He has just recently caused a stir at work by asking why Black men are not allowed to drive the trucks and filing a complaint with the union. When the play opens in 1957, Troy is 53 years old and working as a garbage collector. Troy fathered his first son, Lyons, and then spent 15 years in prison after a killing someone during a robbery. He left home when he was 14 after a confrontation with his abusive father. Troy Maxson was once a great player in the Negro baseball leagues, but he was not allowed to join the major leagues because he was Black. Discrimination was still legal in employment and housing, and schools in Black areas were much less funded than White schools, making it very difficult for African Americans to receive a proper education and escape poverty. The Civil Rights Act was signed into law in 1957, making it federally illegal to suppress voter rights, but for African Americans, opportunities for advancement remained scarce. Rosa Parks’ protest and the lynching of Emmett Till occurred in 1955. Eisenhower sent federal troops to accompany them. Schools had only been legally desegregated since 1955, and in 1957, the Little Rock Nine were not allowed to integrate into a White school until President Dwight D. Fences is set in 1957, 10 years after Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play Major League Baseball and in the midst of the civil rights movement in the United States.
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