“It is. She’s been arrested, fingerprinted, and released on bail. She’s the secretary of the NAACP there, and between Thursday when she was arrested and the bail hearing on Monday, people in Montgomery organized themselves. Oh, you wouldn’t believe what they did in such a short time! Mimeographed off thirty-two thousand flyers, strung them all over the city, and declared that on Monday, Negroes should refuse to ride the bus. That was days ago, Roxanne. They’re still off the buses. They’re gonna stay off the buses till they get some changes. It’s mostly black folks who ride the buses, anyway, and the city of Montgomery is gonna feel the pinch, and soon.”

“What does that have to do with the suitcase you brought home?”

“Mr. Branch’s old college friend from the Alabama State College for Negroes telephoned him this afternoon. Mr. Branch called us all into his office to listen to Reverend Cooke on the speaker. He and some other leaders of the NAACP have set up the Montgomery Improvement Association, and they got a dynamic young preacher to lead it.”

“But the suitcase?” I insisted.

“When we got off the phone, Mr. Branch just looked at me and said, ‘You wanna go to Alabama, Terrence? We’ll send you.’”

“But you wanted to go to Mississippi for the Emmett Till trial, and he wouldn’t let you!”

“That was outrage. This is action. Black people just always expect the back of the bus. And that’s where white folks expect to see them. But now, well, there’s no one in the back of the bus, and there’s not gonna be anyone in the back of the bus until those old habits, expectations, yes, even those laws!—till they get broken up and set to rights. This is gonna change what people think. What they expect to see. This is the first big step since Reconstruction.”

“But what’s the point of living in California if you’re just going to go back to Alabama? We don’t have laws like that here.”