The Chicago Defender Sends a Man to Little Rock

Brooks’s free verse poem has 60 lines that are broken up into 14 stanzas. The first-person speaker is a reporter from the Chicago Defender newspaper. The subtitle, “Fall, 1957,” alludes to, or references, the events that occurred when Little Rock Central High School was desegregated.

The first stanza introduces a major theme of the poem: how white people who engage in acts of racism can appear non-threatening and similar to Black people. According to the speaker, the residents of Little Rock, Arkansas live normal lives. For instance, they “watch the want ads” (Line 3), which means—at the time—to look through the section of a newspaper that advertises job openings. This working-class characterization makes the residents relatable. This highlights how average, relatable people can be prejudiced.

The first stanza also introduces the color motif that runs throughout the poem. A woman doesn’t notice that her “wheat toast burns” (Line 4), and burnt toast is “brownish,” a color that is repeated near the end of the poem. Rather than the racially ambiguous word “people” (Line 1), this specific female resident seems to be white. This gives the reading about toast more depth. A white woman being ignorant, either intentionally or unintentionally, is a kind of mundane nefariousness when the connection is made between the color of the toast and discrimination based on skin color.