Summary

In this chapter the author reveals the complexities of the housing issue in Durham and we see how Ann evolved from a passive victim of poverty into an engaged and powerful activist. The chapter opens when Anne visited a welfare office to request government financial assistance. A single mother of two young girls, Ann had major health problems that kept her from working. She could not afford her rent and faced eviction from her squalid, neglected, shanty-like house. She didn’t want government assistance, but she was desperate. At the welfare office, white female clerical workers humiliated Ann and she had to control the rage.

A few days later, two black activists from an anti-poverty organization knocked on Ann’s door and invited her to a community meeting. One of the activists, Howard Fuller, explained to Ann that the government was never going to...