Praying for Sheetrock

This chapter reintroduces Mary Harmon, the black woman from McIntosh County who sought help from Sheriff Poppell after she got in trouble in Florida. Harmon was flirting with a male friend, Ed Finch, when they got into an altercation. A sheriff’s deputy named Guy Hutchinson showed up uninvited, and although they told him that there was no trouble, the officer ended up fighting with Finch. Finch hit Hutchinson, and Hutchinson shot Finch in the mouth. Finch survived; Hutchinson arrested Finch and put him in jail. Finch did not receive medical attention for hours. Although the sheriff arranged the murders of drug dealers and prostitutes in the back woods and marshes of McIntosh County, this open violence against a black man in Darien shocked many black residents.

As they are a minority in Darien, the black people in town turned to their allies in the countryside and sought a natural leader in Alston because of his outspoken nature. Although Alston found his appointment as unofficial leader surprising, he organized his people, and hundreds of them gathered at city hall. From there, a smaller group—including Alston as spokesperson—met with the mayor and demanded an investigation into the matter.