Race

Tuskegee, Alabama, is a symbol for Southern Black identity. Historically, Tuskegee is the location of Tuskegee University, the college founded by Black leader Booker T. Washington to educate Black Americans in fields that would enable them to be workers in the South after Reconstruction, the historical period when the United States sought to reincorporate the South into the country after the Civil War. Reconstruction ended before Black Americans could gain the freedom promised with the end of the Civil War. Washington’s vision of what Black people could be was in some ways limited; in exchange for technical education, Black Americans would be willing to accept slower or no progress on political equality. Alabama in general and Tuskegee specifically conjure Black identity that accepts limitations for the sake of survival. Leaving Tuskegee is thus Paul and his siblings’ declaration that they will no longer be bound by racist notions of Black identity.

Harlem, New York, is a symbol for Black pride and liberation. Historically, Harlem was a favored destination for Black migrants as a part of the Great Migration, a mass, decades-long movement of Black Americans from the rural South to cities during the 20th century. Moving to Harlem affirms Paul’s siblings’ pride in claiming a Black identity when to all appearances they are as white as Paul.