Black Boy Chapter Summary & Analysis - Chapter 15 Summary

Chapter 15 Summary

Richard arrives in Chicago in 1927, along with his Aunt Maggie, and is depressed at his first sight of its dirty, smoky ghettos. Despite his depression, however, Richard immediately notices that the outward signs of the race-based restrictions of the south are nowhere to be seen in his first glimpse of the city. There are no "For White" or "For Colored" signs, whites and blacks move about alongside each other without blacks having to give deference to whites. Richard buys his first newspaper without having to wait until a white person is served first. Richard takes a seat on a streetcar, next to a white man, and marvels at the fact that it would have been illegal for him to do so in the south.

Just as the visible signs of social restrictions are not to be found so, too, the sights of sounds of a life lived in the...
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