- One day in 1968, Mark starts hearing people talking about a black man in America that was killed.
- Mark doesn't know what people are making such a fuss about – he knows a lot of black men who were killed.
- He reads the newspaper headlines and goes home to ask who this "King" is that was killed. Was he a King? What did it mean that he was fighting for equal rights?
- Mama says that equal rights would give blacks the same opportunities as whites. She explains that whites in South Africa have taken away all the rights of black people.
- Mark wonders why white people are behind everything he wants to know about. Why were they so hateful towards blacks? He wonders if anybody has started a war against the whites, if they've fought to try to get their rights back from whites.
- So Mama tells him the story of the Sharpeville Massacre, when blacks did try to fight for their rights and the South African police opened fire, killing sixty-nine peaceful protestors.
- Mark wants to know if anyone has done anything since.
- Mama explains that everybody is too afraid to do anything.
- Mark proclaims a promise, that when he grows up, he'll fight for his rights.