This Is My America

Things go well at dinner until Mrs. Evans accuses Steve of bringing trouble to their business with his work on the case. Mrs. Evans questions the validity of pursuing a new trial for Daddy and suggests that their antique business will suffer if it appears that they are supporting Jamal and the Beaumonts. Mr. Evans shuts her down and Mrs. Evans claims that her feelings have nothing to do with race.

Angry and upset, Tracy goes to the kitchen to wash the dishes and Dean joins her. Before they get there, an explosion erupts outside and sends shattered glass through the room.

Someone threw a brick wrapped in paper and rubber bands through the Beaumont’s front window. As she looks out onto the front lawn, she realizes in horror that a 10-foot-tall cross has been set ablaze and staked into their front lawn.

After putting out the fire, Mr. Evans explains that the FBI seized the land between the Beaumont family’s house and the when the FBI discovered that white supremacists were laundering money there. Tracy realizes that this land was the same land that Daddy and Mr. Davidson were planning to develop. Before the police arrive at the scene, Tracy reads the note wrapped around the brick. The note, signed by “The Brotherhood,” threatens murderous retaliation for another “white [life] lost at the hands of a Beaumont” (268).

Beverly and Officer Clyde arrive at the house. Mama tells Beverly to get the word out about this to the Black people of Crowning Heights so that their community can meet. Steve asks Officer Clyde whether the perpetrator could be the same man who broke into his office, but Officer Clyde states that the man (Richard Brighton) is already in police custody for questioning. Officer Clyde dismisses the severity of the attack and the idea that the Klan could be involved, saying that it was probably some kids playing a joke. Beverly offers to watch the Beaumont’s house for protection.

Steve stays over at the Beaumont’s house that night and Tracy plans a meeting at the community center. Dean comforts Tracy and she shares her suspicions that Chris might have been behind the cross burning, as well as the recruitment flyers she found in Richard Brighton’s car. Tracy begins to cry, and Dean kisses her. As he gets ready to head home for the night, they kiss again with more force, making up for the years they both refused to acknowledge their feelings for each other.

Steve makes breakfast the next morning. Tracy says she will get the word out about that night’s community meeting. Corinne says that she too wants to attend the meeting, and Tracy must confront how much Corinne has endured at such a young age. Just as Jamal always did, she writes a note to Corinne to put in her lunch box.

Steve asks Mama about the events leading up to the Davidson’s murders. Mama says that Daddy was never worried about getting into business with the Davidsons, but that they received odd phone calls and cold treatment in town. Steve again suggests that there could be more to Daddy’s case, which is once again the public consciousness after Jamal’s interview and Innocence X taking on the case.

As Tracy gets ready for school, she hears a noise downstairs. She follows the sound into the woods and runs towards an abandoned shack where she and Jamal used to play. Inside, Tracy finds Jamal. The reunited siblings hug and Jamal tells Tracy that he has been hiding there for the past week. He says he saw the flames from the night’s attack and that he came back to the house to find out what happened.

Tracy asks Jamal to tell her what happened at the Pike the night Angela died. He tells her that Angela did not show up after his shift at work, but that she called him later to meet her at the Pike. When he arrived, he saw Chris already down by the dock and Angela was on the ground. Jamal approached Chris and the two fought, Chris blaming Jamal for her death and then running off to get help. Jamal, unsure of what to do, laid his varsity jacket over Angela and then ran away. He tells Tracy that he did not call the police because Angela was already dead, and that he knew police would not believe him once Chris spoke to his dad. When Tracy suggests that Jamal work with Innocence X to clear his name, Jamal argues that he cannot turn himself in because the justice system works against him as a Black man.

The community meeting is at maximum capacity. Tracy recalls how she lost her faith after the church community shunned them in the initial aftermath of her father’s trial. Tracy sees Quincy and tells him that she has seen Jamal. Quincy warns her again to be careful as Tracy mulls over which direction to pursue next in her investigation. Tracy gets a text from Dean asking if they can talk later. Looking at Quincy, Tracy feels conflicted about her feelings.

Beverly addresses the crowd about what happened the night before and anger erupts when Officer Clyde says that the police believe the threat made to the Beaumonts is not credible. Beverly fields questions and it becomes clear that many in the crowd blame Daddy and Jamal for the unrest.

Tracy speaks next. In her speech, she warns of the growing racial unrest and bias in their community, which targeted her father and now Jamal. She asks everyone to remain vigilant and to right the wrongs done to her father by coming forward with any information they may have with Innocence X. People in the crowd chant “Free James” (309) and eagerly approach Steve for his information. Dean finds Tracy after the meeting and asks her to leave with him so they can discuss their relationship, but Tracy tells him she will meet him afterwards.

At Dean’s later, the friends try to sort through their complicated feelings for one another. Tracy realizes that although she loves Dean, her present circumstances are pulling her further away from him. She asks Dean if they can go back to being friends, and while he agrees, he admits that he loves her. Tracy realizes that while she loves Dean, his mother’s racism and the racial divide between them “will always try to push us apart” (315), which prevents her from loving him as more than a friend. Mrs. Evans calls Dean inside and Dean tells Tracy to wait in his father’s study. Inside, she sees open boxes all over his desk, and upon further inspection of their contents, her dread overcomes her.

Tracy holds a graphic photo of a lynching. Standing around the body are members of the Ku Klux Klan, women, and children, all white. Dean is shocked when he enters the study and Tracy shows him the photograph and recognizes his mother and then his grandfather, the Grand Wizard. Dean sifts through another box and finds a white cloak and Klan meeting attendance records, which reveals the extent of his grandfather’s involvement in the Klan, and his parents’ knowledge of it. As Dean struggles to come to terms with this truth, Tracy feels herself pulling further away from him. Tracy convinces Dean to let her take a box to take a closer look to see if any of its contents can help exonerate her family.

Tracy goes straight to Quincy’s house after leaving Dean. As they look through the contents together, Quincy admits that he has feelings for Tracy. Tracy and Quincy confront the fact that their shared family trauma pushed them apart, and Tracy decides that she can no longer deny their bond.

Tracy and Quincy research the history of the Klan and white nationalists in Texas and find a story about an FBI raid in Crowning Heights, which resulted in charges against Richard Brighton for illegal gun ownership and racketeering, but no conviction. Tracy then finds evidence that the body in the photograph is of a Vietnamese shrimp packer named Minh Nguyen, who went missing the same day as the photograph was taken. No one investigated or reported on his disappearance. Quincy warns Tracy to avoid this and to turn in her findings to Steve, but Tracy feels an increasing pressure to reveal the secrets tied up in Daddy’s trial.