Praying for Sheetrock

“ […] the Sheriff cared less about the colors black and white than he did about the color green and the sound it made shuffled, dealt out and redealt, folded and pocketed beside the wrecked trucks and inside the local truckstop, prostitution houses, clip joints and warehouse sheds after hours.”

Poppell helps maintain an uneasy racial equilibrium—if not harmony—in McIntosh by prioritizing monetary gain above racial strife. Although he is a bigot who keeps black people in poverty and dependent on his help, Poppell does not overtly antagonize the black community out of personal malice. This is due less to any benevolent feelings and more because Poppell only cares about accumulating money, which he acquires partly through illegal ventures, such as prostitution and gambling joints. 

“A funeral was a thing they understood; dissent was something they did not.”

Following the assassination Martin Luther King Jr., the black community mourns the departed civil rights leader and holds gatherings to remember him in the wake of his death. They see his fight for civil rights almost as something mythical happening in a far-off land. Here in McIntosh County, where civil rights are barely a concept and people shudder at the idea of protests, the black residents don’t have a leader who can help them agitate for change on a local level as Martin Luther King Jr. did in the national realm.  

“There’s always something in an individual you ain’t never going to know. Look at Samson and his wife. If he’d a-known her, think he’d have let that trap catch him? I been with her sixty-six years and I still don’t know her feelings underneath. We’re acquainted with one another.”

Curry shares this quote regarding his wife, whom he loves deeply. However, Curry imparts a bit of elderly wisdom, stating that even after decades, we can never really know a person’s true feeling, using the biblical reference of Samson and Delilah—Delilah deceives Samson—to illustrate his point. This quote showcases Curry’s personality and reveals why community members respect his life experiences and moral teachings. It also possibly foreshadows the fall of Alston later in the book, which surprises many people.

“What I want is to live in a state of contentment, two or three meal a day, place to sleep, got my freedom. What more I want?”

Here, Curry offers insight into the simple life he leads with few expectations of attaining personal glory, professional success, or financial mobility. As long as he can feed himself and other people mind their own business, Curry does not seek to change the status quo. This contrasts with Alston, who is not content to live a quiet life while the black race suffers from poverty and discrimination. 

“When messages from the outside world began to leak into McIntosh County about riots and civil disobedience and racial confrontations, white Darien shuddered […] Darien willfully slunk deeper into its own ladylike foliage of magnolia and tupelo and wisteria, and maintained a sweet-as-honey, slow-as-molasses pace of life, wishing the outer world would go away.” 

In the book’s opening chapters, Greene demonstrates how McIntosh County was left behind while the effects of the civil rights movement were taking full effect in the rest of the country. White Darien considers itself a hub of innocence and racial harmony but papers over the racial inequities with politeness. Greene sets up this false façade of peace early on so that the reader knows that this peace will be broken by the book’s end.  

“The education of Thurnell Alston consisted of a series of rude awakenings, until the day he had heard and seen enough and could not, in good conscience, remain passive any longer.”

Alston’s education is a series of incidents in his life in which he comes to a better understanding of the plight facing black individuals—including himself—in America. Over time, Alston realizes that he can no longer tolerate the status quo that oppresses black people; he realizes he must advocate for change. 

“Sheriff Poppell earned a pleasant income for enforcing the law […] but he earned a magnificent income for flouting the law in the county.” 

Sheriff Poppell accumulates vast wealth through illegal businesses that he runs in McIntosh County. McIntosh County residents are willing to ignore Poppell’s crimes because he enforces the law well enough otherwise. Poppell’s control is so immense that even other law enforcement officials can’t apprehend criminals once they cross the border into McIntosh County. Poppell dissuades people from challenging his corruption and total power through both intimidation and the special favors that he performs for his constituents. 

“The secret life of the black people of McIntosh County unfolded inside closed cabins; and within the humble little Holiness churches, where perspiring worshipers in radiant clothing jumped and chanted in unison; and inside the weedy roadside juke joints, where moonshine and marijuana changed pockets by the light of neon beer signs; and at the icy metal tables of shrimp-processing plants, where old women in galoshes walked in place to get warm; and along the dirt roads that snaked through the twinkling pine woods and burst out under the vast white sky at the shoreline of the marsh; and at night on the ocean, where black captains tied their shrimp boats together, and drank whisky and played cards in the hold, by the light of swinging kerosene lanterns, while the summer constellations slowly wheeled overheard.” 

Literary reportage is a style of journalism in the book that uses techniques commonly found in the craft of fiction and applies them to nonfiction writing. One such technique is a single long, flowing sentence that contains a list of descriptions to immerse the reader in the environment of the characters. Greene utilizes this tactic to portray the full and rich beauty of black life in McIntosh County. She inserts semicolons to separate and connect the various elements of the sentence that indicate different aspects of black life. 

“He was a personal friend to black people, helping many out of difficult scrapes, but for the community as a whole, for progress, for justice, he did less than nothing.” 

This passage illustrates the complexity of Poppell’s interactions with black people, and shows why there is dissent among the black McIntosh residents when it comes to their opinion of Poppell. Greene underscores how one who seems to be an ally—as Poppell is when he goes out of his way to help black community members on specific occasions—actually serves as an oppressor on a systemic level. Poppell concentrates wealth and opportunity in his hands and puts in place no social policies that will allow this wealth to trickle into the black community; he also severely limits their political representation. 

“The sheriff was running this county just like an old plantation. When Tom said dance, you dance. When he said die, you die.”

Alston likens Poppell to a modern-day slave master who hides his racism and desire for financial profit under a guise of benevolence. He exploits the ignorance of black McIntosh for his gain while ruling them with an iron fist. Those who dare defy Poppell do so at their own peril. 

“Then within a few days the dogwoods and pear trees shyly emerged, all beribboned, braided, and perfumed; and tulips stood up in the yards in colors so bright they seemed almost musical. Yellow forsythia bushes show up here and there in yards like fireworks.” 

Greene personifies the pear trees to show how they slowly emerge. The rest of the flora unfolds like a chorus of color, and Greene employs simile—comparing the bright yellow bushes to fireworks.

“If you’re having a good church, you can’t sit down. You got to get. Up. You can feel it, it just a spirit. It just a joy down in your soul. You feel that power.” 

This is a statement from black McIntosh County resident Florine Pinkney on receiving the Holy Spirit in church. For Florine Pinkney, church is a full-bodied and energizing spiritual experience that uplifts the soul. This passage provides context for why the church is so central to the social life of the black community, and why it becomes a natural hub for black politics. 

“It was like a test-your-strength carnival game in which he had swung his mallet and brought it lustily crashing down: he had sent the lawsuit, like a silver ball, shooting up the highway toward Darien; and now, months later, the sound of the bell was heard, and it was a huge gong powerfully chiming, coating the countryside with its resonance.”

In reaction to the lawsuits that Alston and the GLSP lawyers have filed, white politicians like Mayor Sumner begin to fight back and challenge Alston even harder, proving Alston’s impact and ability to stir up the county. 

“The bible teaches that the bottom will rise to the top. Justice will prevail.”

Throughout the book, black individuals cite their religious belief as a source of strength against poverty and discrimination. According to Alston, the bible is more than a salve to get through tough times; it is a positive force that endorses justice for the marginalized. Alston sees their victories in the class action voting lawsuits as proof of that message. However, as Alston’s downfall shows, people aren’t guaranteed to stay at the top forever.

“Even dead white folks vote in McIntosh County.”

Voting fraud is one of the reasons why Alston has been unsuccessful in his attempts to get elected to the county commission. In this quote, Alston implies that people may fraudulently cast votes in the names of dead white people so that he won’t be elected. There have also been concerns of black voters being turned away from polls under suspicious circumstances. Hence the need for the class action voting rights lawsuit that the GLSP lawyers filed in conjunction with the NAACP. After the lawsuit, Alston wins a position on the county commission.

“Carry me on! Carry me on! I got to go vote for my little Thurnell [Alston].”

Greene chooses this quote from Fanny Palmer as the title of Chapter 12 for a reason; she wants the reader to feel the excitement in the black community around Alston’s first real chance at becoming elected following the voting rights lawsuit. These initially high hopes for Alston contrast with his eventual downfall in Part 3.

“He believed in democracy at that moment, he believed in the Constitution, he believed in litigation and the rule of law; he believed he could be an intelligent and good civil servant and leader.”

Although Alston was prepared to lose the election, he is surprised to find that he has won. Imbued with a formal political position for the first time, Alston feels a sense of power that is entirely new to him. With the law on his side, he finally understands the reverence that the white lawyers hold for the Constitution. At this moment, he is filled with hope for how he can be a good leader to his people. This optimistic Alston serves as a strong contrast to the corrupt, downtrodden Alston that we find in later chapters.

“Thus it was that a new principle was about to enter county politics, the principle that if a person is freezing to death in the winter, she shouldn’t have to pray for sheetrock. Municipal services ought to provide her with some.”

Previously, black members of McIntosh relied on two things to get them through hard times: community support and faith in God. Black people were expected to be self-reliant or pray for a miracle to solve their problems. However, as racial progress improves in McIntosh County, Alston believes that poor blacks must benefit socioeconomically as well. He believes it is the government’s responsibility to take care of its poor brethren and provide a basic social safety net. This is a radical notion, as the black community has historically been shut out of the social safety net, but it also shows Alston at his best: someone who wants to truly do good for his community.

“In the careful way he moved and dressed and the excited way he spoke, and in the things he said, he felt he expressed, with dignity, ‘I am a man’; while to the white commissioners, it felt as if he never ceased shouting, ‘Negro, Negro, Negro! Black, Black, Black!’ at them.”

Greene demonstrates the difference between how Alston perceives himself and how the white commissioners perceive him. He sees his manner of speech and style of dress as indicators of his passion and dignity; the white commissioners see an ostentatious black man who inserts race into every aspect of his being. This dilemma shows the tension that comes from Alston being the only black man on the county commission; even though he is their political equal, he still does not receive the respect he believes that he deserves. The white commissioners wish that he would stop talking about race and be submissive like his predecessor Thorpe. Alston and the other commissioners cannot truly understand each other.

“Off the main road and far. From money, the chop and scrape and chomp of natural life continued. People married (some married badly) and had babies (some had them too young), raised chickens, grew thin or grew heavy and complained about it either way, tied their hair up in kerchiefs, and paced off the mud of their side yards, planning the extra room they would build if they had the wood.”

This passage shows how far removed most black residents’ lives are from the world of political ambitions. This disconnect is why Alston has a hard time persuading his constituents to care about the issues for which he advocates.

“And I said, ‘Man they been going to pave this road since I was a little boy, they going to pave this road since I was born, and they going to pave it every election.’”

After he is elected to the county commission, Alston is full of high hopes for what he will do for his people. He speaks to Vic Waters and expresses his desire to fix Waters’ road. Instead of being grateful, Waters is skeptical, as other politicians have told him the same thing. Here, Alston’s idealism brushes up against the reality of politics and the cynicism with which many black voters regard politicians, as they have not seen their livelihood improve despite casting their vote. As a result, black residents in McIntosh County expect little change from their representatives.

“A mother will go through the ocean of the sea for her child.”

Becca Alston’s love for her remaining children is what keeps her afloat after the death of her youngest son, Keith, which has effectively ruined her marriage and left Alston in a deep despair of alcoholism. This chapter centers on a black woman who is powerful in her own right—in the domestic sphere of raising children—which is important in this story that largely centers on the political ambitions of men.

“I now realize that I—that we—idealized the black civil rights people. They represented something we were looking for, but they were regular human beings. They were real people, and real people are imperfect.”

One of the white GLSP lawyers, Walbert, examines his error in putting the black people of McIntosh County up on a pedestal. He realizes that they, too, aspire to power and are susceptible to corruption and egotism under the right circumstances.