PART 5: PREPARING FOR THE PLAY
Consider what you’ve learned about Booker T. Spicely and Camp Butner, Durham, and America in 1944.
Answer the following questions.
Why might Spicely’s death have been covered by newspapers in Durham and far from Durham – in Chicago, Baltimore, New York, and Pittsburgh? Why was Spicely’s killing national news?
What can Spicely’s life and death teach us about America’s relationship with the ideals of freedom and democracy?
In the near future, you’ll view a performance of Changing Same: The Cold-Blooded Murder of Booker T. Spicely by Mike Wiley and Howard Craft.
The play recounts Spicely’s life and death. It also reveals the way different individuals and groups responded to Spicely’s murder and Council’s trial and acquittal.
What questions do you have about Spicely’s life and death that you hope the play Changing Same will answer?
How might the following groups have responded to Spicely’s death? Think about what you have learned from this web experience to craft a hypothesis.
Black and white servicemen at Camp Butner
Black and white Americans living in Durham
Booker T. Spicely’s family, who lived in Virginia and Pennsylvania when he died
Leaders of Black organizations, like Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP
Leaders in the United States Army
Photos by Jennifer Sanderson
