Ida Mae Gladney BREAKING AWAY - Tessa SuttonIda Mae was gathering their belongings while George...
13
BREAKING AWAY I was ving without a qualm, hout a sing backward glan. ece _ ofthe South that I had known was hostile andrbing, and yet out ofall the conflicʦ and the curs . . . , the tension and the terror, I had somehow gotten the a that le cou be derent . . . . I was now running more away from something than towa something. . . . My mood was: I've got to get away; I can't stay here. -RICHARD WRIGHT, Bck Boy CHICKASAW COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, OCTOBER 1937 IDA MAE BRANDON GLADNEY IN A D AY, the world had changed. Everything was in a commotion, but Ge org e and Ida Mae could not let it show. Joe Lee had been beaten half de ad ov er a lse accusation about some turkeys that had run off. He had ? ee n le ſt i n a j ail cell, barely c onscious, his clothes sticking to his blood- ie d s k i n, an d no thing was done about it. Ida Mae and George bent their h ea d s a n d p ray ed for light. Then they went out in the field the next day. T h e · k h d . Y pie e d l ong and hard and more urgently than before. T ey e- c 1 d e d t h f h d e y wo uld lea ve as soon as they got the cotton out o t e groun Ida Mae Gladney
Transcript of Ida Mae Gladney BREAKING AWAY - Tessa SuttonIda Mae was gathering their belongings while George...
BREAKING AWAY
I was leaving without a qualm, without a single backward glance. The face
_of the South that I had knownwas hostile and forbidding, and yet out of all the conflicts and the curses . . . ,
the tension and the terror, I had somehow gotten the idea that life could be different . . . .
I was now running more away from something than toward something . . . .
My mood was: I've got to get away; I can't stay here.
-RICHARD WRIGHT, Black Boy
CHICKASAW COUNTY, MISSISSIPPI, OCTOBER 1937
IDA MAE BRANDON GLADNEY
IN A DAY, the world had changed. Everything was in a commotion, but George and Ida Mae could not let it show. Joe Lee had been beaten half dead over a false accusation about some turkeys that had run off. He had ?een left in a jail cell, barely conscious, his clothes sticking to his bloodied skin, and nothing was done about it. Ida Mae and George bent theirheads and prayed for light. Then they went out in the field the next day.The · k h d . Y pie ed long and hard and more urgently than before. T ey e-c1ded th f h d ey would leave as soon as they got the cotton out o t e groun
Ida Mae Gladney
George Swanson Starling
