Having Our Say Part VII, Chapter 30: Bessie Summary

How It All Goes Down

  • Hap had paved the way for Bessie and Sadie to move to Mount Vernon, but they're still met with plenty of resistance. After a while, most of the white people simply move away.
  • Like most Americans, they're shocked that "all the leaders were getting shot," like "Malcolm X, Martin Luther King" and the Kennedy brothers (7.30.22).
  • They're even angrier after the Vietnam War seems to undo all the progress of the civil rights movement.
  • Bessie believes that it will be "a thousand years" before a black person is elected president (7.30.35). Now, we hate to drop spoilers but…