The Amen Corner

Ida Jackson, the young mother from Act I, returns. This time, her baby is notably absent. She collapses in the church, weeping, when Margaret finds her. Ida shouts at Margaret, asking why God would allow her baby to die. Margaret asks Ida to pray in her time of suffering and assures her that she also knows the pain of losing a child. She tells Ida that sometimes the Lord will take away what you want, such as your family, and give you what you need to do His work. Ida retorts, “And do I need—that man sitting home with a busted heart? Do I need—two children in the graveyard?” (66). Ida says that her prayers are no longer good and that she won’t have any more babies because it hurts too much. Something shifts in Margaret as Ida leaves. This time, she tells Ida to go home to her husband, instead of leaving him.

Odessa enters and tries to comfort Margaret, who is having doubts about having ever left Luke. Odessa tries to calm her fears about losing her position and tells her to lie down before service. Shortly after, Brother Boxer, Sister Boxer, and Sister Moore find Odessa in the church. They tell Odessa that they’ve met and that the Lord told them it’s time to fire Margaret. She was not able to keep her husband and son out of sin, so she has (in their eyes) no right to lead the congregation. Odessa tries to remind them how hard Margaret worked to build a life over the last 10 years, but the church members are unmoving. Odessa pleads, “Brothers and sisters, if you knew just a little bit about folks’ lives, what folks go through, and the low, black places they finds their feet, you would have a meeting here this afternoon” (75). None of her arguments, with people who used to be her and Margaret’s friends, are heard. They have decided to tell her privately, instead of in front of the entire congregation and the church from Philadelphia, but the decision is final.

In the kitchen, David stumbles home hungover. Margaret interrogates him, trying to find out if he was out drinking the night before due to peer pressure or Luke’s influence. David insists that it wasn’t peer pressure and that he only talked to Luke once. He finally confesses that he is going to leave: He can’t play at the church anymore, doesn’t want to pray anymore, and doesn’t feel God anymore. Margaret begs him to stay, but David says, “If I stayed here, I’d end up worse than Daddy—because I won’t be doing what I know I got to do” (79). David feels a call toward something outside of the church, and he needs to be a man and go find it for himself. He tells Margaret that his mind is made up, but he will make sure to tell her goodbye before he leaves.

David exits, leaving Margaret and Odessa alone. Odessa tries to rally Margaret to preach one final sermon, a final attempt to win back her congregation. Margaret is too devastated from losing her family to even think about preaching. Odessa reminds her of the vision she had when her baby died, when the voice told her to find a hiding place. Margaret breaks, crying out, “Oh sister, I don’t remember no vision. I just remember that it was dark and I was scared and my baby was dead and I wanted Luke, I wanted Luke, I wanted Luke!” (81). Odessa tells her that she can’t be leaning back on that now and that she has to preach for their sake. If Margaret is fired, she and Odessa will have no place to go. They already don’t have enough money for rent or to finish paying off the Frigidaire that caused so much envy from the church members.

Suddenly, Margaret starts to realize that she has had her priorities wrong for too long. She tells Odessa, “I’m thinking how I throwed away my life […] I’m thinking now—maybe Luke needed it more. Maybe David could have used it better” (82). She tells Odessa she is going to go upstairs to be with Luke. On her way up, she runs into Brother Boxer and confronts him about why he hates her so much. He tells her that she spent years acting holier than anyone else, but she’s no different than any of them. He tells her she is “nothing but a woman who run off from her husband and then started ruling other people’s lives because she didn’t have no man to control her” (84). After years of feeling so unworthy of God’s love, and seeing the congregation practically worship Margaret, he now sees her for what she is: human.

In Luke’s room, Margaret tells Luke that David is leaving. Luke is relieved and happy that his son will be making his own path from now on. The couple finally reconcile and embrace one another in Luke’s final moments. They confess that they still love each other and reminisce about their wedding day. Then, Luke peacefully passes away by Margaret’s side. Margaret laments and regrets the years they spent apart, wishing she could start over and stay with Luke.

Margaret musters the courage to deliver a final sermon. She gets to the pulpit and begins as fiery as ever, daring the congregation to judge her when they don’t know all that she’s been through. As she turns her head to where David used to sit at the piano, something within her breaks. She falls quiet and then turns back to the crowd and tells them she’s missed the entire point of Christianity all these years. All she is meant to do to serve the Lord is “love all His children […] and suffer with them and rejoice with them and never count the cost!” (88). She looks out at the silent crowd and leaves the pulpit. The play ends with her going into Luke’s room one final time.