BAM Affiliation In late October, 1863, a year-and-a-half before he assassinated Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth performed at BAM. Three years later Frederick Douglass pressed the predominantly white Brooklyn audience to challenge the racist policies of the newly instated president, Andrew Johnson. The tightly interwoven relationship between North American politics and the theater unfolded on stage at BAM in complex, often conflicting narratives around the American Civil War. The Brooklyn Eagle described the audience at BAM after Douglass delivered his 1866 address The Assassination and Its Lessons: "A cry was raised from the audience of 'three cheers for President Johnson.' A storm of hisses instantly arose and then a storm of cheers when someone from the stage called-'three cheers for equal rights.' The audience then quietly dispersed."