Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Paintings by Robert J. Schiffhauer. Graphic by Fred Lambuth - THE BATTALION Charles Gordone, the first African-American Pulitzer Prize winner, integrated his diverse background into theater with his versatility. [Click to enlarge]

Media Credit: COURTESY PHOTO [Click to enlarge]

More than a decade ago in 206D Blocker, Charles Gordone straightened his Italian suit and tugged on the brim of his cowboy hat. Gordone made Aggieland his home for eight years, pursuing his mission to empower and represent different ethnicities on and off the stage.

"He didn't believe in being politically correct," said Susan Gordone, his widow. "He believed in integration."

Since his death in 1995, Susan has been rallying for Gordone to receive recognition in Aggieland for his work as an actor, director, writer, activist and educator. She said it is important to honor him at Texas A&M and bring his legacy to the increasingly diversifying campus.

"Since his death, other prestigious national institutions have embraced his legacy, but A&M has yet to integrate his legacy, and his story is still not memorialized in a permanent way at A&M," she said. "Here we are now 13 years after he died, and his spirit is still very much on this campus, and A&M has an opportunity to build bridges with these institutions by honoring Charles' memory."

Gordone was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1925, and grew up in Elkhart, Ind. He attended Los Angeles City College, earning a bachelor's in theater.

"I am a combination of three races and five nationalities," Gordone once said. "Just call me a North American mestizo."

After serving in the U.S. Army Air Forces, Gordone moved to New York, where he acted and directed on and off Broadway. In the 1950s, he succeeded in bringing innovation to the stage by integrating the American theater.

"He continued to challenge racial and cultural conceptions of the American theater," Susan said. "He brought in acting opportunities for blacks, Latinos and Asians by integrating them logically in modern American classics of [Tennessee] Williams, [Eugene] O'Neill, [Arthur] Miller and [John] Steinbeck."

His first play, "No Place to Be Somebody," won the Pulitzer Prize in 1970 and became the first off-Broadway play to win the award. He was acclaimed as the first African-American to win the Pulitzer for drama.

The play tackled themes such as racial tension when the main character, an African-American man, attempts to overcome a white mobster. It was sparked by Gordone's time spent bartending in Greenwich Village, N.Y.

Susan said that Gordone described the culmination of seven years of writing as being a play "about country folk who had migrated to the big city seeking the urban myth of success, only to find disappointment, despair and death."

One hundred years after it opened its doors, the formerly segregated A&M invited Gordone to the University to help advance integration. Gordone taught playwriting and literature survey at A&M and was an educator whose love for the stage was reflected in his wardrobe of colorful costumes.

"He had a rare combination of not only extraordinary talent, but enormous fortitude," Susan said. "He felt that in all of his achievements, he was given the accolades, but not the privileges, and so he had to keep transcending the racial divisions of society."

Susan said commemorating the legacy of Gordone was imperative. "People like Charles made it a lot easier for us," she said. "And that's why we need to remember them - so we don't go backwards, and so we can build upon their work."

Robert Schiffhauer, an A&M architecture professor and artist, echoed Susan's desire to memorialize Gordone.

"I think we need to keep reminding people of his work," he said. "The reason I'm doing all these portraits is so people won't be forgotten. These people are part of our history. They had an impact."

Schiffhauer never met Gordone, but in October 2004, through the inspiration of news clippings, Susan and photographs, he unveiled a 12-portrait tribute to Gordone. The exhibit, "Legacy of a Seer," premiered at A&M's J. Wayne Stark Gallery and showcased artwork that illustrated Gordone's interest in the West by painting Gordone as the western hero he wrote about before he died - the cowboy.

Befriending cowboys and learning their way of life enabled Gordone to embrace the multicultural history of the West. When he died, he was given a traditional cowboy ceremony at sunset, and his ashes were spread over the Texas Panhandle.

"What he found in the western revival is there were no divisions," Susan said. "The cowboy code judges on ability, not on color."

Gordone said in 1985 that division was dangerous and that true identity and common ground was necessary.

"You must find yourself in everybody and not fall into the polarizing traps of class, race, religion and politics," he said.

Susan said realizing the extent of Gordone's efforts will benefit the A&M community.

"He was a person of national and international stature that was invited to the University because of that distinction, and to not memorialize him is to impoverish the campus," she said.

Though the achievements of Gordone continue to make a lasting effect on both the entertainment industry and across racial lines, Susan said she hopes that his imprint will soon become etched into A&M history.

"His story will be embraced," she said. "It will not only be a fulfillment of my responsibility as his widow, but more importantly, the legacy he left behind can finally be embraced and built upon by future Aggies."

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