CLAIRE
I don’t see why you have to be a black person or a white person. Why can’t you just be a person?
ELLEN
Well, if you’re a rose or a daisy, you’re still a flower. People see what they have a mind to see. You were born a girl. Do you have a complaint about that, too?
CLAIRE
(pensive)
I’m not complaining.
When I was born, did you write to your mother about me?
ELLEN
Of course I did.
CLAIRE
Did you tell her I was black or white?
ELLEN
I told her you were a baby girl and that all of your parts seemed reasonably intact.
(tries to lighten the conversation)
Let’s see, you had one nose, as many toes as you were needing—
CLAIRE
And did you tell her that my dad is black?
ELLEN
I wrote that he was tall, dark, and quite the good looker. I let her imagine the rest. The hard part was skirting around the notion that he wasn’t Catholic.
CLAIRE
Oh, you’re sneaky clever, Mrs. Johnson.
There is a knock on the door, and LIAM (17) and MAEVE (16) enter.
LIAM
Morning, Mrs. Johnson. Morning, Claire.
ELLEN
Morning, Liam. You’re looking handsome today.
CLAIRE
But why are you combing your hair straight back? You know I never like it that way.
LIAM
My friend thinks it makes me look older.
CLAIRE
(Glances at Maeve)
Does she now?
ELLEN
And does your friend have a name?
MAEVE
It’s Maeve, ma’am. And I’ve been sent by Father Donahue to see about the job you’d be having.
ELLEN
Oh, yes. Well, I’m glad the two of you aren’t running around the streets like madmen. Can you use a cold glass of lemonade?
LIAM
That I could, ma’am. I was telling Maeve how I worked here from time to time and how you were looking for a girl. She’s sort of my intended.
ELLEN
Well, sit yourselves down. Lemonade is as good sitting as it is standing.
(LIAM and MAEVE sit)
CLAIRE
I didn’t know you had an intended, Liam. And all this time I’ve had my hopes up.
LIAM
Go on with yourself, Claire.
ELLEN
How old are you to be thinking of marriage?
LIAM
Old enough if I can keep working steady. I’m doing errands for you, but I’ll shame the devil and tell you right out that I’m looking for something stronger.
MAEVE
My mother wasn’t but sixteen, same as me, when she got married.
ELLEN
Well, those were the old days—when you married coming down the gangplank. So tell me where you worked before.
MAEVE
For a gentleman who lived on Gramercy Park. He was an old man who needed looking after. I cleaned for him and sometimes made him tea. But he up and died in a sudden way and left me without a job and the week’s pay because his daughter said she didn’t know if I had been paid or not.
ELLEN
Which means you don’t have references?
MAEVE
No, ma’am. But I go to Mass on a regular basis and I give to the poor. I was in church when I seen Father Donahue.
ELLEN
We’re looking for someone who’s worked in a hotel.
MAEVE
(looking about)
I can pour pints, too.
ELLEN
Learn that at Mass, did you?
MAEVE
No, ma’am.
CLAIRE
Can you make square corners on a bed?
MAEVE
I don’t know. I never tried it. Are you working here?
ELLEN
When she’s not planning visits from the queen.
There is the sound of a disturbance outside, and we hear shouts and some cursing as a small group passes.
LIAM
(excitedly)
They’re headed uptown. I think I’m going with them.
(gets up to leave)
CLAIRE
Were you drafted?
LIAM
No, but I’m protesting! Miss Ellen, do you know what life is about in Five Points? It’s not pretty.
ELLEN
I know, but you’re such a darling lad. We’d hate to see you hurt, Liam. Wouldn’t we, Claire?
CLAIRE
(quietly)
He knows that.
LIAM exits.
MAEVE
Oh, he’s all excited, he is. They were singing about going to Dublin and marching as gay as you please all the way down Mercer Street. And every time they came to the end of a line with a “Whack follol de rah” they would break out a window!
CLAIRE
That’s terrible. Why would anyone want to do that?
MAEVE
Well, it’s the Irish against the swells and the Coloreds. They’ve been pushing us around too long, they have. You can’t walk down the sidewalk without a swell pushing you off into the street or one of the Coloreds taking your jobs. I hear they have them by the hundreds in Jersey City just waiting to rush over to New York at the drop of a hat.
You won’t be able to find a scrap of work that they won’t do for half the money.
That’s how the Coloreds are. They’ll work for nothing until they chase us out and we’ll be the beggars and street sweepers.
It’s in the Bible!
ELLEN
Well, I’ll be! Darling, you won’t do for this job. We need someone with more experience. I’m very sorry. I’m sure you’ll find a good job somewhere else.
MAEVE
Can I wait here for a moment in case Liam comes back?
ELLEN
(looks toward CLAIRE)
Well, I have to run to the chemist to pick up some medicine for Dr. Smith. My husband works for him.
MAEVE
(sarcastically)
Fancy that.
ELLEN
I’ll be back shortly.
ELLEN exits.
MAEVE looks around the Peacock. Where she was apprehensive in dealing with ELLEN, now she begins to look more confident as she glances sideways at CLAIRE.
MAEVE
So, do they treat you good here?
CLAIRE
That’s my ma that runs the place.
MAEVE
Then you’ve got it nice, haven’t you?
CLAIRE
Nice enough. Do you like breaking windows?
MAEVE
It’s a way to get back at the swells. They hate to lose money, you know. A swell would rather see his wife die than lose a hundred dollars. That’s because they enjoy being a swell more than anything.
CLAIRE
Everyone should enjoy being who they are.
MAEVE
Well, we certainly enjoy being Irish, don’t we?
CLAIRE
I’m…I’m only half Irish.
MAEVE
And what’s the other half?
CLAIRE
My father’s black.
MAEVE
No!
CLAIRE
Yes!
MAEVE
No!
CLAIRE
Yes!
MAEVE
Does your mother know?
CLAIRE
Of course she does.
MAEVE crosses to CLAIRE and examines her closely, even touches her hair as CLAIRE sits stiffly.
MAEVE
You’d never know it! And you’d be a fool to let anyone in on it, wouldn’t you?
CLAIRE
Why would I care?
MAEVE
Is that why I didn’t get the job? Because of what I said about t
he Coloreds?
CLAIRE
My mother wanted someone with experience.
MAEVE
(leans forward)
I’m not saying that it’s wrong to be a Colored. But I don’t want to be one, and I don’t like them. You’re not really Colored no matter what your father is about. You’re as white as me from the looks of you, and you’d be a fool to be anything else.
CLAIRE
I think you’d better go now.
MAEVE
(somewhat cocky)
You don’t look very tough. You ever been in a fight?
CLAIRE
Do you know how easy it would be for me to have you arrested?
MAEVE
That’s the swell part of you coming out, isn’t it? Only the swells say it with their noses in the air like the Coloreds.
CLAIRE
You don’t make a bit of sense.
MAEVE
If you were regular people like I am, or like Liam, you would be on my side, wouldn’t you? You wouldn’t be threatening to call the coppers, would you? That’s what they’re fighting about in the streets, dearie. How the Irish are the ones being pushed around. And how the swells are looking to send us off to fight for the Coloreds.
ELLEN enters, carrying a small package. She quickly senses something is going on between the two girls.
ELLEN
The order was only half filled. John will have to get the rest another time.
MAEVE
Maybe I’ll be back, ma’am, in case you change your mind.
MAEVE exits.
ELLEN
Something going on?
CLAIRE
No. No, not really.
EXT. DOWNTOWN NEW YORK—SAME DAY
A CROWD of some fifty young white men and some women has gathered across the street from the offices of the Tribune. Some throw stones at the building. The camera pans the CROWD, stops for a moment on an excited LIAM, who seems slightly confused as he tries to take in everything around him.
We turn a corner and see DENNIS RILEY (17) and TOMMY ENRIGHT (19), two members of the street gang known as the Dead Rabbits. They are dressed in recently stolen top hats, formal dress pants (also stolen), and suspenders over white undershirts. Both men have red ribbons pinned around the left cuff of their pants. They are talking to a group of eager young boys. Among them is BILLY EVANS (12).
DENNIS RILEY
The coppers are waiting for us to make a move, but we’re biding our time, boys. Waiting for the tide to come to us. What we’re looking for is someone to do some carrying. Ya getting a cut of everything ya carry and you can take that as gospel.
TOMMY ENRIGHT
Ten percent is yours off the top. We do the snatching while you hang back on the corner. Then we bring you the goods and you carry it to where we tell you. We’ll deal with the coppers. All you need to do is watch out for the Bowery Boys, who don’t have enough tin in their kidneys to do the lifting. You kiddies with us or against us?
BILLY EVANS
I’d rather join the army meself. You get a regular gun and bullets, and they give you three hundred dollars for your pocket. You can’t beat that, and you don’t have to do no running.
TOMMY ENRIGHT
Wha? Wha? Wha you gonna do, kiddy? You gonna go off and fight for the darkies? The rich people are getting to two-step away from the bloody war for three hundred dollars. Now figure this one out. They’re selling blacks down in Georgia for a thousand dollars. That means that your life ain’t even worth half of what a black man’s life is worth. That’s what you going for? Huh? That’s what you going for?
BILLY EVANS
I always thought about going into the army. Maybe the 7th Irish.
DENNIS RILEY
You got your war right here in the streets, pie-face. And after this little rough-and-tumble is over, they’re going to know we got something to say and it ain’t only the abolitionists making the newspapers.
BILLY EVANS
I heard the coppers are shooting at people. They got a guy on Tenth Street and shot him in both legs!
TOMMY ENRIGHT
That’s what they’re doing, Billy boy. Don’t you see? They don’t really care about none of this because half the cops are as Irish as we are. They’re shooting up in the air and down at the ground so they don’t hurt us. And you don’t need to be anywhere near the shooting because all you’re going to be doing is carrying the goods we bring you. You want to be a Dead Rabbit, or you want to go join the little girls’ brigade? We can call ya Little Miss Molly.
BILLY EVANS
Yeah, yeah. I’m with you. But this makes me a full member, right? I get me ten percent, like you said, and I’m a Rabbit?
DENNIS RILEY
It’s a hard bargain you drive, Billy, but you’re never gonna forget this day. This is the day you woke up a kid and went to sleep a man. That’s right. You’re going to sleep tonight a real man.
BILLY EVANS
(apprehensive)
We gonna be beating up Coloreds, too? I don’t like that part.
TOMMY ENRIGHT
Nah. We got no time for that. That ain’t smart, and smart is my middle name, Bucky Boy. Okay, let’s get the boys moving. Get them going across the street and right toward the shops. Keep a line of the biggest guys on the left, nearest the coppers, to hold them off. We’ll throw a little charge at the police at the same time we smash the windows. Then it’s grab and run, a few fists and stones, and everybody is out of here. You kids get to that corner and be ready when we come back.
The camera looks down the street.
TOMMY ENRIGHT
(cont’d)
You ready?
BILLY EVANS & FRIENDS
(in unison)
Ready!
DENNIS RILEY and TOMMY ENRIGHT start across the street, with ENRIGHT leading. The camera pulls back, and we see a knot of young men and women, who start to cheer when they see the two gang members come forward. The CROWD starts to follow the two toward a line of stores.
The camera quickly switches to a group of POLICEMEN, who start toward the CROWD. There is a direct confrontation, and the POLICE begin to beat the members of the CROWD.
CUT TO:
CLOSE-UP of MAEVE. Her face is a picture of incredible anger as she screams at the POLICE.
CUT TO:
MAIN SHOT: We see TOMMY ENRIGHT fall. The camera moves into the conflict, and we are in the middle of it, with bodies flashing around us, as well as cries of pain. There is the sound of a gunshot, and we see POLICE shooting into the air. The camera spins crazily and everything goes dark, but we still hear the sounds of the battle. Then the sounds stop.
POLICE OFFICER
(voice-over)
That’ll show them. Just leave them lying there. Their relatives can come sort them out in the morning if they have the mind to. That’ll show them. It’s late in the day. Things should be quieting down a bit.
We see nine POLICE OFFICERS, some winded from their efforts, looking down the street. The camera pans down the street, and we see the CROWD in disarray, with some holding their heads. It has been a brutal encounter.
EXT. A QUIET SECTION OF FIFTH AVENUE—SAME DAY
We see a street sign that indicates that we are on Fifth and Fortieth Street. Two UPPER-CLASS MEN and a WOMAN are walking down the street.
FIRST UPPER-CLASS MAN
They’ll go home once it gets dark. Maybe if they sleep off the liquor, they’ll wake with some sense in their heads.
SECOND UPPER-CLASS MAN
In any case, the mayor will have things under control by the morning. I’m sure of that.
UPPER-CLASS WOMAN
Are those people coming this way?
We see a small CROWD of people walking along, almost casually—except for the clubs some are carrying.
FIRST UPPER-CLASS MAN
The very nerve of these people.
UPPER-CLASS WOMAN
We’d better get inside.
; SECOND UPPER-CLASS MAN
My goodness! What could they want in this neighborhood?
FIRST UPPER-CLASS MAN
I don’t believe their morals stretch far beyond what they can drink or have the pleasure of stealing. But I agree, better to be indoors.
INT. THE COLORED ORPHAN ASYLUM—SAME DAY
Beside a row of neatly made beds, two WOMEN in their late twenties—one white, one black—and an elderly WHITE MAN are gathering the CHILDREN and lining them up. There is a clear sense of urgency as they get the CHILDREN, all between four and ten, ready to leave. In the background we hear occasional shouts and the sound of breaking glass.
We see PRISCILLA cradling a baby in her right arm and holding the hand of a small black girl.
WHITE WOMAN
Hold hands! Quickly! Quickly! We’ll march smartly through the side doors!
WHITE MAN
They’re breaking the windows!
PRISCILLA
Come along! Come along! This way!
Riot Page 2