How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I didn't know whether to be excited for her or worried. All people ever talked about after church were the Negroes and whether they'd get their civil rights. Who was winning—the white people's team or the colored people's team? Like it was a do-or-die contest. When that minister from Alabama, Reverend Martin Luther King, got arrested last month in Florida for wanting to eat in a restaurant, the men at church acted like the white people's team had won the pennant race. I knew they would not take this news lying down, not in one million years (1.145)
Lily is reflecting upon the signing of the Civil Rights Act, which she and Rosaleen watched live on TV. Lily is not super politically motivated or active, but she is aware of the various racial attitudes and prejudices the people around her (e.g., T. Ray, the men in her church, etc.) hold.
Quote #2
An uneasy feeling settled in my stomach. Last night the television had said a man in Mississippi was killed for registering to vote, and I myself had overheard Mr. Bussey, one of the deacons, say to T. Ray, 'Don't you worry, they're gonna make 'em write their names in perfect cursive and refuse them a card if they forget so much as to dot an I or make a loop in their y' (1.208).
Apparently, a lot of Lily's fellow churchgoers hold some not-so-nice attitudes toward African Americans, and she provides us with a plum example of this tendency here. The plan, just to be clear, is to deny African Americans of their rights as U.S. citizens by enforcing standards that a white person wouldn't have to meet. Talk about unfair and just plain wrong. It is notable that T. Ray seems to hang on to some prejudices himself, since Mr. Bussey feels the need to reassure him that they'll do everything they can to enforce racially motivated vote suppression.
Quote #3
It's funny how you forget the rules. She was not supposed to be inside here. Every time a rumor got going about a group of Negroes coming to worship with us on Sunday morning, the deacons stood locked-arms across the church stems to turn them away. We loved them in the Lord, Brother Gerald said, but they had their own places (1.240).
And here's another charming story: When Lily and Rosaleen have to stop and rest on their way into Sylvan, Lily thinks nothing of visiting the church, forgetting that African Americans aren't allowed in—and, in fact, that the deacons have gone so far as to form a physical barrier to prevent them from entering. It's also notable that Lily "forgets" the rules about segregation—this clues us in to the fact that Lily isn't quite as preoccupied with race-related issues as the other white people around her.