Zooman and the Sign by Charles Fuller
"Zooman and the Sign" is a powerful play by Charles Fuller set in Philadelphia, centering on the tragic aftermath of a gang-related shooting that takes the life of a young girl named Jinny. The narrative follows the grief-stricken Tate family—Reuben, Rachel, and their son Victor—as they grapple with the loss of their daughter and the silence of their community regarding the crime. The character of Lester Johnson, known as "Zooman," embodies a hardened persona, unapologetic for his violent actions, which starkly contrasts with the Tates' anguish and desire for justice.
As the family seeks closure, they face internal conflicts and community resistance, especially after Reuben displays a sign calling out the neighbors' silence and complicity. The play explores themes of familial bonds, social responsibility, and the cyclical nature of violence, ultimately suggesting that justice is elusive. The tension escalates as neighborhood dynamics shift, revealing deep-seated fears and frustrations surrounding crime and retaliation. Fuller's work invites audiences to reflect on the environment that breeds such violence, highlighting the struggles of both victims and perpetrators within a fractured community. The play concludes with a poignant reminder that violence perpetuates itself, leaving lasting scars on all involved.
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Zooman and the Sign by Charles Fuller
Excerpted from an article in Magill’s Survey of American Literature, Revised Edition
First produced: 1980 (first published, 1982)
Type of work: Play
The Work
The play, set in Philadelphia, begins with a rapping monologue delivered by the jive-talking “Zooman,” Lester Johnson, a teenage thug who has just killed a little girl in a gang shootout. “She was in the wrong place at the wrong time,” he says, expressing no remorse for having killed the twelve-year-old. Zooman’s monologues continue to punctuate the action, but the main dramatic focus is upon the angry and grief-stricken family of Zooman’s victim.
Reuben Tate (a bus driver who has been estranged from his wife because of an affair with another woman) and his wife, Rachel, are mourning the death of their child Jinny; they are joined in their grief by Uncle Emmett and their fifteen-year-old son, Victor. Emmett is a hothead who argues for revenge, “an eye for an eye,” but Reuben is more restrained, exclaiming, “We’re not head hunters!” Rachel wrongly blames herself for having allowed the child to play outside. Victor says nothing in this argument but asks his friend Russell if he can find him a gun, which Russell agrees to do.
When a neighbor, Donald Jackson, stops by to offer condolences, the audience learns that Reuben had been a light-heavyweight boxer and something of a local celebrity of one time. Jackson tells Reuben that no one on the block would tell the police that they had seen anything. The Tate family knows that there were, in fact, witnesses, and they are disturbed by their neighbors’ silence.
In his second monologue, Zooman confesses that “I shot the little bitch ’cause I felt like it!” The audience learns that Zooman and his friend Stockholm served time for raping a schoolteacher, a crime that Zooman claims they did not commit. It is later revealed that Zooman has committed other crimes as well, including armed robbery, and that he is a hard and brutal case. He seems to be the egotistical personification of evil.
Meanwhile, Reuben has attempted to contact the neighbors to find a witness to the shooting, but they are all afraid to come forward. Ash Boswell, a family friend, explains that “black people don’t like to deal with the police.” The family frustration is heightened because Reuben had been seeing another woman, and Rachel knows about this. For the present, however, they are united in their grief.
Jinny wanted her parents back together. Ironically, her death has given them a common purpose, but the parents do not agree upon what course of action should be taken. Rachel wants to move to another neighborhood, but Reuben knows they cannot afford such a move and seems determined to improve their present neighborhood. They are devastated that neighbors they have known for fifteen years will not come forward to help them identify Zooman as the shooter. Victor has heard rumors that Zooman did the shooting. Reuben has a sign made to hang on his porch, a sign that reads: “The killers of our daughter Jinny are free on the streets because our neighbors will not identify them.” The sign proves to be controversial; many of the neighbors are offended.
In act 2, Russell advises Victor not to go after Zooman. He tells Victor that the neighbors are angry about the sign because “it brings the whole neighborhood down.” Russell regrets having given Victor the weapon and is reluctant to provide ammunition. When neighbors begin throwing bricks at the family’s front door in protest, Victor brandishes the gun, but his mother disarms him. Reuben and Emmett return from a bar, where they have been in a fight over the sign. Emmett has apparently broken his arm in the fight and needs to be taken to the hospital.
At the funeral service, some people write threats about the sign in the register, and tension builds. The Tates suspect that Jackson or his wife might have witnessed the killing. Jackson denies this but tells Reuben some of the neighbors are organizing a march to tear the sign down. The police call to say that one of the culprits, the fifteen-year-old Stockholm, has been apprehended, adding that he has confessed and named Zooman as the murderer. Rachel tells Reuben that she wants him to leave if he will not take the sign down. Finally, Zooman comes to take down the sign himself and is shot through the window by Uncle Emmett.
Justice is done, perhaps, and Zooman no doubt deserves his fate, but the point is made that his death will not bring Jinny back to life. The play also makes it clear that Zooman himself was a victim of his environment; all that sets him apart from Jinny’s brother, Victor, is that Victor has had a stronger home life. The play ends with another sign. “Here, Lester Johnson was killed. He will be missed by family and friends. He was known as Zooman.” Hence violence breeds violence. The killing has continued, and the neighborhood has not really been improved.
Bibliography
Anadolu-Okur, Nilgun. Contemporary African American Theater: Afrocentricity in the Works of Larry Neal, Amiri Baraka, and Charles Fuller. New York: Garland, 1997.
Banham, Martin, ed. The Cambridge Guide to World Theatre. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Baraka, Amiri. “The Descent of Charlie Fuller into Pulitzerland and the Need for African-American Institutions.” Black Literature Forum 17 (Summer, 1983): 51-54.
Draper, James P., ed. Black Literature Criticism. Vol. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1992.
Fuller, Charles. “Pushing Beyond the Pulitzer.” Interview by Frank White. Ebony 38 (March, 1983): 116.
Fuller, Charles. “When Southern Blacks Went North.” Interview by Helen Dudar. The New York Times, December 18, 1988, p. C5.
Harriot, Esther. “Charles Fuller: The Quest for Justice.” In American Voices: Five Contemporary Playwrights in Essays and Interviews. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 1988.
Savran, David. In Their Own Words: Contemporary American Playwrights. New York: Theater Communications Group, 1988.