August Wilson's Fences

Fences, a play written by August Wilson, is set in 1957 and opens with Troy Maxson engaged in conversation with his best friend Bono, as they enter the front yard of the Maxson's home. Written in 1985, Wilson uses the symbolism of fences to address the impact of racism on dreams and Troy Maxson's desire to protect his family from the pain he experienced.

We see his attempts to protect his son, Cory, when he tells him that he cannot play football. Troy is opposed to Cory playing football because he doesn't want Cory to experience the failure he did with sports as a career. At the end of Act One, Scene 3, Troy's wife, Rose, asks him why he won't let Cory play football, and Troy responds:

"I don't want him to be like me! I want him to move as far away from my life as he can get. You the only decent thing that ever happened to me. I wish him that. But I don't wish him a thing else from my life. I decided seventeen years ago that boy wasn't getting involved in no sports. Not after what they did to me in the sports."

There were two historical situations facing African Americans at the time of the play. The first was The Great Migration (1900 - 70) and the Negro Baseball League (1920-62).

The Great Migration (1900-70)

Between 1900 and 1970, it is estimated that nearly six million African Americans left the rural South and migrated to cities in the North, Midwest, and on the west coast. Escaping from brutal segregation laws, constant threats of lynching, and the lack of economic opportunities, African Americans relocated to find better jobs and better lives for themselves and their families. Rapid industrialization combined with America's involvement in World War I and World War II provided black folks with the employment opportunities traditionally held by white men.

Negro Baseball League (1920-62)

While professional black baseball emerged in the early 1900s, it was not officially organized until 1920 with the founding of the Negro National League, which consisted of eight teams located throughout the Midwest, the South, and as far east as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. By 1923 two more leagues were established, the Negro Southern League and the Eastern Colored League. Players such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Willie Mays got their start in the Negro Baseball Leagues. While the Negro Leagues survived the Great Depression and both World Wars, they were unable to survive integration. Once Jackie Robinson integrated the Brooklyn Dodgers, it was only a matter of years before the Negro Leagues' best players left for integrated teams, causing the Leagues to officially close down in 1962.

Both of these facts played heavily on the lives of Troy and Rose and their family. Troy was a baseball player in the Negro National League. Attempts at integration in these leagues were unsuccessful and eventually, the leagues had to close. Troy may have been a great baseball player, but he was too old by the time black players were switching to integrated teams. In addition, Troy came from a cotton planting family and knew the hardships of this life and the inability of the once slave families to actually make a living. Troy heads north when he is fourteen years old, like so many other African Americans, in the hopes that he could find employment. Sadly, when he arrives, what he is looking for is not found. These two facts have shaped this family and they work hard to survive and provide as much as they can without indulging in luxuries like a $200 television.