Wade in the Water by Nyani Nkrumah

Author:Nyani Nkrumah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2022-11-19T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 31

She knew that Ella didn’t understand her thesis topic, but then, she was just a child. Didn’t really understand that she had chosen the topic because it was of interest to her and, of course, a thesis had to have a balanced view. She would be looking at all society, both black and white. In any case, she didn’t have to interview many people for the white side of the story. She already knew what they would say, so the interview would just be a formality. She knew that many would say that all the violence of the civil rights era and before was a way to fight for their rights, their livelihoods. They would talk about their loss of real societal wealth, first after slavery, then after the migration of blacks, their source of cheap labor, to the North. Then came the civil rights movement, which they saw as the last straw. The economic impact of these losses over a few generations was immense. She would write about that in economic terms, the loss of cash and assets over time. In some families, it had taken them back economically by several generations. Her father’s generation was poorer than his father’s, and so on. Of course, many people she would interview in Philadelphia would be angry. That anger would come across in the pages of her thesis, in sharp contrast to the likely optimism Ricksville blacks felt, ushered in by the civil rights movement. The optimism that perhaps they still felt more than two decades later. It would make for an interesting thesis, and of course it would be balanced. One in which the real impact of civil rights on all society in terms of costs and benefits would be laid bare, exposed, for everyone to see. To date, most of the papers and discussions she had read on the topic were so one-sided, focusing only on black southerners. Her thesis would be a masterpiece of analysis. She could already hear the accolades in her mind.

But that was not what kept her up all night. It was, rather, Ella’s question about whether she wanted to get married. That had brought it all back, an old wound, scabbed over. She had become friends with Carl when she was sixteen. Their apartment doors were across from each other. The door to his had a welcome mat and a hanging basket of bright yellow fake flowers. She had wondered who lived there before he emerged one sunny day. He was beautiful, with striking chiseled features, blond hair, and the clearest sky-blue eyes she had ever seen. She was immediately shy because she was nothing much to look at, not by comparison. Golden boy, she teased him, but he was unaware how beautiful he was. His personality was as sunny as the flowers at his door.

They had bonded over books, school, over both being poor and having to work, and finally over Scrabble. Soon they were inseparable. He was the only friend she had.

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