White Lilacs

On a Saturday in early June, Aunt Tillie and Rose Lee serve at a dinner party in the Bell home. Mayor Dixon is present, as well as Dr. Thompson, the man in charge of the Dillon Academy for Young Ladies. Dr. Thompson tells the guests at the party that the school will be better off and get more funding if they can change the “current conditions”—which makes Rose Lee realize that they are talking about moving the Black people out of Freedom (61). Mayor Dixon then informs the group that they have enough signatures to have a vote on July 5, which will secure the funding to buy the houses in Freedom for the city of Dillon and have it razed.

Distraught, Rose Lee leaves after dinner, as Aunt Tillie tells her to go home and give the information to her father. However, she runs into Catherine Jane on the porch. Catherine Jane reveals that she was also listening in on the party. Because Miss Firth is so against removing the Black citizens from Freedom, it made Catherine Jane wonder if it was as good of a thing as her parents tell her. She tells Rose Lee that her mother explained “it was for the good of the community” and that the Black people “would be much happier in new homes anyway” (66).