From South to North U.S.A.: The Afro-American Immigrant Experience in the Plays of August Wilson.

In contrast to the European immigration to the United States, the African immigrant encountered economic, psychological, and emotional disorientation to such an extent that these effects continue to influence and mold the lives of Afro-Americans. This document explores the Afro-American immigrant experience through a study of some of the plays written by August Wilson. "Fences,""Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," and "Joe Turner's Come and Gone" are analyzed from the perspective of the black experience in terms of past events and to explain the present in terms of a history which includes emigration from the rural South to northern U.S. cities. The effects of this migration on Afro-American family life and on individual blacks are examined by analyzing excerpts and passages from plays which highlight the anger, frustration, and exploitation of blacks and the resultant instability of the black family. (JHP)