The Glory Field: January 1964

The original name of Delaney High had been Calhoun, but when a new school was built, it had taken the name of Calhoun, and the old school, which had become predominantly black two years after school integration, had been renamed Martin R. Delaney High.

There were six thin white columns on the front porch, three on either side of the double doors. The doors opened onto a long, mirrored foyer, which led to a spiral staircase.

Mrs. Chase was a pretty woman with a small, almost puckish mouth that spread into a warm smile as she appeared from a room off the foyer.

Both women were pretty, Mrs. Chase in a more sophisticated way than Mandy. The smooth skin of her face seemed almost as if it were made of porcelain.

She kept looking at him and smiling and smiling. He had tried to think about a movie he had seen and about his math homework, but the only thing that came to his mind with clarity was the fact that he loved Mandy.

Tommy's father was in his bathrobe, his thin legs ahead of him on the hassock.

An image of the lanky white boy came to Tommy's mind.

"They went to a revival up in North Carolina," Skeeter said.

Tommy had to help carry Skeeter into the hospital. They put him on the gurney, and watched as two nurses in crisp white uniforms rolled him into the emergency room.

"He's so busy trying to please the white folks, he can't even write a headline. He thinks he's a white man running that paper up in North Carolina, that Asheville paper. He even told me he wants to be a moderate. You understand that? A black man who thinks he's a moderate?"

"I thought we weren't supposed to be signifying," Tommy's father said, smiling.
"I'm not signifying. I'm telling what God loves, and that is the pure D truth," his wife said.

"I spoke to some of the trustees at the school, and they were really pleased that you were thinking about the offer to come to Johnson City State," Mr. Chase said.

"Well, it doesn't really matter. They're good girls and good students. The only things that can stop it is if any of you kids get into trouble or if the governor runs into a political snag, but I don't think that's going to happen. Just make sure you don't get caught up in any demonstrations or anything," Mr. Chase said.

Whites and Negroes worked together in the streets and in the market and had lunch together from brown paper sacks on the levee, but it was always the whites who paid the Negroes.

Three matrons from the church, all dressed in white, were sitting near the window.

The right side of Skeeter's face was swollen, the right eye was bulging and shut. The flesh around the eye was dark purple. His lower jaw seemed to jut out at a sharp angle, and there was dried blood in the corner of his mouth.

It was violence that was needed to keep things the way they were, blacks apart from whites, blacks forced perpetually to take the leftovers of white life.

What sleep came did so in fitful starts and ended in the early dawn with his mother's voice calling his father by the name he had been known by as a boy.

"What I called everybody together for"—Sheriff Moser toyed with his keys as he spoke—"was to announce a new policy of not allowing any demonstrations of any nature within two miles of this library. This is to secure public safety. In the future, demonstrations and marches can be held away from the downtown area, in the less populated areas, but not on public property."

Mr. Caro spoke in a slow drawl that Tommy knew was put on.

"No, it's about public safety for Negroes as well as whites," the sheriff answered. "That's all we're trying to do. We're putting together a series of meetings between local businessmen and some prominent Negroes to see if we can talk out solutions to some of our problems instead of just jumping into protesting."

"If you start making a speech here, then I'm going to construe it as a demonstration, which I just said was illegal!"

When they had crossed the bridge from Johnson City to Curry Island, his mother seemed to relax. But his father was still vigilant, still checking the rearview mirror, watching any car that came too close to them.

"Lord, let us look at this day, at this time of tribulation, and rejoice in the struggle to achieve righteousness for all Your children. For it is truly Thee who has created heaven and earth and each and every creature. And it is truly Thee who has told us in the Holy Bible that we are created in Thy holy image..."

Later, when Sheriff Moser had come in and taken the gun away from Bobby Joe, he asked Tommy if he had learned anything. Tommy had wanted to stand up and look him defiantly in the eyes, but his legs wouldn't work, and he was so tired he could hardly even lift his head.