When we lived in Charlotte, NC in the late 1990s an amazing and eye opening event happened one October day. We were invited to a work party with Jim's colleagues at a hunting lodge about 45 minutes outside of town, in the 'sticks' I suppose you could call it. It started in the afternoon and included dinner and partying into the evening (and no we weren't actually hunting).
As dinner wound up and the sun started to go down a few people gathered their things and got ready to go home. We implored them to stay and enjoy the nice warm bonfire. No, they said, incredibly matter of factly, they had to start heading out because they were black and driving nice cars and it wasn't 'smart' for them to be driving in these parts after dark. They would undoubtedly be stopped by the police they said shaking their heads. What was almost more disturbing to this northeastern raised girl, wasn't that they were going to be stopped (which believe me was horrific enough) but that they took it in stride, it was just the way it was in the South, perhaps the price they had to pay for daring to be wealthy African American bankers. This affected me for months afterwards (years I suppose, I still talk about it). In almost the year 2000 this was still happening in our country, anywhere in our country. It made me question our choice of places to live and help me decide we'd leave and move up north as soon as the opportunity presented itself.
I say this because when reading this incredibly moving and powerful little book it's hard to believe that Gaines' story took place in the late 70s and not the 1940s. It takes place in a sugarcane plantation in Louisiana where, while not technically slaves, blacks were beholden to whites for their jobs and their homes. They are beaten, lynched and humiliated for not 'behaving' the way they should. When the story opens a white man lays dead in the grass and when the sheriff is called to investigate he finds a young woman, Candy and about 20 old black men standing over him with guns, each confessing to his murder. They are there to protect one man, whom Candy, one of the owners of the plantation, was practically raised by. She is fiercely loyal and will not give in and let him be arrested.
The old men have spent their entire lives backing down and giving in. One tells the story of his young brother who was in a race with a white man.. "I saw my brother win that race. But he wasn't supposed to win, he was supposed to lose. We all knowed he was supposed to lose. Me, his own brother, knowed he was supposed to lose. He was supposed to lose years ago and because he didn't lose like a nigger is supposed to lose, they beat him. And they beat him and they beat him. And I didn't do nothing but stand there and watch them beat my brother down to the ground."
Many more stories come out of their mouths; of sisters who were raped, land taken away ... 'bused me if I did it right and 'bused me if I did it wrong - my whole life. And i took it. But this is their moment, they were done with running and ready to die over this, knowing that the white man who was murdered had a father who would be on his way to find out who killed his 'boy'.
I first read this book in college in the late 80s... 10 years after the events of the book and 10 years before our experience in Charlotte. It makes me wonder how far we've come, or not come. Eloquently written, this book should be a must read for everyone.
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