Mule Bone

Mule Bone: A Comedy of Negro Life is a play co-written by Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston in 1930. It centers on the rivalry between two men, Jim Weston and Dave Carter, in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, over a woman named Daisy. The central conflict arises when Jim hits Dave with a mule bone after a dispute over who should escort Daisy to church. This incident escalates into a community-wide argument about whether the fight should be resolved through religious or legal means, highlighting tensions and social dynamics within the town.

The play, written in dialect, offers a glimpse into the lives, language, and customs of African Americans in the rural South during the early 20th century. Although Hughes and Hurston collaborated closely on the script, the work became a source of significant conflict between the two authors, ultimately leading to a permanent rift in their friendship and professional relationship. The dispute largely centered around authorship credit and control over the play's production.

Due to the falling out between Hughes and Hurston, Mule Bone remained unproduced during their lifetimes. It finally premiered in 1991, sixty years after it was written, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway. The play is significant not only for its literary merit as a product of two prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance but also for its historical context and the complex issues of race, class, and community it explores. Subsequent productions have helped to solidify its place within the canon of African American literature and theatrical works.