Memphis

Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of domestic abuse, racism, racist violence, and child sexual abuse. The study guide quotes and obscures the author’s use of the n-word.

Joan is in her junior year in high school. She attends a US history class, but she cannot concentrate on the lecture as her thoughts wander. She distrusts the white lecturer, who reminds her of a Confederate general and teaches that the cause of the Civil War was state rights. However, she loves history and is fascinated by wars. She is interested in the people who fight them.

Joan attends art classes on Saturdays at the college campus as her school lacks the supplies. She feels relieved being in an art room. Professor Mason, a Black man, accepts her in his class because he recognizes her gift. Her classmates are college students and mostly white, but as Joan works with fellow artists, she feels their respect.

August drives Joan to art classes on Saturday mornings. One day Joan asks her why she does not love God. She knows that her talent in drawing is a gift God gave her.