100 years ago in Spokane: Controversial play scheduled to open

From our archives, 100 years ago

Rehearsals began at the American Theater of a controversial play by Edward Sheldon. It had a title we cannot print today — but The Spokesman-Review in 1916 had no compunction about printing it.

The title was a racial epithet beginning with “N.” It was described as a “widely discussed racial play.”

“No play of recent years has encountered more bitter opposition from representatives of the colored race and their white friends than this vigorous narrative of the southland,” said the paper.

The play had been performed once before in Spokane, but never in stock for a long run. A film version had once been shown at the Liberty Theater, and it had “aroused a storm of protest from colored citizens and clergymen.”

The play was scheduled to open in a week.

From the school beat: The Spokane School Board was asking for a bond issue to build two junior high schools – one for boys, and one for girls.

This novel junior high plan had evolved significantly since it was first proposed. The original idea was to create “junior highs” for students who were not proficient enough to go to high school.

Now, however, the superintendent and board had settled on a different idea, in which one junior high would be built on the north side of the river, “to take care of the ninth grade of North Central High School and thus relieve the crowded condition.” It would also house the prevocational classes of both boys and girls.

Later, if the plan proved a success, the second junior high would be built and then “the segregation of the sexes would be carried out.”