Thirdly, on the first day of school, the children had been given books; this was a privilege for them because some of them had never even held a book before. But these books had been passed down from white schools for 10 years and so were in very poor conditions. Stamped on the inside cover of the book was a chart. This chart read out 10 years of who it was given to, what year and the condition of the book. The first four years were excellent, and then the next three years were good, followed by average, poor and finally very poor. There is a column on the chart for the race of the student and all the way through it is white until it gets to “very poor” where it turns to “nigra”. As you can see the black schools were given handy-me-downs from white schools, and all of them were in poor condition.
Furthermore, Mr. Morrison was working on the railroad and got into a fight with some white men. He beat them up “pretty bad”. So he got fired but they didn’t. This is rather unfair because the white men were also in the fight and should have been sacked too. Or all of them should have been allowed to keep their jobs.
John Henry Berry, Beacon and Samuel Berry were burned alive outside their own house. This was due to the accusation of John Henry flirting with a white woman named Sallie Ann. This was in fact a false allegation. John Henry died whilst Beacon and Samuel Berry are recovering from extremely bad burns. In the book it describes Mr Berry; “The face has no nose and the head no hair; the skin was scarred, burned, and the lips were wizened black, like charcoal.” As you can see in this description they were burned very badly and the Wallace’s laughed about it. The white men think it as funny and do not really think of them as people, more as animals.
Sam Tatum was “tarred and feathered” because Mr Tatum told Mr Barnett that he didn’t give him all the groceries he asked and paid for. Mr Barnett said he did add all the things that were on the list, and when Mr Tatum asked if he could see the list Mr Barnett asked him if he was calling him a liar. Mr Tatum said, “Yessuh, I guess I is!” In those times a black man was not allowed to call a white man a liar and so Mr Tatum broke this. But of course tar is awfully hard to take off and when you do take it off it will peel your skin too.
Big Ma took Stacey, T.J. and Cassie to Strawberry to the market and also to take T.J. to the Barnett’s Mercantile. While they were in the market field Cassie pointed out to Big Ma that they were all the way at the end of the field and no-one would be able to see them. The white people’s wagons were right at the front and if anyone wanted to come to the Logan’s wagon, by the time they got there they would have “bunions on their soles and corns on their toes.”
Additionally in Strawberry, when Cassie was in the Barnett’s Mercantile Mr Barnett was taking a long time to see to T.J.’s list. He kept on going to help white people and then came back and didn’t even put in another item when he started to help a little white girl. When Cassie saw this she became slightly angry and thought Mr. Barnett had forgotten about T.J.’s list. Cassie went to tell Mr. Barnett of T.J.’s list and tugged at his sleeve. He recoiled and told her to wait. Then she got even angrier and told him that he had taken ages for their turn. That’s when Mr Barnett screamed, “Whose little nigger is this?” Stacey dragged Cassie out of the store and told her to shush. Mr Barnett was not being fair to the children and was treating them horribly.
Once Cassie was outside she accidently bumped into Lillian Jean. She didn’t want to create a fuss so when Lillian Jean asked her to apologize she did. But Lillian Jean wanted more; so she ordered Cassie into the road. Of course Cassie wasn’t going to do that. When Lillian Jean went to grab Cassie’s arm, Cassie pulled it back but someone caught it and held it tight so it hurt. This was Mr Simms. He shoved her into the road and Cassie fell on her bottom. He told her to listen to Lillian Jean when she asked Cassie to get in the road. He asked her to apologize and Cassie said she had. When Mr Simms jumped into the road Cassie got really scared and thought her would hit her but he didn’t. Then she got up and ran to the wagon but somebody caught her, it was Big Ma. Then Big Ma told Cassie to apologize but Cassie still argued. Once again Big Ma told her and this time Cassie did. But Mr Simms demanded her to say ‘Miz’ before his daughter’s name. And with a “painful tear” Cassie did. You can tell how upset she was because in the book it says; “No day in all my life had been as cruel as this one.”
Lastly, in the final chapters T.J. had become ‘friends’ with R.W. and Melvin. But the Simms boys used this to their advantage. They would laugh behind T.J.’s back but not in front of him. Then one day they forced him to break into the Barnett’s Mercantile and stole the pearl handle pistol. Also Mr and Mrs Barnett were left for dead. T.J. got all the blame and the Simms stood there watching when the Wallace’s came for T.J., T.J. got sent to jail and was to go to court while the Simms boys were left free.
In conclusion, all white people had superiority over the black community. They didn’t treat them with respect, except a few (example; Jeremy and Mr Jamison). Blacks had to call white people Miss or Mr. And white people made the law not blacks. They could hang a black for any reason, or no reason at all and no questions were asked. Black people were treated unfairly and unjustly.
Roll Of Thunder, Hear My Cry.
