Black Boy: Chapter 8 Summary & Analysis

The summer after eighth grade arrives (summer 1924), and Richard must once again look for full-time work. He works for a woman named Mrs. Bibbs doing odd jobs, and asks if her husband, who is foreman at a sawmill, can get him work there. When Richard visits, though, he is startled by the heavy lifting, the buzz of the machines, and the dangerous nature of the work, and he decides to find something else. One afternoon, he is walking down the street and runs into a friend from school, Ned Greenley. Ned's brother Bob has been killed recently by angry whites who believed that Bob (an employee at a local hotel) slept with a white prostitute. Richard is so rattled by this news, and by the violence with which whites “deal with” black people, that he takes a day off from his job search and ruminates alone on his porch.

Richard discovers that his Uncle Tom has been keeping all his children away from Richard, since Tom still fears that Richard is violent and unhinged (from the episode, several years back, in which Richard defended himself with razors). Richard begins his ninth-grade school year, again working for Mrs. Bibbs, and vows to leave Jackson at the end of the year. His brother returns to Jackson to visit from Chicago, where he has moved (Wright first reports this move here). Richard realizes that his family members love and respect his brother more than Richard, and wonders how he, too, can flee to the North and start his own life.

Richard does well in school, and is named valedictorian of his ninth-grade class. He also helps the teacher to teach the class from time to time, an honor conferred only on the best students. He is selected to give a speech at the graduation ceremony, and soon afterward is called into the principal’s office, where the principal gives him an “official” speech Richard is to read. Richard, who has written his own speech, is offended that the principal would attempt to dictate his remarks, but the principal notes that the graduation will be open to both black and white families, and Richard, he claims, does not know enough to be able to speak effectively to both groups.

Richard stubbornly continues to want to read his own speech, even after Tom tells him (after having read both speeches) that the principal’s is more polished. Richard borrows money from Mrs. Bibbs, buys a suit (his first), and delivers his own speech, which is received mostly with silent indifference by the audience. The principal has indicated that Richard’s stubbornness will likely cost him a teaching job in the school district, despite Richard’s high grades, but Richard believes he has done the right thing by reading his own remarks in the face of overwhelming pressure to conform to the school’s policies.