"They were day laborers, who picked cotton for wages, and day laborers were the least paid and the worst treated of the farming community. For them life was even harder than it was for the rest of us." Chapter 1, pg. 5

"'That water in there and them toilets, they belong to the white folks, and the white folks don't want no colored folks using neither one."' Chapter 2, pg. 59

"...cotton sustained life, and no matter how greatly learning was respected, the cotton had to be planted, chopped, weeded and picked if the family was to survive. Few parents expected their children to do any work other than what they and their parents had done, and education was usually sacrificed if a choice had to be made between it and the fields." Chapter 4, pg. 89

"'Then them night men took to the road. Tarrin' black folks goin' to vote, beatin' 'em...