Praying for Sheetrock

The chapter’s title refers to a quote from an attorney in Savannah, Georgia; he calls Highway 17 down to Miami “the old way”; locals use the route to travel through Georgia, in contrast with the more modern I-95 that Northerners—or “Yankees” as the Southerners call them—take. Greene describes the flea markets and pawn shops lining the sides of the highway. The tone shifts as we enter the more rural area of Highway 17 in McIntosh County, which has many wild animals and lush forests. Greene provides an overview of the Georgia salt marsh and the attempts by various settlers to tame the area. However, in the 1970s during Sherriff Poppell’s time in office, McIntosh County serves as a “mini-Las Vegas, a mini-Atlantic City, a southern Hong Kong or Bangkok” that white men frequent in search of illegal activities like drug dealing, prostitution, and gambling (14). It’s implied that Sheriff Poppell directly manages some of these businesses or receives a cut of the profits in exchange for ignoring these criminal dealings. From these profits, Poppell occasionally appeases black and white community members alike, such as allowing them to loot trucks that crash on the highway.

Greene interviews a white woman named Emily Varnedoe, who resides in Darien, a mostly-white town in McIntosh County. The author briefly discusses relations between black and white residents in McIntosh County, who share a relationship with each other through the fact that many of the white residents’ ancestors enslaved the forefathers of the black residents. The white colonizers of McIntosh pushed the Native Americans off the land before bringing slaves over from Africa. Despite the association with slavery, many white residents in Darien romanticize their colonial heritage; some of the residents still live on the land owned by the first Scottish settlers—their ancestors—in the area. These residents feel uncomfortable discussing the time of slavery, stating that they take pride in their heritage prior to the arrival of Africans.

In this chapter, Greene pivots to the poor black residents of McIntosh County, who live in the wild land in between marshes and pine forests outside of the town of Darien. These residents earn money through various manual labor jobs in Darien; they raise their own livestock and grow vegetables for sustenance. Even though it is the 1970s, they have no paved roads or electricity; this community has not benefited from America’s growing prosperity in the 20th century. The white residents of McIntosh are the ones who own businesses in Darien, and the black residents work for them. Although the black people in the area know of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and mourn his assassination, the civil rights movement has largely left them behind. They do not agitate for greater equality between blacks and whites in McIntosh County—at least, not yet.

In the absence of governmental assistance, the black community in McIntosh looks out for one another. As Henry Curry, an older influential black man in McIntosh, says, “If you had any trouble, your trouble is my trouble” (23). They seek support in God, and the local church becomes a community beacon. They traditionally did not intermingle with the white community, as Danny Thorpe—deacon of a local black church—and his wife, Belle Thorpe, tell Greene. However, there has at least been some change in recent years, such as allowing white and black customers to dine at the same restaurant. Thorpe uses this example to illustrate why he feels racism is not a part of his life.

Curry, a deacon of the local church and a shrimp fisherman, shares the history of his family; his parents were former slaves, and he was their first freeborn son. Like the children of many former slaves, Curry worked as a sharecropper in the fields as a young man. He escaped those fields and now lives a simple life according to God’s plan. Next, we’re introduced to Gay Jacobs, who is one of the Direct Descendants—descendants of the first white Scottish settlers in the area—and appreciates the work of black, shrimp boat captains like Curry. 

Alston was born in McIntosh County in the 1930s; he was one of 14 children. One of the formative moments in Alston’s life occurred when his unemployed father sought help from Sheriff Poppell to feed the children. Poppell turned away Alston’s father and other black men, stating that he could do nothing to help them. Alston overheard the sheriff stating that he wanted to keep the black community under his control by keeping them hungry and dependent—by keeping them in poverty. This incident led Alston to develop a strong disregard for Sheriff Poppell and an awareness of the indignities suffered by the black community.

Alston recalls the time he first went to work alongside his gruff father as a young teen. Alston had only a cup of hot coffee for breakfast; he was cold and hungry. He could not relieve himself at a gas station on the way to work, because those restrooms were only for white patrons. They caught a ride from a white driver, as they did not own their own car. Alston worked as a laborer, slashing trees to drain them of turpentine. Alston ran away from his strict father and found work in various blue-collar professions, earning much more money than he did in turpentining.

He was disgusted by workplace segregation, which resulted in cold refrigerated water for employees and warm tap water for black employees “as if the blacks were horses to be watered from a bucket” (43). One day, Alston and his coworkers staged a demand of the white boss, asking for more equal working conditions for black workers. The company considered the issue and asked Alston to become a company steward, marking the moment when the 26-year-old Alston first became something of a leader for the black community.

When Alston met Rebecca “Becca” Pinkney, she was 16 years old. After Becca became pregnant, Alston married her. They would later have four biological children and four foster children. Greene describes Alston’s manner of speech, which is clumsy, but it does contain formal English associated more with the grammar of better-educated white students, which leads people to perceive Alston as a well-spoken man. He becomes an advocate who speaks to crowds about justice for African-Americans. 

In Chapter 4, we return to Sheriff Poppell and learn more about how the sheriff sustains his dynasty: through the exploitation of naïve northerners or “Yankees.” These Yankees travel south through Highway 17 in McIntosh County, typically on the way to Miami. Tourist businesses are established in Darien to accommodate the influx of northerners. Some of these businesses are prostitution joints; others are illegal gambling operations offering rigged games that inevitably leave the tourists with less cash. The most popular of these is a gambling game board with impossible odds known as razzle dazzle. For one silver dollar, you roll two dice and accumulate different point values based on the roll of your dice. The most common rolls offer almost no money, while the least common rolls offer the most money. However, most tourists are unaware of these long odds when they play, so they end up losing thousands of dollars.

These businesses will often have a family-friendly storefront, such as a gas station, pecan stand, or a restaurant, to mask their illicit dealings. The most famous of these businesses is the S&S Truck Stop, which serves as the unofficial hub of Sheriff Poppell’s illegal activities. Sheriff Poppell condones these businesses as he makes a profit off of them. If tourists complain to the sheriff’s office, Poppell’s deputies threaten to jail the tourists for illegal gambling. State law enforcement officials like Bill Kicklighter are aware of the swindling of tourists that goes on in McIntosh County but are unable to tackle the situation due to Poppell’s control through his network of criminal allies and even his own deputies. The publisher of the local newspaper, Charles M. Williamson, takes on the problem of McIntosh County’s corruption in his newspaper, but the sheriff has money and the court system on his side.

Specifically, Poppell relies upon the “courthouse gang” system in Georgia, in which a handful of county courthouses control large swathes of Georgia. These courthouses have so much power in Georgia because of the state’s unique county unit system, which makes the rural counties a powerful collective voting bloc and gives them disproportionate power. The white men running these courthouses give support to other politicians, who in turn give them special favors. Nonetheless, many residents of McIntosh admire Sheriff Poppell, who goes out of his way to help his people in certain instances, such as giving turkeys to poor families on Thanksgiving. 

The black people in McIntosh County have their own traditions, culture, and slang unique to the community—a community which white people aren’t interested in learning much about, except for Sheriff Poppell. Poppell employs spies in the black community who will recite a bit of gossip or provide information on possible criminal activity in exchange for some special favors—such as food—that the sheriff can provide. Poppell gives these men badges as a way for them to pretend that they have some kind of authority.

Although black people lack money in McIntosh County, they do possess land, which they received following the Civil War from General Sherman. Poppell accepts bribes of land from them in exchange for favors, such as dropping an arrest warrant. Thus, Poppell adds another source of “income” to his wealth and garners the loyalty of black community members like Thorpe, who says of Poppell, “I don’t care what you doing, there going to be somebody around to find fault, but he was a friend to us” (83). One example is Mary Harmon; when Harmon gets in trouble with the authorities in Florida, she tells the local authorities to call Poppell, who puts in a good word for her and secures her release from jail. Poppell also loans money to individuals in need. Nonetheless, Poppell is also rumored to have ordered the killing of his political opponents or anyone who is causing too much trouble in the county.

Poppell even devises a black community organization that will support his interests. He creates the McIntosh County Civic League and sets its goal, which is to place a black man on the county commission. Poppell selects the candidate that the Civic League puts forth and opens a place for the candidate on the county commission. He does this so that McIntosh County can show proof of minority participation in the political process and thus qualify for additional federal funding. The black man Poppell puts on the county commission is none other than Curry. Poppell essentially tells the commission what to do and how to vote. Curry resigns after two years because the committee did not treat him like a true representative of his people.

Poppell replaces Curry with the elderly Thorpe, who protests less than Curry and likes the attention of the white men on the council. The council engages in corrupt acts like approving county funds and equipment for the use of private landowners. This corruption gets Thorpe into trouble when he initially declines to revoke a license for a white-owned establishment in his precinct that has been offering illegal ventures like gambling and prostitution. Williamson, the publisher of the Darien News and an anti-corruption advocate, speaks to Thorpe and urges him to approve to revoke the license. Thorpe does what Williamson asks, and not long after, the building for the Darien News burns down in a likely incident of arson. Thorpe resigns from his position after the event in 1978 after he faces the possibility of going to jail. 

The beginning of this chapter sets the stage for a discussion of the private lives of blacks that have largely gone unchronicled in official history. Greene details how British officials approved the importation of Africans to Georgia in the mid-1700s and how the Scottish immigrants to Darien enslaved them. We’re introduced to Frances “Fanny” Palmer, who is the daughter and granddaughter of slaves. Fanny recalls her grandmother—who raised Fanny—telling her about the backbreaking work that she endured as a slave and how she kept faith in God, though she expresses her faith by attending church. Although Fanny is not a slave, like her grandmother and mother, she also suffers through hard work and keeps faith in religion. Even while impoverished, Fanny’s grandmother takes care of the children, improvising by placing moss on the children’s feet instead of shoes.

Fanny discusses her life caring for her own 11 children. Her husband works as a logger. Her oldest children work in a factory shucking oysters; Fanny works in a factory processing shrimp. She is a tough mother, but she is proud that her children are law-abiding and God-fearing citizens. In her old age, Fanny builds a new wooden house using money from Social Security, but there is a problem: They cannot afford money to purchase sheetrock for the roof. Franny prays to God, giving meaning to the title of this chapter: “Well Lord, don’t know how we’re going to get the Sheetrock. Praise God, I done take the first step; I need you to take the two” (113). Not long after, a truck carrying sheetrock wrecks on the highway, and Fanny receives the sheetrock that she needs for free.