Revolt of the evil fairies

By Cassius O'Brien

In the 1950s and 1960s racism and segregation were prevalent in the United States. Whites and blacks went to different schools, they shopped in separate places, and didn't even use the same doors, water fountains or bathrooms. Even after segregation ended, there was still racism everywhere. The main theme of the story, Revolt of the Evil Fairies is racism. Even in an all-African-American school the color of the childrens' skin in this story determines how they are treated by their teachers and classmates. The main character tells the reader of a 'drama' in his school that symbolizes the struggles of African-Americans in their own community and outside it.

Every year at Booker T. Washington Colored Grammar School the teachers set up a play for the kids to perform. The play is always an adaptation of Sleeping Beauty and Prince Charming, with good and evil fairies added. Although many kids audition for the lead roles, including our narrator, the teachers seem to always pick the lighter-skinned children for the best roles of the Prince, Sleeping Beauty and the Good Fairies. The Evil Fairies are always kids with darker skin.  As the narrator explains: "…strangely enough most of the Good Fairies usually turned out to be extremely light in complexion with straight hair and white folks' features. On rare occasions a dark-skinned girl might be lucky enough to be a Good Fairy, but not one with a speaking part."

The narrator, who has the best grades in his class, and is the top debater as well, always gets secondary roles in the school play. The best he can get is the role of the Head Evil Fairy, without any chance of getting picked as Prince Charming, year after year. This shows that the teachers don't care how good of a student he is, they only care about the color of the children's skin. The teachers try to convince him of what an honor it is to have that role, and how good he is at it. But he is not happy. To make matters worse, the Prince this year, is Leonardius Wright, a light-skinned boy, who has a crush on the same girl the narrator does, Sleeping Beauty. The narrator tries to put on a good show. 

During the second act of the play Leonardius 'accidentally' hits the narrator on the head, as the Head Evil Fairy is exiting the stage. The narrator decides he is going to get back at Leonardius and his teachers for not believing that the Prince meant what he did. He punches the Prince right in the jaw as the Prince is supposed to kill him at the end of the play. When he does this, he starts a fight between the entire cast, Good vs. Evil. The teacher stops the fight and the play ends.

In the town where the main characters live, people of lighter skin hold the best jobs.  As the narrator explains, "The yallers had the best of everything. They held most of the teaching jobs in Booker T. Washington Colored Grammar School. They were the Negro doctors, the lawyers, the insurance men." The struggles faced by the narrator in the play are a reflection of life in his town, and a reflection of what victims of racism and discrimination experience everywhere. Lighter skinned adults get the better jobs, and lighter skinned kids get the better roles. 

In Revolt of the Evil Fairies, the narrator learns a life lesson, and feels that no matter how good he is in school or how well he behaves, he may never get a fair chance in life. His final words are "They wouldn't let me appear in the grand dramatic offering at all the next year. But I didn't care. I couldn't have been Prince Charming anyway." He seems to give up on his hopes for equality, but then realizes that no matter how he is treated he'll still try his best to succeed. When he was treated unfairly in the play and not picked as the lead, he still did his best in the role he was given. This gives hope to the reader that the character won't be hurt by his mistakes. That's the message a reader takes away from this story. Times have changed dramatically since the 1950s and 60s. There is more equal opportunity for people of color, and anyone can be Prince Charming.