With the Might of Angels Read Online Free PDF

Woolworth’s. We can be thirstier than sand in the desert, but we can’t drink water from a fountain if that fountain’s wearing a sign that says “Whites Only.”
    The same is true for swimming pools,restaurants, and the Hadley Motor Hotel. They’re all segregated.
    Here is one more definition of
segregation
from
The Dictionary of Dawnie:
    Segregation: Stupid.
    Integration: Pie-in-the-sky.
Sunday, June 13, 1954
Diary Book,
    After church today, a strange lady came to our house. She had two men with her. I know most folks in Hadley, and most folks know me and my family. But I had never seen the likes of these people. The men were Negroes, but the lady was white. I could tell by the looks of them they were not from around here.
    I have never in all my whole life seen a white person come into our house with so much ease! She had a weird way of talking, too. Or, maybe I should say
tawlking.
Every other word out of her mouth had a saw behind it. She asked Daddy if it was okay that she’d parked their
caw
in our driveway. And she didn’t
tawlk
about her ideas — she was full of
idears.
    Even her clothes were not right. I’m smart for book learning, but I am no expert on girlyfashion-y stuff. I do know, though, that wearing a black dress in the middle of the afternoon is what people do only for funerals. And I have never seen lipstick that dark on a real live person.
    The Negro men wore suits, but the suit jackets had wide lapels and cuffed pants. Definitely not something I’ve ever seen in Hadley.
    The not-from-around-here people spent near to a whole hour sitting in our living room. Drinking lemonade from our glasses, and
tawlking, tawlking, tawlking
to Mama and Daddy about their
idears.
    I was outside near an open window, so I caught snatches of what they were saying. I heard something about my Stepping Up speech.
    Goober must have sensed something weird, too. He was very restless. He kept snatching my pogo stick and trying to slam his feet on it, and singing and screeching, “Dawnie can fly! Dawnie can fly!”
    Finally, the people left. On the porch, Mama and Daddy shook their hands, even.
    The white lady in the black dress gave Mama a hug! Right outside where everybody could see.
    Goober and I were in the side yard. I’d given up my pogo stick to Goober. It was the only way to keep him quiet. We watched the not-from-around-herepeople drive away in their
caw.
    As soon as they were out of sight, I raced inside.
    “Did somebody die?”
Saturday, June 19, 1954
Diary Book,
    Here’s a secret I’m embarrassed to admit out loud, because it seems like a pie-in-the-sky wish that can’t ever come true.
    When I grow up, I want to be a doctor. I want people to call me “Dr. Dawnie Rae Johnson.”
    Other than studying hard, I’m not real sure on how I could get to become a doctor. I
do
know that I would have to first learn enough to be smart enough to somehow go to college, then doctor school.
    What I
don’t
know is how you get the learning you need that puts you
into
college so you can go to doctor school after that.
    What I also
do
know is that whatever books and supplies a kid needs to learn the stuff to go to college, and then to doctor school, are not at Bethune. And what I also
don’t
know is anyone who’s ever gone to college.
    That’s why Dr. Dawnie Rae Johnson is as far away as Mars.
Tuesday, June 22, 1954
Diary Book,
    Daddy brought me a present — a new Jackie Robinson baseball card! I have now read the stats on the card at least a hundred times. I’m tucking the card in my diary’s safe gutter to mark today’s date as the day the card got to be mine. The stuff about Jackie is sure nifty. Here are some Jackie facts:
    * Jack Roosevelt “Jackie” Robinson
    * Major League Baseball Debut: April 15, 1947, for the Brooklyn Dodgers
    * Received the Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award in 1947
    * The first Negro player to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award in 1949
    * Bats: Right
    *