Mississippi Trial, 1955

Grampa is outraged at the news of the move to Arizona and refuses to help in the process. Once Hiram and his parents make it to Tempe, they have many more children, which Hiram considers ironic, having “left the Delta in fertile Mississippi for the barren Arizona desert” (40). At first, Hiram continually begs his parents to let him return to Greenwood, which they do not allow. The fights with his own father increase and their relationship becomes strained. Finally, in April 1955, when he is almost sixteen, Grampa’s “annual invitation to Greenwood arrived” (42), but this time with the news that he had suffered a minor stroke. With this knowledge, Hiram presses harder to force his parents to allow him to go to Greenwood for the summer. His father disapproves but ultimately allows it, based on his wife’s coaxing. Hiram’s father leaves him with a warning that now that he’s older, he will see and realize things about Greenwood that he had not before, and that he’s “sorry for what you’ll see” (44).

Hiram realizes that he does not remember Mississippi as well as he thought he would. When he arrives at the train station,