I never thought that reading a book would open up my mind like this one did. This book exposed me to all the horrors of the south during the civil rights movement and beyond. It all starts one summer in the fifties in rural Mississippi. Armstrong Todd, a young black man, is sent away to his grandma's for awhile by his mother, Delotha, while she got back on her feet. See Delotha's husband Wydell left because he was a drunk and Delotha couldn't deal with him anymore. So since Delotha couldn't make enough money in Chicago to feed herself and Armstrong she sent him down to live with her mother, Odessa, in Hopewell, Mississippi. This is where it all starts. One day after school Armstrong was milling around in the town pool hall for blacks, owned by Floyd Cox, a poor white man. He was showing off and having a good time and trying to convince all the other blacks in the hall how educated he was by speaking French to them. When Floyd and his wife Lily came into town that day, they stopped by the pool hall to see if things were going ok. Floyd told Lily to stay in the truck when he went inside but she didn't listen to him and went in anyway. Once inside the

The book also goes into detail about Floyd's family with his abusiveness, drunkenness, being never able to find a steady job, and his criminal escapades. It talks about how Lily puts up with Floyd because she is so dependent upon him. Then it tells how these troubles only progress as they get older and their son, Floyd junior turns into a heroin junkie and how their daughter, Doreen grows up to be the strong independent woman her mother always longed to be.

This was a very compelling story that kept my interest the entire way through. It also frightened me to think that America was once like this. It's hard to think that we (whites) treated blacks like cattle. We couldn't even treat them like real people. Thank god we've evolved since then. I don't know if I could handle life like these people did. If you could call the time they lived a life at all.

It tells of how Wydell and Delotha reunite after the death of their son Armstrong and start a new family together. Delotha gets Wydell off the alcohol he was so dependent on and gives him the confidence to go to barber school so they could open a salon together. Then they have 2 children together, both girls. Delotha was so disappointed by this. She wanted a boy so much to replac

Some common words found in the essay are:
Pinochet Clayton, America It's, French Floyd, Armstrong Todd, Delotha Wydell, John Earl, Wydell Jr, Lily Floyd, Moore Campbell, Hopewell Mississippi, pool hall, black woman, delotha wydell, poor white, treated blacks, son armstrong, wydell jr, delotha couldn't,
Approximate Word count = 835
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)