39 pages • 1 hour read
Susan Carol McCarthyLay That Trumpet in Our Hands
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 16-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 16 Summary
The bombings continue, and the Coral Gables Jewish Center is destroyed. While enjoying some peaches from Georgia, the McMahon family hear a loud commotion. Thinking the noise is a wedding party, they run outdoors to take a look. Instead, they see a shiny black Chrysler New Yorker vehicle racing away, pursued by truckloads of Klansmen.
Later, Luther comes in to tell the McMahons the gossip about the black vehicle. The Klansmen thought they were pursuing Thurgood Marshall, but they were actually following two reporters from New York. Reesa believes that the situation has reached a point where more people will get involved, and Luther reveals all his sources as the singers in his church choir, many of whom work in the homes of Klansmen.
Chapter 17 Summary
Reesa goes to Miz Lillian’s beauty salon for her winter permanent wave. She encounters Miz Maggie and Miz Iris, two White women, talking about the bombings and saying that the Black community was getting “uppity.” According to the women, soon the Black people “be wanting” to live near them and to use their toilets. Miz Lillian, also White, comments that it seems like the Klan is responsible for all the trouble. Miz Maggie shouts at Miz Lillian, asking her in shock if she would allow Black customers into her hair salon. Miz Lillian points out that the synagogues and Catholic churches are being bombed as well, and they have no Black members. Miss Opal replies that the bombings are taking place because the Jewish and Catholic people are liberals and communists.
When Reesa gets home, she shares what she heard. Warren says that evil is like kudzu: it appears as a little sprout, and then it covers the whole hillside.
Chapter 18 Summary
After school, the McMahons receive a terrified call from Aunt Maybelle. She asks for Robert to come quickly. Because he is away buying a tractor part, they send Ren instead. Reesa goes along to see if they can help and, when they arrive at the post office, they find Maybelle cornered by a giant rattlesnake. Knowing just what to do, Reesa passes Ren a broom handle, and he proceeds to capture the snake and put it in a mail sack. Later on, Reesa gets a post card from Vaylie with a picture of a snake on the front. She tells Reesa that rattlers are from the viper family.
Chapter 19 Summary
A small group of friends, consisting of Sal and Sophia, the Italian grocers; members of the picking crew; and Luther and Armetta, assemble with the McMahon family to watch the pennant game between the Dodgers and the Giants. Reverend Stone offers up a sincere and eloquent, but humorous prayer that fits the occasion. Dodger caps and blue scarves abound, and everyone present roots for the Dodgers. There is an unspoken idea that the Dodgers are playing in Marvin’s memory. Sal rigs up his small television for everyone to watch the game, and the whole crowd is devastated when the Giants win the pennant.
Chapter 20 Summary
Walter Lee Irvin and Samuel Shepherd, two young Black men accused of raping White women, are receiving a new trial thanks to a Supreme Court decree. This time, the trial is to be held in a different county where the young men are more likely to receive justice. Before they make it to the trial, though, Samuel is shot and killed by Sheriff Willis McCall, and Walter Lee is badly wounded. The sheriff tells an entirely different story; he says he shot Samuel in self-defense, so the coroner and an all-White jury rules it as “justifiable homicide.” Reesa begs her father to let her go with him to the trial. Warren warns Harry to watch his back. Harry answers that he is carrying a loaded weapon.
Chapters 16-20 Analysis
In this section, we see the interconnectedness of the Black community that had essentially infiltrated the Klan members’ homes, reinforcing the thematic importance of the bonds that exist between the members of a community. The ladies of the church choir, who came to be known as Luther’s C.I.A., feed valuable information to him and the McMahon family throughout the rest of the novel. The women use the circumstances of their de facto slavery to their community’s advantage. Their resistance to their oppressors may be passive but it is also very effective. The families of the Klansmen do not realize that their victims are privy to their plots.
The motif of snakes can be traced in this section of the novel when Maybelle becomes trapped inside the post office by a rattler. Ren, who catches rattlesnakes to race them, comes to the rescue. When he retrieves the snake and Maybelle assumes he will kill it, Ren asks her why; to Ren, the snake was simply looking for a good place to rest. This episode demonstrates another important theme of the novel, the conflict between good and evil. Ren’s innate goodness contrasts with the evil that takes place all around him.
