Red River

Sam and Israel take McCully home to Smithfield Quarter, which is overcrowded with black families who have made the journey to Colfax. Polly is already announcing the service for Jessie the next day and is organizing different people to cook. When asked, McCully explains that the abundance of food came from old man Craft’s store. Sam and Israel soon deduce that it’s all been stolen. When Sam protests, McCully responds: “We come too far to turn around. We got to outlast them […] clear a path for change to visit this town” (90).

The next day, they set up the food outdoors, along the road, and almost everyone attends the service. The elderly Preacher Johnson speaks first and calls for the community to: “give up the guns and the courthouse, and go back to the families waiting for you. Give up now before you bring the white man down on all of us” (91).

McCully speaks next, after a long silence, saying that they have waited long enough. Even though they have been freed from slavery and told they have the same rights as white men, at every turn, the white men threaten and degrade them.