Treadwell wrote Machinal in 1928, several decades before the civil rights movement changed the landscape of race in America. The play contains two notable instances of racial tension. During Helen’s court hearing, she describes her husband’s murderers as “big dark-looking men.” One suspects that Helen invented such characters in order to play on the jury’s prejudices and fears about African American men. In prison, Helen hears an African American man singing a spiritual. She finds the words more soothing than those of the priest because, in her words, “I understand him. He is condemned. I understand him.” In this moment, Treadwell points to the overlapping plight of women and African Americans in America.