Memphis

Joan continues art classes at Rhodes College. She is the only high school student in her class. Miriam insists that after her graduation, she should study to be a doctor. She tells Joan that she does not want her to be poor. She pleads with her to be a doctor as she cannot think of any “Black woman famous artist” (161). However, art is the most important thing for Joan, and she wants to earn her living through it.

Her mentor suggests she apply to an art program at London’s Royal College of Art. Joan realizes that she “was born to be an artist” (163). She wonders why Miriam does not believe in her.

One day during a drive, Joan explains to August what her professor suggested. The application is due at Christmas, and it would be for a fellowship. Joan must create a portfolio, and she wants to paint all the women in the Douglass neighborhood, including her aunt. After some thinking, August confesses to Joan her love of music. She tells Joan that she will help to persuade her mother. August feels somebody in the family should employ their gift. She advises her to practice, and she suggests that they hide her paintings in Derek’s room.

Joan starts working on her portfolio. Her theme is “women,” and she must make 10 portraits. She still doubts herself and thinks she might not succeed in her application.

Once a month, Joan sketches Miss Dawn, who always tells her stories about her grandparents. She also tells her that she must dig up Derek’s comb. Joan tries not to think of him. She now moves freely around the house, but she cannot erase him from it. One night, Joan unearths the comb from the backyard and repeatedly spits on it.

Joan shows her professor a portrait of August and a portrait of Miss Dawn. He tells her she is ready to apply for college.

Miriam is at the hospital when she sees the terrorist attacks on television. Miriam sees “buildings as tall as titans on fire” (170). She has not seen Jax in six years, and she hears that a plane crashed into the Pentagon, which is Jax’s current posting. By that time, Jax was a lieutenant colonel.

Miriam fears that the family could not endure another loss. She recalls Derek’s trial. He was charged with murder. Miriam accompanied August to testify in court. Derek never pleaded guilty, but the judge immediately associated him with the Douglass gang due to the weapons he owned. Miriam and August hoped that he would not get the death penalty. The best hope for Derek was a life sentence. Miriam remembers August being “utterly spent.” In her testimony, August said that Derek’s father was evil and abused his son with harsh discipline to make him tough. Scared of his father, Derek would hide in cupboards or closets. Miriam recalls when Jax punched her and believes she understands Derek a little. Derek’s father left one day with no explanation. Someone stabbed him in a fight and he died. Derek would not let August touch him after his father was gone. Miriam realized that she and her sister were “battling terrors.” Thinking of Derek, Miriam’s emotions shift between “pity and loathing” (176).

Miriam remembers the first time Jax hit her after he returned from the Gulf War. She was astonished and overcome by fear, and she wondered why she didn’t leave sooner. Miriam tries not to hate Derek, but she also cannot forgive Jax. However, listening to the news, she fears that her daughters might grow up without a father.

Joan is awake in the middle of the night due to a storm when the phone rings. It is a call from Derek. Joan thinks of hanging up the phone but eventually accepts the call. She freezes hearing Derek’s “male” and “obtrusive” voice (180). Derek expects August, but when he hears Joan, he says there is something he must tell her. Joan thinks what she could say to hurt him as much as he hurt her. Derek asks how Miriam is.

Miriam graduates. Tension continues to plague her relationship with Joan as she disapproves of Joan’s art endeavor. Meanwhile, Mya decides to be a doctor. She is also gifted in music and plays the guitar well.

Mya suddenly appears at the parlor and grabs the phone from Joan’s hands. She listens to Derek for a while and then hangs up. She tells Joan that Derek wants her to visit him in prison. Joan is reluctant, but Mya says they are both going to skip school in the morning as she will go with her.

Three days have passed since the terrorist attacks. August is certain that Jax is all right. The thought that she may have lost her father devastates Mya and she remains in bed all day. August closes the shop for a week and stays by her niece’s side until Miriam returns from work. At night the people of the neighborhood gather at the North’s home.

A few days pass. One night, August, Miriam, and Joan hear knocking at the door. Miriam and August prepare to defend themselves. August takes a rifle and aims at the door as Miriam opens it. At the door are Jax and his brother Bird.

On the way home from her piano lesson, Miriam observes her reflection in a glass window and thinks she looks like her mother. She always wanted to look like her father and admired her sister’s dark and long body. Despite that, she loves her looks.

Miriam finds Hazel at home, quilting. Hazel tells her that she saw the bodies of the two Black sanitation workers whom the trash compactor crushed. At night, Miriam helps Hazel write a sign for the strike with the phrase “I am a Man” (190). The death of the sanitation workers causes upheaval and anger in Memphis.

After Myron’s death, Hazel returned to work and attended the nursing program in college, one of the first institutions to admit a Black woman. Hazel instilled in Miriam the passion for “revolution.” She participated in civil rights demonstrations, and activists and “leaflets proclaiming the power of Black women, detailing the humanity of Black men” filled their house (190). The women of the neighborhood helped Hazel raise Miriam while she was working. Even though she never met Myron, Miriam missed her father.

When she returns home, Miriam finds many women from the neighborhood sobbing. She sees Hazel distraught, and Miss Dawn tells her that a man assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. The next day, Hazel takes Miriam to her first sit-in protest. Miriam sees in her mother’s face the same rage she has when talking about Myron or every time she hears about white people killing Black people.