March 23, 2012

HOMEWORK DUE MONDAY!
8-3: Read to page 110 (until the middle of "November 24)
8-4: Read to page 133 (until "December 2")
8-1: Read to page 120 (until "November 25")
8-9: Read to page 110 (until the middle of "November 24)
8-2: Read to page 120 (until "November 25")

For those who have yet to buy the book or turn in a permission slip:
Elements of Literature, "Drummer Boy of Shiloh"
Read pages 203-208
Answer questions 1-7 on page 212

John decides to leave New Orleans and travel to Mississippi to see what it's really like in what many consider the most racist state in America. Sterling is very nervous of the idea and tries to dissuade (or talk out of) John from going, warning him that there's a good chance that he'll be seriously injured or even killed if he goes.

He goes to the bus station and attempts to buy a bus ticket with a $10 bill, but the white receptionist refuses to break the bill. Confused, John persists and the woman finally gives him his ticket, but she throws his change on the counter and gives him a disgusted "hate stare," something John has not experienced yet.

As the bus ride begins, he meets a black man named Cristophe who seems to really dislike the black race. He talks about how "ignorant" and poorly-dressed black people are and it seems as though he would rather be white. He's very loud and begins to embarrass the other black passengers.

Halfway through the trip, the driver pulled into a small town for a ten-minute restroom break, but the driver refused to let any of the black passengers off to use the facilities. Bill, a friend that John had met on the bus, made it past the driver and walked on without responding to the racist chants of the driver. Angry that they couldn't use the restroom, a few of the passengers agree that everyone should use the back of the bus as a restroom, with one of them actually urinating in the back. An older man disagrees, saying that if they do it, "it'll just give them something else to hold against us."

When the bus finally arrives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, John calls his friend and fellow writer, P.D. East, to come pick him up. P.D. East is a white newspaper editor who advocates for civil rights in that newspaper, which has created some enemies for him among southern white folks. P.D. and John drive back to New Orleans and meet with Dean Gandy, the head of Dillard University, one of two all-black universities in New Orleans. They discuss the voting rights of blacks in the South and P.D. tells a joke about a black man trying to vote:

The white man taking his application gave him the standard literacy tests:
"What is the first line of the thirty-second paragraph of the United States Constitution?"
The applicant answered perfectly.
"Name the eleventh President of the United States and his entire cabinet."
The applicant answered correctly.
Finally, unable to trip him up, the white man asked, "Can you read and write?"
The applicant wrote his name and was then handed a newspaper in Chinese to test his reading. He studied it carefully for a time.
"Well, can you read it?"
"I can read the headline, but I can't make out the body text."
Incredulous, the white man said: "You can read that headline?"
"Oh, yes, I've got the meaning all right."
"What's it say?"
"It says this is one Negro in Mississippi who's not going to get to vote this year."