The Flag Never Touched the Ground by Kekla Magoon

Author:Kekla Magoon [Magoon, Kekla]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pushkin Press
Published: 2020-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘Yeah!’ Chester exclaimed. ‘They can’t get away with this.’

William wasn’t so sure. It might be wrong, but he’d seen powerful white men do pretty much anything they wanted to Black men, no matter what they had promised. It would be a hundred, a thousand times worse to imagine what the government or the army could do to a handful of Black soldiers. Perhaps they should be grateful they’d been paid at all.

‘Men, gather round,’ Douglass instructed. ‘Let’s have a little talk about what we should do.’

‘This is horse crap!’ someone yelled.

‘Total nonsense!’ cried another man.

‘Then what can we do?’ Douglass interjected patiently.

Nothing, William feared. They’re in charge.

‘Next time the paymaster comes we refuse the money!’ someone shouted.

A disapproving rumble went up from the crowd. ‘Boo,’ said the men, as one.

‘Naw, hear me,’ the guy said. ‘We gotta make sure they know they still owe us. Make sure they know we rejected this half-measure outright.’

Sergeant Major Douglass patted his hands in the air to calm them. ‘Indeed, it is wrong what they have done. This man is right. We must stand firm, and demand they pay us what they owe us.’ Douglass paused. ‘In fact…’ He let the word trail out, like he was thinking about it. ‘We have to give this money back. We can’t have them coming to say we altered our agreement.’

The booing from the men grew louder, with a low hiss underneath.

‘Think about it,’ Douglass said. ‘We accept half of what they owe us this time, they’re gonna come back with half again next time.’

‘You think they’re paying white soldiers half?’ someone called out. ‘Heck no! They’d walk, and so should we.’

‘We are not quitting,’ Douglass said. ‘We can protest, but the cause at hand is worth our fight. We’ve already served, and they already owe us. Quitting is not the answer.’

‘Give it back, then!’

‘Yeah, give it back!’

The murmurs of distress slowly gave way to passionate shouts of protest.

The sergeant major paced before the men. ‘White soldiers get thirteen dollars plus a clothing allowance, not minus. Did you know that?’

The men booed.

‘This is all kinds of unfair.’ Douglass raised his fist. ‘I say, we boycott.’

‘We should take no pay?’ someone shouted. ‘No way! We fighting to not be slaves no more.’

‘Exactly,’ answered Douglass. ‘We are not enslaved. We don’t have to take this pittance. We deserve to be paid.’

‘That’s just perfect for them,’ another man piped up. ‘They got us volunteering to not get paid now? Shoot.’

Douglass shook his head. ‘Refusing the pay doesn’t mean never getting paid. It means holding out for what they promised. It means not compromising, not accepting their lies.’

William crouched among the others, his heart beating hard. The cash in his hand was a lot of money. Money to care for his father. Money to help free his mother. Giving it back was unthinkable. And yet…

The army had broken their word. The government had either lied outright about their plans to pay equally, or they had decided to renege. Either option was bad.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.