The Mountaintop

As depicted in the play, there was a thunderstorm in Memphis, Tennessee, on the night that the real-life King gave his final sermon. In the play, when Camae delivers King’s coffee, she is using this night’s newspaper as an umbrella. When he sees the newspaper, he notices it states his current location (Lorraine Motel). Even with the curtains closed and phone checked for listening devices, he remains vulnerable as a public figure. Camae notes, “I heard you carried on a storm up at Mason Temple” (70), as the fury of a literal storm becomes enmeshed with the storm of the Civil Rights Movement. Camae’s mother taught her to sit still during storms, because “God’ll strike you down if you move ‘round too much” (8); Camae suggests this fear of supernatural forces is the reason why King’s latest sermon attracted a relatively smaller crowd. However, she herself sees the storm as God “actin’ up” (8), and later comments “Well, God ain’t gone stop cryin’ no time soon” (16). Both sentiments take on deeper meaning once she reveals she knows God.

Outside of God, Camae points out many Black people are simply afraid of going to churches when Black churches are being bombed. While King’s followers seek shelter from the storm, there is no cover for him, as he fears thunder and lightning. The volume of these forces suggests the storm is directly overhead, looming like white rage. Such sounds evoke the 1963 explosion of a Birmingham church that killed four Black girls, or the gunfire that killed civil rights leader Medgar Evars (1963), President John F. Kennedy (1963), and activist Malcolm X (1965). Camae tries to lighten the mood by likening thunder and lightning to fireworks on July 4th, also known as Independence Day—an apt comparison considering King’s desire for equality. After his assassination, his followers will continue his fight for independence in the form of the Civil Rights Act of 1968. With his elevated status, King is the tallest lightning rod in a storm: Despite bargaining with Camae and God, he seems to know death is imminent. In this, perhaps the storm is God crying for a world that required the sacrifice of one of her favorite humans. In King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, he asserts “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges” (King Jr., Martin Luther, “I Have A Dream” Speech, August 28, 1963). In other words, a storm requires “whirlwinds” to enact change: Many Black people are waiting out or even watching the movement from afar, but understandably afraid to join the fight. To sustain a movement, one must do more than weather the storm.