Now Let Me Fly Discussion Questions
After your reading of Now Let Me Fly, your audience will be ready to have a discussion on the issues raised by the play. Here are some questions you can use to start the conversation. Or, come up with your own!
- Segregation was the law of the land for many years.
- What did the characters in the play find unacceptable about "separate but equal?"
- What do you yourself think about the concept?
- Brown v. Board overturned legal segregation.
- How would your life be different if the Supreme Court had not made that decision?
- How has your life been affected by Brown v. Board?
- The play revolves around individuals willing to take risks.
- What do you think gives people the courage to step forward for what they believe is right?
- People in the Brown era went to register their children at schools they were not allowed to attend. Some believed that the law of that time was morally wrong.
- What is our obligation regarding laws we believe are morally wrong?
- In the play, Charles Houston tells Thurgood Marshall that he can't overturn the law by himself.
- What did he mean?
- Can changing a law in itself change people's lives?
- Some studies indicate that our schools are returning to a pattern of racial separation.
- Why do you think that is?
- How can we change that pattern?
- What can we do in our own lives to combat racism?
- Brown v. Board is seen by many as a model for other political struggles.
- What other struggles for equal rights have there been in America?
- How are they the same or different?
- Are there groups today still struggling with issues of separatism and/or inequality?
- Flight is a frequently used metaphor in African-American literature.
- Why do you think that is?
- How is flight used in this play?