Monologue from Fires in the Mirror

Leonard Jeffries in Fires in the Mirror is a controversial intelligent man who speaks in the play about the work he did with Alex Haley on the famous book and television series Roots . After going through extreme success in his private education , Leonard Jeffries began working and studying in Europe and Africa and then took a job as a professor of African American studies at the City University of New York (NYU . At this time , he had developed a great interest in working as an advocate and supporter for black social progress and

movement , and he had begun to boost some of his main principal theories about race and race relations and issues . He began to be criticized for his beliefs that there are genetic and mental differences between blacks and whites , and that rich European Jews had an important role in managing the slave trade . A New York Times editorial in 1990 declared Leonard Jeffries as a reckless professor and a conspiratorial theorist , and between 1992 and 1994 Jeffries underwent a court fight with the City University of New York over his title of head authority of the African American Studies Department of said university . The scenes he makes in Anna Deveare Smith 's novel makes him question whether he is an anti-Semite explores his past and present life and the views he maintains of himself and plays with the feeling or sensation of losing and discovering African roots

Works Cited

Smith , Anna Deavere "Fires in the Mirror . New...