ABSTRACT
Just as Charley Burley, a natural middleweight boxer, fought and defeated much larger men, playwright August Wilson took on powerful critics. This chapter uses the boxing metaphor to analyze Wilson’s reputation for standing his ground against blatant cultural insensitivity, ignorance, and sheer racism aimed at him personally, his ideology, or his plays. He was just as adamant in defense of his boldly Afrocentric views with friends seated at a bar or in front of an interviewer as he was with reporters at a press event or attendees at a national conference.
