Essay Questions

Deconstruct Hiram’s observation regarding Grampa’s workers.

Grampa talked to him (Mr. Irwin) and then Mr. Irwin told the field hands whatever it was Grampa wanted them to do. They were all colored men. I never saw a white man working Grampa’s fields.” This observation implies that the farm Jobs are meant for the lowly colored folks. It would be illogical for the whites to toil as labourers when they are the predominant investors in the farms. Additionally, Grampa deems the ‘farm hands’ inferior to the extent that he hardly interacts with them; he communicates to them through the boss. The farm jobs allude to the inherent racial inequality which Grampa perpetuates.

How does Jim Crow impact education in Mississippi?

Mr. Paul asserts, “This is Mississippi, Hiram. The south. Most colored schools are lucky to see ten cents of every school tax dollar. The rest goes to the white schools, the kind you went to when you lived here. Jim Crow laws keep things separate not equal, and if those White Citizens’ council have anything to say about it, Jim Crow will rule the South until doomsday.” The manifest disparity in the subsidizing of schools illustrates the magnitude to which colored students are imperiled in terms of education. The inefficiently funded cannot afford superior quality of education comparable to that delivered in ‘white schools.’ It would be impracticable for schools to amend the learner’s ideology concerning race while Jim Crow is binding.