Purlie Victorious by Ossie Davis

Ossie Davis's Purlie Victorious (1961) is a satirical play that relates the titular character's dream of becoming a preacher to the African American community in southern Georgia, set amid the changes and upheaval of the civil rights movement of the 1950s. Although the original production received mixed reviews, a 2023–24 Broadway revival earned great acclaim.

Principal Characters

Purlie Victorious Judsonan African American in his mid-to-late thirties

Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkinsa young African American woman

Missy Judson, a.k.a. Aunt Missyhis sister-in-law and the matriarch of the Judson clan

Gitlow Judsonhis brother but in many ways his antithesis

Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipeethe White plantation owner

Charlie Cotchipeethe Ol’ Cap’n’s son, a representative of the New South

Idella Landya tiny old African American woman who was Charlie’s nurse and is still his confidante

The Play

Ossie Davis's Purlie Victorious relates Purlie’s dream of becoming a preacher to the African American community in southern Georgia, where he and his family live and where little has changed over the generations. However, during the 1950s, change has begun. Reference is made to the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycotts, Martin Luther King Jr., and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Purlie is influenced by all of these, but his motives come primarily from within himself and his own experiences as an African American in the traditional South.

Twenty years earlier, Purlie had been beaten by the White owner of the plantation, Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee, and he has neither forgotten nor forgiven. Self-educated, a rebel and a dreamer, Purlie has gone through several metamorphoses and has finally settled on the role of a preacher. He preaches not of a heaven obtainable only after death but of a new heaven on earth, a heaven of freedom, a word he often invokes.

Purlie needs a church, and he chooses Big Bethel, an old barn that in the past had held a black congregation. To acquire Big Bethel, Purlie must obtain a $500 inheritance left to a deceased member of the Judson family, an inheritance controlled by the Ol’ Cap’n. Purlie plots to have a young Black woman, Lutiebelle Jenkins, impersonate the dead heir.

Unfortunately for Purlie but fortunately for the play, things do not go according to plan. In this satire on the people, institutions, and racism of the Old South, Davis created broad stereotypes. Purlie’s choice to have Lutiebelle impersonate the dead Cousin Bee is, from the beginning, an unlikely prospect. Lutiebelle looks nothing like Cousin Bee. Cousin Bee had been a college student, while Lutiebelle’s background is that of a servant. Purlie likely chose Lutiebelle because, perhaps unconsciously, he was attracted to her looks and personality. Lutiebelle’s personal desires are primarily domestic, but she is willing to do her best for Purlie, and he coaches her for the crucial meeting with Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee.

Another difficulty for Purlie comes from his brother, Gitlow. Unlike Purlie, Gitlow has seemingly made his peace with the existing social system, accommodating himself to the Ol’ Cap’n’s racist regime. Selected by the Ol’ Cap’n to be the “Deputy-for-the-Colored,” Gitlow picks cotton, spends time in the fields, and even sings spirituals for Cotchipee, spirituals with obvious themes of resignation and acceptance. Gitlow fears that the plan to impersonate Cousin Bee will not succeed and that its failure can only cause more difficulties for the African Americans on the plantation.

Gitlow is an obstacle to Purlie’s aims, but Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee also has problems, with his son, Charlie. Charlie is among the first White Southerners to support the recent court decisions voiding segregation. When he expresses these integrationist opinions to his father, the Ol’ Cap’n rejects them, rhetorically asking, “Do you think ary [sic] single darky on my place would ever think of changing a single thing about the South, and to hell with the Supreme Court . . . ?” For his beliefs, Charlie is beaten by local rednecks and becomes an object of ridicule to his father.

Pushed by Purlie to present Lutiebelle—the false Cousin Bee—to the Ol’ Cap’n, Gitlow resists. Cotchipee unexpectedly enters the plantation store, where Purlie is rehearsing Lutiebelle, and the impersonation begins. Lutiebelle does her best, and Cotchipee seems convinced, but more by her attractive looks than by the effectiveness of her act. Purlie also presents Cotchipee with a supposed sheepskin scroll naming him the “Great White Father of the Year!” and “the best friend the Negro ever had.” Coming from Gitlow, the citation would have been a manifestation of the Uncle Tom syndrome of accommodation. From Purlie, it drips satire, as he gratefully notes that the African Americans on the plantation are allowed to pick Cotchipee’s cotton and receive hominy grits on credit at the plantation store, and that the Ol’ Cap’n “never resorts to bull whip except as a blessing and benediction.” Cotchipee appears genuinely touched by the tribute and orders Charlie to get the $500. The Ol’ Cap’n asks for a receipt, and Lutiebelle signs her own name, not that of Cousin Bee.

Cotchipee has already alerted the sheriff, who attempts to arrest Purlie. Cotchipee wants more than Purlie’s arrest: He wants to again beat Purlie with his bullwhip. Purlie resists, a fight breaks out, Charlie tries to break it up and is knocked unconscious, and Purlie escapes.

In the aftermath of the failed plot, Missy tries to convince Purlie, her brother-in-law, that he should give up his dream of regaining Big Bethel and marry Lutiebelle instead. Purlie objects, arguing that “the crying need of this Negro day and age is not grits, but greatness; not cornbread but courage; not fat-back but fight-back.”

Gitlow appears, claiming that he has obtained the $500 from the Ol’ Cap’n. Cotchipee, however, has merely promised to give the money to Gitlow as a reward for leaving Lutiebelle at the plantation house to help with the Sunday dinner. Purlie suspects that the Ol’ Cap’n intends to seduce Lutiebelle. Gitlow defends himself by asking Purlie whether he wants Big Bethel or not, the price implicitly being Lutiebelle. Lutiebelle then walks in, disheveled and without the money. Cotchipee had pinched and kissed her, and she ran away in disgust. Purlie vows revenge, and the others attempt to restrain him, Gitlow noting that the Ol’ Cap’n had only kissed Purlie’s woman. Purlie’s response echoes the long lament of African Americans regarding violence from the White community: “Yeah! And what you suppose he’d a done to me if I’d a kissed his?”

Purlie charges off to confront the Ol’ Cap’n and returns with the money and the Ol’ Cap’n’s bullwhip. Lutiebelle and Missy assume that Purlie had a fight with the Ol’ Cap’n. Purlie, swept up in their adoration, enthusiastically relates how he brought the Ol’ Cap’n down: “I beat him—I whipped him—and I flogged him—and I cut him—I destroyed him!” At that climax, Idella enters and explains that in reality, Purlie broke into the commissary and did not beat Cotchipee. Lutiebelle, Missy, and Gitlow turn against Purlie, who defends himself by claiming, “I ain’t never in all my life told a lie I didn’t mean to make come true some day.”

The Ol’ Cap’n and the sheriff appear, but instead of arresting Purlie, Charlie Cotchipee is charged with theft. Charlie admits to having taken the money to save his father from Purlie’s anger. The Ol’ Cap’n then orders Gitlow to seize Purlie, but Gitlow breaks into song instead, singing “Gone Are the Days.”

The Ol’ Cap’n informs the group that he, through Charlie, has bought Big Bethel. In yet another twist, Charlie confesses that he has put the deed not in the Ol’ Cap’n’s name but in Purlie’s. After giving the deed to Purlie, Charlie asks if he, a White man, can become a member of Big Bethel. He is unanimously accepted. This deals a fatal blow to the Ol’ Cap’n, who dies while still standing up.

The epilogue sees Purlie as the minister of Big Bethel, presiding at the funeral services for the Ol’ Cap’n, who is appropriately buried upright with his casket draped with the Confederate flag and his bullwhip. The play closes with Purlie giving a panegyric to African American pride: “Accept in full the sweetness of your blackness—not wishing to be red, nor white, nor yellow: nor any other race, or face, but this . . . be brave, keep freedom in the family, do what you can for the white folks, and write me in care of the post office.”

Critical Context

Starring the playwright in the title role and his wife as Lutiebelle, Purlie Victorious ran for 261 performances when first produced at New York City's Cort Theatre in 1961. Critics were divided about the play. The reviewer for The New York Times, Howard Taubman, praised it as an affirmation of progress and change, a “farce with a slashing viewpoint” that “provokes as it disarms.” Ebony, a magazine published primarily for African Americans, noted with approval Eleanor Roosevelt’s comment that “mixed with the humor there is intelligent, incisive commentary on segregation, discrimination and the slow pace of integration.”

Others were less enthusiastic. In the Saturday Review of Literature, Henry Hewes admired the satire but found the characters uninvolving and the plot predictable. Edith Oliver, writing in The New Yorker, found the play similar to many left-wing dramas of the 1930s for its simplistic heroes and villains. Accusing Davis of “playing it safe,” Oliver argued that to make the Ol’ Cap’n the symbol for the realities of racism and segregation was to imply that the problems were easily solved. Robert Brustein, drama critic of The New Republic, was appalled at the message of Purlie Victorious, claiming that the play “set back inter-racial harmony, by my calculations, about fourteen years.” He was disturbed by the “hate and violence under the shut-my-mouf benevolence of these cardboard characters.” The satirical and humorous approach was a contentious issue for critics. Could such techniques be applied to serious issues?

The play was translated into film in 1963, under the title Gone Are the Days, and a musical stage production titled simply Purlie in 1970. Davis remained active in the movement for African American rights. He received many awards for his writing and acting and for his commitment to African American causes.

Purlie Victorious enjoyed a Broadway revival in 2023, more than six decades after it first opened, and ran for more than 150 performances. Leslie Odom Jr. of Hamilton fame starred as Purlie and served as a producer, while Kara Young embodied the role of Lutiebelle. Reviewers widely praised it and noted the timing of the production, coming as it did amid increased racial tensions and efforts to erase the history of racism in the US. The revival was nominated for a half-dozen Tony Awards, and of those, Young took home the best-actress award.

Bibliography

Abramson, Doris E. Negro Playwrights in the American Theatre, 1925-1959. Columbia UP, 1969.

Brustein, Robert. “Down among the Dead Men.” The New Republic, vol. 145, 6 Nov. 1961, p. 22.

Hatch, Robert. “Theatre.” The Nation, vol. 193, 14 Oct. 1961, pp. 254–55.

Hewes, Henry. “Laughing Matters.” Saturday Review of Literature, vol. 44, 14 Oct. 1961, p. 78.

Hill, Herbert, ed. Anger and Beyond: The Negro Writer in the United States. Harper & Row, 1966.

Lunden, Jeff. “A Jim Crow Satire Returns to Broadway after 62 Years—and It’s a Romp, Not a Relic.” NPR, 27 Sept. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/09/27/1202025046/purlie-victorious-leslie-odom-jr-broadway. Accessed 1 Mar. 2024.‌

Odom, Leslie, Jr., and Kara Young. “Leslie Odom Jr. and Kara Young on Their Roaring New Revival of ‘Purlie Victorious.’” Interview by Juan A. Ramírez, Vogue, 28 Sept. 2023, www.vogue.com/slideshow/leslie-odom-jr-kara-young-purlie-victorious-opening-night. Accessed 1 Mar. 2024.‌

Oliver, Edith. The New Yorker, vol. 37, 7 Oct. 1961, p. 130.

Sternlicht, Sanford. A Reader’s Guide to Modern American Drama. Syracuse UP, 2002.