Truck Stop Shirley, a celebration of diversity and pride

The other day a live performance celebrating Black History Month came to OLLI at Clemson University. OLLI is Clemson’s successful long life learning program with some 1500 members. A major theme associated with the program is the promotion of diversity, and this show, Truck Stop Shirley, successfully contributed to that ideal. The room was more than full, when there were no more seats available, people stood, even outside the doors. There were probably 150 there, and they were almost all white.

On stage there were 8 performers, black men and women, actors, poets, singers, preachers, & an older blind woman, Blind Betty, who played the lead, and one white, me, the MC. From my perspective it was a marvelous event. As a long time director, I watched the audience throughout and especially at the curtain call. They showed their approval with energetic laughter and applause. At the end the chairs were still filled.

The focus of the show is a woman from this part of South Carolina who, born in 1938, was raised in a share cropper home as one of ten children who picked cotton for the white farmer. When the cotton market failed, the owner sold out to a truck stop operator where Shirley, the eldest of the cotton picker’s ten children, went from picking to learning to drive a bulldozer for the contractor, to washing dishes when the truck stop opened, and gradually becoming waitress, short order cook, and finally boss of the operation which became known to truckers as Truck Stop Shirley.

The primary theme of Rev. Dr. Romando James’ production is Pride. It is a stirring lesson in how Miss Shirley applied herself, worked hard, dealt with whites, and succeeded. And Dr James succeeded with that audience of white faces, whose applause and non-verbal’s testified to this MC that they loved the show.