With the Might of Angels by Andrea Davis Pinkney

Author:Andrea Davis Pinkney [Pinkney, Andrea Davis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-545-38806-1
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.
Published: 2011-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Saturday, November 13, 1954

Diary Book,

The only time I’ve ever heard Mama and Daddy argue was when Daddy told Mama that from now on he was only putting a penny in the collection plate at church because he had a feeling that some of his hard-earned money was going into the gas tank of Reverend Collier’s Pontiac.

Tonight, after the dishes had been cleared and washed, Daddy and Mama had angry words between them.

Goober and I had long since gone to bed, but I hadn’t been able to sleep.

Too much on my mind.

Daddy said, “White folks have been against us for too long, Loretta. When I was a boy, they humiliated my own daddy, and he felt powerless. My father couldn’t keep whites from undermining him. And nothing’s changed. Now I feel powerless. I can’t get a job because of the hatred of those people and their feelings about Dawnie integrating Prettyman. With her at that school, how am I supposed to earn a living and keep my integrity as a man?”

Mama was quick to speak. “Curtis, this isn’t about you!”

Daddy tried to get in the next word, but Mama wasn’t having it.

“Loretta —”

“I’m talking now!”

Daddy got quiet.

Mama said, “What do you mean, nothing’s changed? Everything’s changed, and Dawnie’s making that change possible. Our daughter wants this. She’s as smart and as capable as any of those white children, and she deserves what that school has to offer. Have you seen the books she’s bringing home? The materials are better at Prettyman. That school’s got higher-level math. And a Science lab.”

That made Daddy even madder. “Somebody needs to go into that Science lab and whip up a peace potion that will make all kinds of people get along.”

Mama said, “Where’s your faith, Curtis? I’m taking in extra laundry. We’ll make ends meet. Work at Sutter’s Dairy, or any job, doesn’t give you your integrity as a man. Dawnie is being watched over with the might of angels, and so are we. I believe that. The Lord has chosen our child to be at that school.”

Daddy snapped, “I know it’s not Dawnie’s fault, but where were those angels when I lost my job?”

Now Mama was really yelling. “Enough, Curtis! Enough!”

Goober must have heard Mama and Daddy fighting. He came into my room. Folded himself into the corner near my night table.

Without looking, he reached up, fished around the night table’s top. He slid my pink curlers onto each one of his fingers.

“They hurt,” he said.

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