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“Then what exactly are you doing?”
“I am taking every opportunity to blast to the heavens how blatantly unfair this all is. At some point, it should get through even the thickest of heads.”
“There are a lot of white people you will never convince that the races are equal.”
“I don’t need to convince everyone. We just have to reach critical mass. At some point the tide will turn. We made the laws change, now we just have to bring the majority of your race along.”
“So, should we tell Jerome and Pearl that they’re just pawns in a bigger game?”
She looked at him darkly. “They know more than you ever will the powers stacked against them. Do you really think they expect to be found innocent by that jury?”
“Well, we haven’t put our case on yet.”
“Our clients are Black, not white. And if we can’t get into evidence where Pearl was that day, the jury will infer that she was there helping Jerome.”
“Then we have to figure out a way to get it in,” said Jack.
“I’ve subpoenaed Janice Evans, but she’s fighting it, and the clock will run out.”
“Okay. In the meantime, how about some dinner? I’m starving.”
“I really don’t want to be stared at, not tonight.”
“That won’t be a problem. Trust me.”
He hurried inside the house and came back out with a picnic basket.
She blanched. “Please don’t tell me your mother made that.”
“No. Miss Jessup dropped it off earlier. It’s part of our legal fee.”
“Okay, but where are we going?”
“You’ll see,” he said.
CHAPTER 75
JACK DROVE THEM TO THE abandoned Penny Bridge. He grabbed the picnic basket and led her out onto the span, stopping about halfway across. He laid out a blanket from the basket, then he and DuBose set out roasted chicken, green beans, mashed potatoes, soft rolls, and a pitcher of iced tea, and plates, glasses, and utensils.
They sat on the blanket, and when DuBose bit into the chicken she moaned.
“Oh my God, that is so good it should be illegal.”
Jack took a bite. “I suspect it might have something to do with bacon fat, Crisco, prayer, or a combination thereof.”
They ate and enjoyed the breeze that was constant along the river below.
“When did they close this bridge?” she asked.
“When I was little.” He pointed to the east. “That is unofficially the Black side of the county. Used to be a lot of white people who lived there, but it changed after the Brown decision.”
“White flight to the suburbs,” noted DuBose. “So their children wouldn’t have to sit in class with Black kids.”
“But it’s not just segregated by race. Rich whites live in the northwest part and folks like my family in the southwest.”
“Wealth and race are truly insidious dividers,” noted DuBose.
“We’d ride our bikes over to the Penny and lie down and do some star gazing, pick out the Big and Little Dippers, Ursa Minor, Polaris, Orion. See if we could spot a shooting star; it’s supposed to bring good luck. We’d swap dreams and baseball cards and chew our bubble gum and then spit it into the McHenry River. Stupid stuff that boys do.”
