I don't know if I'd call it a moral lesson. Certainly,
Amiri Baraka had a point of view that he communicated clearly through his play. The
play is a terrific example of protest drama, a style popular in the
1960s.
Baraka establishes two iconic characters - Lula,
representing white culture, and Clay, representing the non-violent/assimilationist black
culture. He then puts them in conflict with each other; Lula challenges Clay time after
time on his assimilation into white society. When Clay is ready to fight back, she
kills him.
The message Baraka sends is that assimilation is
not the answer, and that the non-violent approach to the civil rights movement is not
going to work. Bluntly put: blacks should strike first before whites kill
them.
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