KATIE SKOTTY
Diary Project
E NTRY 1
Dear Diary,
Today was the first day of school. My brothers, Cassie, and I walked to school in our clean Sunday clothes and shoes. Mama made us wear them and Cassie and I hated wearing dresses. Little Man was concentrating on keeping his clothes and shoes clean, carefully stepping down the dusty road. All of the sudden, a boy
Stacey's age came out of the dense forest on the road side followed by his younger brother, Claude. The older boy was T.J. Avery, a classmate of Stacey. Stacey was not looking forward to today. He was in Mama's class this year. "Cheer up!" said T.J. "Your mama is a great teacher! I took her class last year!" It didn't make Stacey feel any better. We all stopped, listening. We heard a low rumbling sound coming from behind us. Suddenly, a big, yellow bus came hurtling down the road straight towards us. All of us sprinted up the bank and into the forest at the top. Well, all of us except Little Man, refusing to get his clean clothes dirty. He turned around and starred wide eyed at the bus zooming towards him, then attempted to run up the bank, but it was too late and the bus rode by and coated him in red dust. He was furious. When we got to school, we went our separate ways to our classrooms. Little Man, Cassie, and I were in the same class. Cassie and I was fourth grade and he was first. Mrs. Crocker handed out books today but Little Man, Cassie, and I did not accept them after we saw what we had been called in the front cover. In black, neat lettering the word nigra had been written. So Long,
Abigail 2
E NTRY 2
Dear Diary,
Today we picked cotton. I think Big Ma was nervous and thought that we would fall. "You children be careful!" she said as she put her big hands on our backs as we climbed to the top. Each of us on our own stalk, reached the top and picked the last of the cotton puffs. We handed them down to Big Ma and she put them in her
cotton bag. Slowly made our way back to the ground. The poles for the cotton were tall and had strong spikes sticking out of the side to climb. Once I reached the top of the next stalk, Big Ma started to ask me something but I didn't listen. At the top of the pole, I could see two people walking on the street. Cassie must have seen it also. She was staring at the road. We look at each other and in unison, yelled, "PAPA!" We quickly descended the stalks and ran towards the road. Our brothers were close behind us. We reached the people and were embraced in a strong hug by Papa. We could feel and hear the cool fall wind. It felt good to be in Papa's arms.
Sincerely,
Abigail
4
E NTRY 3
Dear Diary,
When Papa came, we took no notice to the second man standing there. He was very tall and muscular. He frightened me. When we got home, we sat down in the living space which doubled as Mama's room. It was a cozy home and made you feel comfortable. We all sat down, anxious to spend time with Papa,
who we rarely got see. Papa explained to us that The other man, Mr. Morrison was going to stay with us for a while. He had lost his job on the railroad. He got in a fight with some other employees. "The other men didn't lose their jobs. They were white," said Mr. Morrison. "When are you leaving Papa?" I asked? "Sunday," he replied. "SUNDAY?" we all complained. Today was Saturday. " Thats tomorrow!" said Little Man. We were sad that he had to leave so soon.
Love,
Abigail
6
E NTRY 4
Dear Diary,
Today on the way to school, T.J. had cheat notes for the test that was happening today. Stacey took them but T.J. made another page of them. After school, Cassie, my brothers, and I waited on Stacey to get out of class before we walked home. All of the sudden, T.J. came sprinting out of the room. Once Stacey came
out, he looked so mad, you could almost feel the anger radiating off of him. Someone told us which way T.J. went and we followed Stacey in that direction. We asked him what had happened and why he was so mad. He told us that T.J. was using the cheat notes during the test when he saw Mama heading towards him. He then quickly gave the notes to Stacey just in time for her to see Stacey with the notes. Stacey got in trouble for something he didn't do. I have to go but I will continue this story in my next entry.
Until Next Time,
Abigail
8
E NTRY 5
Dear Diary,
To continue the story about T.J. cheating, we were trying to figure out where T.J. had gone. One kid directed us down a road. Thats where the Wallace store is. "Pap told us not to go there!" I cried to Stacey looking tempted to go. "I will go," he said, " You all go on home." We refused to go home without Stacey. We all
ended up going. We got the Wallace store and went to the back room and found T.J. He ran outside followed by Stacey. T.J. was fast, but not as fast as Stacey. Stacey attacked T.J. and they broke into a fight on the ground. Fists were flying when Mr. Morrison walked up and picked up Stacey. By the look on his face you could tell Mr. Morrison was disappointed in us. He took us back to the wagon and on the way back home, talked to us about what happened. He agreed not to tell Mama about what happened, but convinced Stacey to tell her.
Sincerely,
Abigail
10
E NTRY 6
Dear Diary,
Today I went to Strawberry for the first time. It was a bad day to me. Big Ma set up our wagon far from the entrance of the market. I found out that was because of our skin color. T.J. was with us so while Big Ma was doing something, Cassie, Stacey, and I went to the store with T.J. Mr. Barnett was filling our order
when he was called over by some other people. We had waited for a while so Cassie went and told him that he had forgotten about us and that he was helping us first. When he turned around, his face was red with anger. He yelled, "Whose little nigger is this?" He told Cassie not to come back until Mama had explained the way things work in the world. We left the store. When I was walking, Cassie ran into Lillian Jean. Her dad twisted Cassie's arm and pushed her. She had to apologize to Lillian Jean. On the ride back home, I could hear the clomp of Jack's hooves on the dirt road as I thought about the day.
Love,
Abigail
12
E NTRY 7
Dear Diary,
Today Uncle Hammer came to visit. Cassie told him what had happened in Strawberry. I could see the anger and fury on his face. Him and Mr. Morrison grabbed guns, got into Uncle Hammer's car, and drove away. You could almost smell the fear in the room. Mama and Big Ma were worried. "Mr. Morrison will bring him
back," commented Christopher John, trying to make them feel better. My Uncle was mad that Mr. Simms, Lillian Jeans' dad, had hurt Cassie, and was going to hurt him. I knew that if Mr. Simms was hurt, Uncle Hammer would be in trouble. I secretly hoped that Mr. Simms would get what he deserved.
So Long,
Abigail
14
E NTRY 8
Dear Diary,
Today, Papa was here and Mr. Morrison, T.J., and him went to Strawberry. Â It was getting late and the rest of us were getting worried because they were not home yet, they normally would have been home by now. Â I could see the fear in Mama's and Big Ma's eyes, yet they remained calm and told Cassie, Christopher John,
Little Man, and I to get to bed. I couldn't sleep knowing that the boys were still out. "Papa!" I said excitedly, seeing the wagon out the window. I ran into the sitting room to find Mama and Big Ma looking happy that they were home. That was until we saw them coming to the house. Papa was being carried by Mr. Morrison and Stacey. The put him on Mama's bed and I saw that him leg was broken and there was blood running down his face. Stacey told my brothers, sister, and I what had happened. The wagon wheels had come off on the way back home. They were fixing them when a car pulled up and a man got out and shot Papa. He fell and the wagon rolled over his leg. We were all scared and I could hear the voices of the adults in the other room, making me even more scared. A splint was made for Papas leg and he was okay when I woke up in the morning. He was just badly injured and stayed in bed most of the day. I hope he will be okay.
Love,
Abigail 16
E NTRY 8
Dear Diary,
Last night T.J. came to our house. He look terribly hurt and you could see the pain on his face. He told us that R.W. and Melvin, Lillian Jean and Jeremy's brothers, had beaten him. He lifted his shirt up and showed us blue, bruised skin. We all gasped in fear. He begged us to take him home. We considered to refuse since he
had gotten Mama fired. He was scared to go alone because he thought that R.W. and Melvin would find him and hurt him even more. They had forced him to rob the store in Strawberry and they had also him Mr. Barnett and his wife in the head and knocked them out. T.J. coughed up blood and we knew that he was being serious. We agreed to take him home. All of my siblings and I went out into the stormy night. Once we got to T.J.'s house, he crawled through an open window. We were about to go home, when we saw bright headlights down the road. We dashed into the forest and got down on our bellies, careful to be quiet. The cars pulled up to T.J.'s house and the men in them got out and dragged T.J. and his family out of their house.
Until Next Time,
Abigail
18
E NTRY 10
Dear Diary,
On the way back to the house, Little Man, Christopher John, Cassie, and I were quiet. We were scared. We were scared for Stacey, T.J., Mr. Morrison and our family. When we got home, we told Mr. Morrison and Papa what had happened to T.J. and what was happening at his house. Even with Papa's hurt leg, he got
up and Mr. Morrison and him got guns and left the house. The room was silent. We were all frozen with fear. I started sobbing. I was scared for everyone. We were shivering with fear. I could also see a look of fear plastered across Mama's face but she stayed strong. I began to smell smoke. "The cotton!" yelled Mama as she looked out the window at the burning field. Big Ma and her told us to stay inside no matter what and then rushed out the door to stop the fire. We all stayed inside and worried about everything. We had waited for quite a while when Jeremy came up to the door. We excitedly asked him what was going on. He told us that the cotton had caught fire and that everyone thinks it was the lightning that started to fire. We went outside and saw everyone working to stop the fire. Everyone had come together, no matter what race, to work for one goal. Little Man and Christopher John stayed behind, but Stacey, Cassie, and I went near where Papa was talking to someone. What we heard them talk about was shocking. Papa had started the fire. He created a distraction to save T.J. and his family. He did that even though he knew that we would be losing money for the burned cotton. Papa told us that T.J. had been put in jail. He was blamed for the death of Mr. Barnett. He might even be put on the chain gang. I had never really liked T.J., but I thought he would always be there. That night, before I laid my head down on my pillow, I cried for T.J. and everything that had happened today, and I prayed a long prayer for everybody. Sincerely,
Abigail 20