The Lions Of Little Rock

On May 10, STOP holds a petition drive to garner signatures for the special school board election. After they receive the necessary signatures, STOP needs to canvas all the registered voters in Little Rock to make sure they turn out for the election. This amounts to thirty-thousand people.

Although the task seems daunting, Marlee does a quick math calculation and figures out how to divide up the work. The colored vote will be essential, so Betty Jean and Pastor George are helping too. The committee separates the names into integrationists, segregationist, and undecided. Marlee comments, “While I copied names at home, Liz copied names at church. ‘We’ve got the saints, the sinners and the savables,’ she’d commented to Pastor George” (234).  

On Saturday, Marlee visits the zoo. Thinking she might meet Liz there, she runs down to the lion cage where she sees Red and a buddy drinking beer and pelting the lions with rocks. Just as Liz strides forward, about to intervene, Marlee pulls her aside and warns her about Red. He doesn’t know what Liz looks like yet. Realizing that the dynamite is still in Red’s trunk, the girls see Red’s jacket and key ring sitting on a park bench.