Black student, 14, is expelled from his North Carolina private school after his lawyer mom complained his 9th grade class would be studying Pulitzer Prize winning Fences
Faith Fox spoke with teachers at Providence Day School last month to voice her concerns about the August Wilson play, which looks at racism in 1950s America
Fences won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and was later adapted into a movie
It features racial slurs; the school said students would say the n word aloud
Fox said she aired concerns the material might be too mature for the teens
She questioned how appropriate it was for a room of elite, affluent white kids
A Black student s mother complained about Fences He was expelled chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
A Black Student’s Mother Complained About ‘Fences.’ He Was Expelled.
A dispute about the reading of August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play in an English class escalated at the mostly white Providence Day School in Charlotte, N.C.
Faith Fox and her son Jamel.Credit.Travis Dove for The New York Times
Dec. 15, 2020
When the mother of a Black ninth grader at a private school in Charlotte, N.C., learned last month that his English class was going to be studying August Wilson’s “Fences,” an acclaimed play examining racism in 1950s America, she complained to the school.
The drama, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987 and was adapted into a critically praised film starring Denzel Washington in 2016, is about a Black family and is peppered with racial slurs from the first page.