Summary

In the ninth grade, Brittany could no longer tolerate her mother’s erratic behavior, and decided to permanently move in with her grandparents and attend high school in the nearby town of Commerce. Although she missed and loved her mother and Jazz, she internalized the message she received from the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program at school that drug addicts were morally flawed or lacked willpower.

Commerce was significantly larger than Fulbright, with a population of eight thousand and a larger Black community. Brittany attended boisterous parties at the Commerce Texas A&M college campus with her friends and continued to excel academically. At the same time, she was exposed to racism—Commerce was a “sundown town,” a southern town where Black people were historically in constant danger of being lynched after the sun set. The effects of...