Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

On Saturday morning, about a week after the white men drove to the Logans’ home, Cassie churns butter. Big Ma and Mary worry that she and her brothers seem listless or sick. Cassie reveals that she told her brothers about the white men. She loses her balance, falls, and breaks a dish. Mary sends Cassie to sit with her brothers, who listen to T.J. tell them how to avoid hard work. T.J. attempts to excite the Logan children with gossip and schemes, but they resist his attempts until he brings up the “night men” (73). T.J. says that the white men Cassie saw tarred and feathered a Black man for quarrelling with Jim Lee Barnett, a white shopkeeper. The Logans privately feel relief that the school bus accident did not motivate the white men, after all. Christopher-John and Little Man wonder if the white men will tar and feather the Logans should they learn the truth about the bus. When T.J. lingers inside their home, the Logan children suspect him of trying to steal test answers from Mary’s book. T.J. denies any wrongdoing.

Cassie tells how she and her younger brothers have taken to Mr. Morrison, who now lives in a shack on their property.