A Thousand Never Evers

The Black community gathers in the church. They agree that someone must have planted weeds in the garden to ruin the crops. The group sings and prays together, and then the reverend asks everyone to leave so that he can discuss their plan of action with the Brigade.

Having skipped school, Cool Breeze and Addie Ann cannot go home yet, so they sit with Delilah. Addie Ann realizes that the ruined garden will mean a food shortage, so the three decide to buy what they can from the store.

At the store, Addie Ann waits outside because of Flapjack while Delilah and Cool Breeze go in. Hope Worth comes up to her and tells her that members of the community had a meeting, and they decided that Uncle Bump must have ruined the garden as revenge for Elias.

Addie Ann rushes home to tell Uncle Bump. She runs through the forest, where she comes across a man with a shovel digging a hole. It strikes her as strange, but as the man yells at Flapjack, she keeps running.

Back at home, Addie Ann and Mama try to convince Uncle Bump that he needs to run and hide, but he refuses. After Reverend Walker comes and speaks with him, and he still refuses, he informs Addie Ann and Mama that “there comes a time for a man when his dignity’s worth more than his life” and that “this is Bump’s time” (175).

That afternoon, the sheriff comes for Uncle Bump. Reverend Walker, Mama, and Addie Ann continue to try to convince him to run, but he refuses. Mama and Addie Ann go to Elmira to get help.

Elmira uses oils and medicine to calm Mama down. Addie Ann, however, realizes that she cannot just sit there and runs back outside.

Addie Ann sees that a mob has set fire to her house and Uncle Bump’s shed and that the sheriff has taken Uncle Bump. He is going to be held in jail overnight for trial the next day.

Addie Ann is led by Bessie into a milkweed field and left. As she looks around in confusion, Elias appears. She begins sobbing at the thought of him finally returning after 96 days.

Elias informs her that he has been hiding the whole time but gives her little information about where or how. Instead, he tells her that she needs to know the truth about their father: He was murdered.

She promises Elias that she will tell their family’s story and help the Black community rally together to save Uncle Bump.

Addie Ann runs back to her burning home and yells to the assembled Black community. She sends Delilah and Cool Breeze to different towns to spread the word of what happened. Everyone begins to listen to her as they gather around her to march to the jailhouse. Once there, they are joined by people from all over the county, and they form a chain around the jailhouse.

The reverend quiets the crowd so that Addie Ann can tell her story while Uncle Bump listens from inside the jail. She tells them that her father, Brayburn Pickett, was one of the best architects in the area and used to build homes in Nashville, Tennessee. He moved to Mississippi because he was tired of building homes for white people.

The white mayor of the town asked Brayburn to build him a home, but Brayburn refused. The mayor came with a group of Klansmen; forced Elias, Mama, and Uncle Buck from their home; and then burned it down with Brayburn inside.

Addie Ann nearly breaks while telling the story but realizes that the community needs to hear the story to have the motivation to finally stand up for themselves. She tells them how Buck saved her family by helping her mom raise four-year-old Elias and Addie Ann, who was born shortly after the death of her father. As she finishes, the group begins to sing, and Addie Ann collapses to the ground in exhaustion.