Lloyd Snook

There was one really interesting thing that happened that year, my junior year.  We had, through the Player’s Club, we were doing a one-act play, and for the statewide One-Act Play Festival.  And the one-act play we were doing was called The Lonesome Train.  And it was about how both Black community and the white community responded to the death of Abraham Lincoln.  And it was a musical one-act play.  And we had the white folks on one side of the stage, and Black folks on the other side of the stage.  And whoever was in the spotlight at that point, you knew which side you were dealing with.  And the white side, I was one of the White kids who was involved.  And we were supposed to be a bunch of farmers, Kansas.  And I remember we had a square dance going on.  I remember I had a solo, my first solo as a singer.  But the Black setting was in a church service, where the preacher of the service was Nehemiah Brown.  And Nehemiah comes from a family with preachers.  And he knew how to be a preacher, and he was really good.  And we had some wonderful singers on both sides.  But it was, obviously we had to practice this thing for a couple of months.  And we were working together for a couple of months.  And it wasn’t just okay, we’re going to practice the white guys today, and we’re going to practice the Black guys tomorrow.  We were all there all the time.  And it was a very positive bonding experience in that way.