play is not even an imitation of reality, but
a symbolic representation of it. (Arp and Johnson, 2006: 1076-1078). A drama
must attempt to imitate the sights and sounds of real life, and represent it on stage
as far as it can be until the audience can regard it temporarily as a real world.
Yelland in A Handbook of Literary Terms, added some of the conventions
we have to grown to accept, as stated.
 The telescoping of time- a few hours of a performance may represent a story
which in reality would cover years.
 Transference of scene- the one platform may show action in various places.
 The absence of the “invisible” fourth wall- three walls being accepted as a
whole room.

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 The stage could be symbolic representation of scenery. We accept the stage
“illusion of reality” as reality. Our minds judging it to be a forest, but a
remission of judgments judge that it is not a forest”.
 Conventionalized dialogue- e.g. Hamlet, the Dane. Except in naturalistic
drama, the dialogue of the stage is not true to life but is subordinated to the
purpose of dramatist.
 Technical devices for producing stage and off-stage effects which we know to
be unreal, but nevertheless accept it as real (Yelland, 1950: 55-56).
The writer concludes that a drama or a play is imitating the real life, and
represent it as similar as it can be on a stage. The unreal sets on stage are devices
that are used as a vehicle to substitute reality into a stage, the audience was helped
to visualize their imagination and sees it temporarily as the real scene of action.
Therefore, the setting on stage depicts the setting in reality.
Setting is one of the most important elements in a literary work. According
to Yelland, Setting is the elements that give the reader an abstract impression of
the environment in which the characters live. The setting is usually provided by
the general conditions of the story. For example if the character living in a misery,
the setting is drab and in cheerful situation, the setting is bright (Yelland, 1950:
184).
According to M.H. Abrams in his book A Glossary of Literary Terms, the
overall setting of dramatic work is the general place, historical time and social
circumstances in which its action occurs, while setting of a single episode or scene
within the work is the particular physical location in which it takes place. Both the

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overall and individual settings are important elements in generating the
atmosphere of the works (Abrams, 2003: 330). From this definition, the writer
concludes that setting is not only about place and time when the actions occur, but
also the social condition in the story. Those elements and the individual setting
hold significant part in creating the atmosphere of the work.
Setting is important because it can influence the behaviors and the mindset
of the characters. Even people who have good attitudes living in bad environment,
may change their good attitude into bad attitude.
In Writing about Literature, Cohen says that place and time are parts of
the setting and these elements constitute one of the most important considerations
in literature. The reason is that setting has many functions in analyzing literature.
One of the functions of the setting is that it may support an understanding
character’s personalities in a novel especially when they have conflicts with their
surroundings and they should face the social circumstances (Cohen, 1963: 28).
Cohen also points that setting may give us a lot of information about
aspects of life in a society, that setting may suggest social position or social status
which in turn may indicate a character’s made of dress and his manner of speech.
Sometimes the setting or environment in which a character operates will explain
the social, moral or religions code by which he operates (Cohen, 1963: 29).
2. The Relation between Literature and Society
In Theory of Literature, Wellek and Warren say that literature is an
expression of the society and one of the social creations by using language as its
medium. It is a social institution which plays its role in representing life or social

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reality. There are many problems that are discussed by literary study about social
reality, for example economic, socio-cultural, and political problems.
The actual relation between literature and society is divided into three
divisions of problems questioning about how far literature is actually determined
by or dependent on social condition, on social changes and development. They are
social life of the author, the social content of the work itself and the influences of
the literature on the society (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 94- 96). Literary work can
be a document that record social realities, happen in society, which is artistically
portrayed by the authors. The author expresses the social and historical truth that
happens in the exact world through literary work (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 102).
C. Review on History of Black People in America around the 1950s
Thomas Sowell in his book Race and Culture: A World View argued that
racial, ethnic, and cultural differences among peoples play a major role in the
events of our times, in country around the world, and have played a major role
with the long history of the human race. Both intergroup socio-economic
differences within a given country and larger differences on a world stage
between nations or whole civilizations cultural differences that have covered
history (Sowell, 1994: 1). Racial issues have been an old major problem which
has been existed in the long history of human race. It happened in many aspects
and whole civilizations in the world.
As the word “racial” is derived from the word “race”, the writer also takes
the theory of race which is also taken from the same book.

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Whatever the biological reality, race as a social concept is a powerful force
uniting or dividing people.whether visible on the physical surface or simply
felt in the emotional depths, race provides the cohesive groupings in which
cultures have been concentrated, transmitted, and carried around the world.
However, the erosion of both racial and cultural distinctiveness has been as
real as their persistence (Sowell, 1994: 6).
So it is clear that race has a great influence or contribution in uniting people
if they come from the same race, but also in separating people if they are from
different races.

Race can separate people not only physically but also

emotionally.
To have a better understanding about this study, it is good for us to know
the history of America, especially which are related to the black people’s struggle
and inequality at that time.
Ronald E. Hall in An Historical Analysis of Skin Color Discrimination in
America said that slavery is one of the cruelest forms of oppression known to
mankind. The slave trade participation of light-skinned African-Americans is a
most dramatic historical illustration of victim-group discrimination. Although not
always, during the antebellum such black slave owners were no less cruel in their
treatment of black slaves than their white counterparts. By culture and political
aspiration, they were indistinguishable from whites as the mulatto. Census data
for 1860 document shows the fact that there were approximately 27 million whites
in America and only 8 million resided in slaveholding states in the South. The
1860 Census also recorded 385,000 persons who owned slaves. Despite these
data, all who took part in slave ownership were no less guilty of the most
inhumane forms of aggression possible (Hall, 2010: 42).

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As the time goes by, there was another form of discrimination toward
blacks in the Unites States during the 1930s until the 1940s called segregation.
The segregation almost covered all aspects of life – from education to the use of
public properties and places (Thernstrom and Thernstrom, 1997: 61). Segregation
covered many aspects in blacks’s life.
Segregation was closely related to Jim Crow Law, a law which separated
black as an inferior class citizen. As stated below.
Jim Crow states passed statutes severely regulating social interactions
between the races. Jim Crow signs were placed above water fountains,
door entrances and exits, and in front of public facilities. There were
separate hospitals for blacks and whites, separate prisons, separate public
and private schools, separate churches, separate cemeteries, separate
public restrooms, and separate public accomodations. In most instances,
the black facilities were grossly inferior – generally, older, less-well-kept.
In other cases, there were no black facilities – no coloured public
restrooms, no public beach, no place to sit or eat (Schramm-Pate and
Jeffries, 2008: 159).
Jim Crow Law controlled where white and black should be. Not only
separated, but black’s facilities also less-well-kept. As it had been ruled by law,
then there must be hard consequences like being treated harshly, lynching by
hanging, shooting and burning as the usual treatment from whites towards blacks
for those who broke or disobeyed the rules.
In The Shaping of the American Past, Kelley wrote that Atlanta
courtrooms had separated Bibles for Blacks and Whites. Since the Jim Crow law
began, every black was legally becomes inferior of every white person (Kelley,
1986: 508.).
Thernstrom and Thernstrom also explain Jim Crow etiquette norms, like
black could not offer his hands with whites because it means they became socially

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equal. They were not supposed to eat together, because it was considered as taboo.
Blacks were introduced to whites, never whites to blacks. Also, whites did not use
any titles when referring to blacks, like, Mr., Mrs. Instead, blacks were called by
their first names or normally addressed as “boy” even to adult black men. Blacks
had to use courtesy titles of respect when referring to whites, and were not
allowed to call them by their first names. Such kind of etiquettes were a-must
customs in the South. Blacks were put aside not only in the white man’s society
but also from the way they had to use these symbols of respect (Thernstrom and
Thernstrom, 1999: 40-41).
In Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern World, Frazier described
segregation as the next development of racism. It consists of segregation in
residential areas, in education, other public institutions, in public accomodations,
such as railroads, steamship lines, car, bus systems, and hospitals. The segregation
are also happened in church, factory and employment opportunities, in legal and
political status, in private bussiness establishments, and in other private
commercial and proffessional services, such as departmenet store, undertaking
establishment and doctor’s offices. Even there is also segregation in graveyard
(Frazier, 1957: 281- 282). In short, segregated has totally limited the life of
blacks, in almost all their sectors of life.
In most southern towns and cities blacks were not allowed to use the same
libraries, parks, such recreational facilities as roller skating rinks, bowling alleys,
swimming pool, public tennis court were for whites only. As it did in health
aspect, hospitals were for whites. In stores, the clerks serve the white customers

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first, even if blacks arrived first. White facilities were nearly always of a much
higher quality, more money spent on making it. In transportation matter, the bus’
seats had been labeled. Often the four or five rows of seating to the back of the
bus would be labeled colored and the remaining number of seats towards the front
of the bus was left for the white people. Blacks were required to sit or to stand at
the back of the bus if there were no empty seats in the colored section
(Thernstrom and Thernstrom, 1999: 40& 43).
The schools of black children were not only inferior but they were also
segregated by law. The Jim Crow schools of the South were very pathetic. Student
ranging in age from six to seventeen were crowded into a single classroom, taught
by a twenty years old teacher with only a high school education. Even no one of
the students knew who the president of the United States was. The school and the
teachers were not equipped to provide a qualified education and it is not
surprising at that time. Americans saw schools as the solution to almost every
problem in the society, but they worried that educating African Americans will
cause more harm than good. For this reason, it was late before either whites or
blacks were supported to attend school in the South (Thernstrom and Thernstrom,
1999: 36- 39).
In Northern and Southern cities, black lived in a segregated neighborhood
that often looked essential services crowded into substandard dwelling marginally
employed, poor urban blacks suffered shockingly high death rates from
respiratory disease like tuberculosis. In 1910, there was a high rate of infants’
mortality. The life expectations of blacks birth was only 35,6 percent compared to

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50,3 percent for white. Blacks’neighborhood, in addition, was subject to the ills of
poor neighborhood generally, such as high rates of drug use, crime, and vice
(Thernstrom and Thernstrom, 1997: 28).
Blacks were also segregated in job opportunity. Angel Kwolek-Folland
quoted Erickson’s statements in her article The African American Financial
Industries: Issues of Class, Race and Gender in the early 20th Century as
compiled in the book Business and Economic History by William J. Hausman,
explained that bussiness job and consumer markets in the United States have been
divided by race. Racist attitudes on the part of whites and a literacy rate among
blacks lower than that among whites kept African Americans out of most whitecontrolled office work (Hausman, 1994: 93). It shows that black people were
difficult to get the same opportunities in getting a good job than whites because
they did not have a better education than whites.
McCloy in Goals for Americans stated that in 1929 until the early 1940s,
there was an era when the worst and the longest economic collapsed called Great
Depression (McCloy, 1960: 35). It is a condition when people lost their jobs and
savings. Even until a decade after the end of the Great Depression was past,
economic deprivation was still the lot of the vast majority of black people. Seven
out of eight African American families still had income which was below
minimum poverty level (Thernstrom and Thernstrom, 1997: 233).
No fewer than 71% of all African Americans in the United States had
incomes below the poverty line. Another calculation put the black poverty rate in
1940 at a shocking 87%. Both of these studies estimated the white poverty rate at

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about half the black level. By 1940, African American were more strongly
segregated, and even further behind in the competition for well-paying work than
they had been decades earlier (Thernstrom and Thernstrom, 1997: 34).
In Backgrounds of American Literary Thought, Horton and Herbert define
some main problems that occur in the South. These problems are problems of race
relations, industrial and agrarian poverty, malnutrition and disease (Horton and
Herbert, 1967: 367).
As Florence also takes place in Harlem, it is better to know the history and
social background of Harlem, which is also the place where the author, Alice
Childress grew up and spent her life there. According to Harvard Sitkoff’s The
Struggle for Black Equality, Harlem is a neighborhood in the New York City,
long known as a major African-American residential, culture, and business center.
Black resident began to arrive en masse in 1904, with numbers fed by the Great
Migrations. In the 1920’s and 1930’s, the neighborhood was the locus of the
“Harlem Renaissance”, an artistic and professional works without standard in the
American Black Community and rates of crime of poverty increased significantly
in New York after World War II (Sitkoff, 1981: 48).
Harlem Renaissance represented a cultural movement among African
American roughly between the end of World War I (1918) and the beginning of
the Great Depression (1929). The name given to this movement reveals its
essential features. Certainly, the words “Black” and “Negro” mean that this
movement centered on African Americans, and the term “Renaissance” indicates

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that something new was born, or, more accurately, that a cultural spirit was
reawakened in African American in cultural life (Sitkoff, 1981: 153).
D. Theoretical Framework
The focus of this study is to see the racial discrimination in South America
reflected in Florence. The writer uses two theories in order to answer the problem
formulation. First, the separation between black and whites can be seen through
the setting, so theory of setting is needed. It has important role that explain the
social, moral or religions of the society and the environment in which the
characters live.
As this work expresses the historical events in the past, so writer also puts
some theories about the relation between literature and society. In answering the
second problem formulations, the writer uses theory of racial discrimination to
help us see the racial discrimination reflected in Alice Childress’ Florence.
In the last part, the writer puts historical background of blacks in America
around 1950s and some reviews also added to give more ideas about the racism
issues in this play.

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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study
The object of this study is to analyze the racial discrimination towards
Black people in America which is reflected in a play entitled Florence written by
Alice Childress. This play is taken from Annas’ Literature and Society: An
Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, Nonfiction, which is published in 1990 by
Prentice Hall. This play is written in 1949, based from factual condition at that
time. This play consists of 12 pages.
The first performance of Florence produced at the American Negro
Theatre in New York City in 1949. It is a well-crafted play that levels an
indictment against arrogant whites who think they know more about African
Americans than African Americans know about themselves. Florence is also
about the need for African Americans to reject stereotyped roles. On another
level, Florence pays tribute to African American parents who encourage their
children to reach their fullest potential by any means necessary. Her first play
reveals Childress's superb skill at characterization, dialogue, and conflict
(http://www.answers.com/topic/alice-childress).

B. Approach of the Study
In analyzing Florence, the writer needs to use a certain approach which is
appropriate with the topic that was analyzed. In this thesis, the writer uses socio-

21

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cultural-historical approach. In the book Theory of Literature, Wellek and Warren
mentioned that much the most common approach to the relations of literature and
society is the study of works of literature as social documents, as assumed pictures
of social reality (Wellek and Warren, 1956: 102). So, this approach sees a literary
works, as a social documents, of reality happen in certain time.
Mary Rohrberger and Samuel H. Woods stated in Reading and Writing
about Literature:
Critics whose major interest is the socio-cultural-historical approach insist
that the only way to locate the real work is in reference to the civilization
that produced it. They define civilization as the attitudes and actions of a
specific group of people and point out that literature take these attitudes
and actions as its subject matter.
This traditional historical approach to literature usually takes as its basis
some aspect of the socio-cultural frame of reference, combining itwith an
interest in the biographical as well as knowledge of and interest in literary
history (1971: 8-10).
From the statement above, the writer concludes that socio-cultural
historical approach is an approach which deal with literary works as a reflection
of civilization, the condition of the society, people’s actions, the attitude, the
biographical of the author, and also the historical background of the story.
The writer sure that the most suitably applied approach in this play is
socio-cultural historical approach, since the work has some similarities to the
condition of the society at the time the work was produced. In other words, by
using this approach, the reader will be able to see the influence of the society to
the work written by Alice Childress.

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C. Method of the Study
The method used in analyzing this study is library research method.The
writers used two kinds of data, the primary source is the play itself, Florence, and
the secondary sourcesare taken from some books such as Glossary of Literary
Terms, Literature for Composition, Race and Culture Contacts in the Modern
World, A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature, Introduction to Black
Studies, Culture and Society: An Introduction to Sociology, The Struggle for
Black Equality,Reading and Writing about Literature, Race and Culture: A World
View, and undergraduate thesis. Since the play Florence had not been analy