Beatty ’s work explored themes around the struggles and everyday life of African Americans . Many of his pieces focused on his own “ personal statements about alienation , racial discrimination , and the hardships of urban life ” . In the film '' Conversations with Contemporary Masters of American Modern Dance '' Beatty talks about some of his more well-known choreographic works . According to Beatty '' Southern Landscape '' , a five-part dance , is a description of the time right after the Reconstruction period in the South . The dance explores an event in history described in Howard Fast 's novel '' Freedom Road '' . The plot centers around a group of black and white farmers who had happily formed a community together before being literally destroyed by the Ku Klux Klan . After the slaughter , people went into the fields at night to retrieve the bodies of their loved ones . The most well-known and famous solo section of the dance , titled '' Mourner ’s Bench '' is about a man returning from recovering a body , and reflecting on the ideas of hope and strength
an event in history
Rosewood massacre
Talley Beatty