The Day They Came to Arrest the Book by Nat Hentoff

Author:Nat Hentoff [Hentoff, Nat]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-76523-9
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2010-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

XI

In class the next morning, Nora Baines, pacing in front of her desk, was saying: “Now, Huck likes to be free, to be on his own, to just be floating down the Mississippi on the raft with Jim. Yet as much as he enjoys Jim’s company, Huck often speaks of being lonely. Jim and the river aren’t quite enough. Even though nearly every time Huck comes in contact with civilization, things turn out badly, he still needs, somehow, to be part of society. The question is whether someone like Huck can fit into society and, at the same time, stay as free as he has to be. And that brings us back to de Tocqueville—”

“I am not going to hear any more of this.” Gordon McLean stood up. “I don’t have to stay and be forced to hear about a book that insults me and everybody who looks like me.”

“Gordon,” Miss Baines said, “as you know, this book is now being reviewed to see if it should continue being part of this course. But until that decision is made, I am going to continue to teach it. You do not condemn a book, any more than you would a person, before there’s a trial. If you would rather not be in class when we discuss Huckleberry Finn, I will assign you another book that the two of us will work on.”

“No,” Gordon McLean said. “I am not going to be part of this course at all until that book is gone. Gone without a trace.” He looked around the room. “Well? Am I the only one who feels that way?”

Five of the other six black students rose and moved toward the door, as did three white students, including Kate.

“Hey,” Barney turned around in his seat and called after the protesters, “for God’s sake, this is a book about two people, one white and one black, who like each other a hell of a lot and who stick by each other. Is that what you’re walking out on?”

“And the white guy always uses the word ‘nigger’ when he talks about the black guy,” Gordon McLean said sarcastically from the door. “You know something, Barney Roth? You’re one of those whites who talk a good game about being against prejudice and all that, but it’s all talk. When the time comes to move, to do something, like walk out of this racist class, you just sit there. Talking. Talking. Well, I’ve heard enough talking. All my life, I’ve heard enough talking.”

McLean and the eight other students left. Miss Baines rubbed her forehead, rubbed her chin, and looked at Steve Turney, a thin, bespectacled black student who remained.

“You want to know why I didn’t go with them?” Turney said. “Simple. I haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m the only person I allow to make up my mind. And I want to know some more about this Huckleberry Finn before I do make up my mind. So let’s go ahead.”

“This whole thing is about us,” Kate would begin her speech whenever she descended on a group of students.

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