The Ways of White Folks

The first story takes place in Melton, a small, unremarkable town. Cora Jenkins, a middle-aged Black woman, works for the White Studevant family. Townsfolk occasionally call Cora racial slurs, and the Studevants mistreat her. Born and raised in Melton herself, Cora doesn’t plan on leaving despite regularly facing racism. The oldest child in her family, Cora helped raise her siblings and even dropped out of school to help. All her siblings have moved away, and now Cora cares for her aging parents. Cora remembers having a White lover, Joe, and baring his child, a girl she named Josephine. Cora and Joe never married, but Cora happily took on her parental duties: “But the child was hers—a living bridge between two worlds. Let people talk” (6). Josephine dies from whooping cough, and Cora curses the heavens for taking her baby so soon. She returns to work, heartbroken, but finds solace caring for the Studevants’ own little girl, Jessie.

The years pass, and Cora continues to bond with Jessie. Jessie isn’t good in school, to her mother’s chagrin, but Cora helps serve as a mediator. Jessie develops a knack for cooking and further bonds with Cora in the kitchen, becoming closer with Cora than her own family.