Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

In March, the black school is about to finish up the year, while the white school continues until mid-May. Jeremy is sad about this, since he says he’ll be lonely without them, and he doesn’t much like his brothers and sister. Stacey finds it a little shocking that a person wouldn’t like his own kin, but Cassie says she doesn’t blame him—she doesn’t like the other Simms either. Jeremy reveals that his older brothers have been hanging around T.J. and don’t treat him very well, making fun of him behind his back.

Cassie asks Mama later why the older Simms boys hang around T.J., and Mama says that it probably makes them feel better to make fun of him. Then Mr. Jamison arrives, but he says he wants to speak to Papa, who’s working in the fields. Mr. Jamison walks over to talk to him, and Mama sends the children back to their chores. That night, when the adults are washing up for dinner, Cassie overhears Mama asking Papa what Mr. Jamison wanted. Papa pauses before he says that Mr. Jamison overheard one of the Wallaces saying about how he’s going to put a stop to the boycott. Mama is scared of what might happen, but Papa tells her not to worry about it yet.

After school lets out, Papa still hasn’t gone back to the railroad. Cassie hopes that he won’t go back at all, but on the following Sunday, Papa says that he’ll have to—he hasn’t returned yet because he’s afraid something will happen with the boycott and the Wallaces, but the family needs his income. Two black sharecroppers on Mr. Granger’s land, Mr. Lanier and Mr. Avery, arrive at the Logans’ house during this conversation and say that they can no longer shop in Vicksburg. Mr. Granger has threatened to put them on a chain gang and is making them pay a higher percentage of their cotton yields. Papa says he understands. After the men leave, Stacey is indignant that the men pulled out of the boycott. Papa tells him that they had no choice—participating in the boycott in the first place was a huge risk. They aren’t as fortunate as the Logans because they don’t own land.

Later in the night, Cassie eavesdrops on her parents and hears that Papa plans to go to Vicksburg the next day. Mama thinks he should wait a while for things to cool down a bit, but Papa refuses. He wants to bring Stacey with him so that Stacey can learn a bit about conducting business—he doesn’t want Stacey to be a fool like T.J. Mama comments that T.J. is getting out of hand. One of these days, he’s going to get into serious trouble. The next day, Papa visits the families involved in the boycott and finds out that only seven of them are still boycotting the Wallace store. Mama says that this isn’t enough to affect the Wallace’s bottom line, just enough to get them mad, but she can’t change Papa’s mind, and he goes to Vicksburg on Wednesday with Stacey and Mr. Morrison.

On Thursday, when they’re supposed to return, it begins to storm heavily. The men haven’t returned as scheduled, and the entire family gets worried. Mama sends the children to bed, but Cassie gets up later and watches as Mama and Big Ma wait for the men. Mama wants to ride out and look for them, but then they hear a sound outside, and Mama runs out to meet the men. Mr. Morrison is carrying Papa in his arms, and he sends Stacey inside first. Mr. Morrison says that the wagon rolled over onto Papa’s leg, but he doesn’t look Mama in the eye when he says this.

Later on, the children hear the story from Stacey: when they were returning from Vicksburg, someone had sabotaged their wagon and the wheels came off. While Mr. Morrison and Papa were trying to fix it, a truck drove up behind them. They didn’t hear the truck because of the rain, and then someone shot Papa, and the bullet grazed his temple. The shot scared the horse, causing the wagon to roll over Papa’s leg. Mr. Morrison fought the men, possibly injuring them badly.