How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"What genuinely scares the white man is that the colored is going to suck up all the jobs from the whites. You just got out of Memphis, you saw how it is. It's the same in all the big cities— Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta. You got thousands and thousands of Negroes running around looking for jobs. And every one of 'em willing to work cheaper than the white man, be they a field hand, a factory hand, or what have you." (20.18)
According to a stranger on a train, white people in the South are deeply afraid of change because they want to make sure their jobs and homes don't get taken away. What we don't get is how this connects to lynching Black men. You can't be so afraid of change that you kill everyone who might possibly in some way alter your life, right?
Quote #2
"The news does travel down to Mississippi eventually. And everybody I know says you're the most progressive young lawyer in Washington." I had never heard that word pronounced with a more audible sneer. (23.5)
Ben's dad hates the fact that he's progressive. In fact, he even says it like it's a dirty word. What we see, though, is that his dad is resistant to change. He doesn't see why Ben has to work hard to change the world when everything is going just fine.
Quote #3
Theodore Roosevelt hadn't sent me to Eudora to take a rickety bicycle ride down memory lane. I had a job to do, and it might even help change history. (31.5)
As we recall, President Roosevelt wants Ben to go to Eudora and report back on the lynching going on. But instead, Ben takes that as a directive to start changing racist attitudes down there.