What Happened to George Wallace’s “Line in the Dust?”

In an especially ugly episode in America’s history, Alabama Governor George Wallace included these vicious words in his 1963 inaugural address: “I draw the line in the dust…and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

A charismatic demagogue, Wallace went on to run for President four times between 1964 and 1973, fomenting hateful opposition to racial integration of the nation’s schools, not just in the former Confederate states in the South but in northern states with large populations of Black students as well.

Seven years before Wallace’s belligerent defiance, in 1954 the Supreme Court had struck down racial desegregation in public schools with its landmark Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, which ruled segregation unconstitutional and mandated that the states desegregate with “all deliberate speed”—which was and is code for “whenever you damn well please.” Nonetheless, Brown lit an especially large fire under the civil rights movement.

As we’ve seen, from sea to shining sea, Americans of all races embraced this enlightened new desegregation notion, which is why schools everywhere today are fully and harmoniously integrated, with Black students learning shoulder to shoulder together with white students, and no falling-apart Black schools saddled with poorly paid teachers, overcrowded classrooms, worn-out books, and heavily armed cops patrolling the hallways…

Right, sadly that last part has never panned out.

Nikkole Salter’s marvelous Lines in the Dust, now playing at the Matrix Theatre on Melrose Avenue, offers a gut-wrenching glimpse at how segregation is actually worse, if anything, in today’s schools than when George Wallace was glowering darkly for the cameras, vowing eternal resistance nearly 60 years ago.

In Dust, two Black women from the wrong side of the tracks in Newark, New Jersey, meet in the middle.

Through luck, hard work, connections, a Princeton education, whatever, Beverly has escaped to become the well-paid principal of an elite high school in a well-to-do, largely white town, enjoying the lush life in a comfortable home with her successful husband and their son.

But burdened with bad public policy, blunted opportunities, and absent support, Denitra has been blocked, forced to eke out an existence with menial jobs in the same deteriorating community that has been neglected since both she and Beverley lived there as children.

The one-act, two-hour play then revolves around Dentra’s efforts to slip her daughter, Noelle, into Beverly’s high-toned school, by hook or by crook, illegally if necessary—as it is in many school districts around the country.

To keep her coveted job, Beverly must enforce the school district’s rules–no matter how much she might rather look the other way. But then the school board hires a retired white cop turned private investigator, Mike DiMaggio, to catch and expel any student from outside the district who has slipped in under the radar–especially after a recent drive-by shooting involving one such student at the school.

In this marvelous production—beautifully acted, wonderfully designed—Erica Tazel and Kelly Jenrette trade off playing Beverley and Dentria, with Tom Pasqualini playing the obtusely racist former cop.

We plan to see it again to see how it’s different with the actresses trading places.

Here are two superb, detailed reviews by our colleagues of “Lines in the Dust”:

Lines in the Dust is being performed 8 p.m. on Thursdays, at 8 p.m., on Fridays at 8:30 p.m., on Saturdays at 2:00 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., through December 10, at the Matrix Theatre, 7657 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles. Heads up – parking is an issue at this theatre. Plan to spend some time looking for a place to park. For reservations call ​310.619.6322 or https://LinesintheDust.eventbrite.com.