Contents
Chapter 11: Vernice
Overview
Vernice struggles with makeshift clothes and unwanted attention at her library job while missing her lost luggage. Joette enlists her pale cousin Marylinda to impersonate a white customer and reclaim the bags without a claim ticket. The tense bargain exposes class, colorism, and differing ideas of “race work,” while underscoring Vernice’s isolation and need.
Summary
Vernice adjusts to life as a new Spelman coed by altering ill-fitting clothes and enduring her library boss’s suggestive touching. She longs for the lost suitcases taken when she was ejected from a Jim Crow bus. Joette suggests the bags likely sit at the Atlanta station but notes Vernice lacks proof of ownership.
They visit Joette’s cousin Marylinda in a ground-floor dorm room nicknamed the Underground Railroad. Vernice recounts the bus incident, while Marylinda interrogates details and mentions plans for law school and civil rights work. Joette proposes a practical solution: have the very pale Marylinda pose as white to claim the luggage.
A debate follows over “race work,” with Marylinda criticizing Joette’s absence from protests and Joette insisting this ruse will exploit racist assumptions. Vernice, feeling the ache of lacking family and proper clothes, offers her scarce money and explains the emotional value of the bags.
Moved yet annoyed, Marylinda accepts two dollars and agrees to try, asking for the bags’ color. She flips off Joette and vows it’s the last time. The plan sets in motion a risky retrieval that could restore Vernice’s belongings while exposing the fraught hierarchies within their community.
Who Appears
- Vernice (Niecy)Spelman coed; struggling with makeshift clothes and a lecherous boss; seeks help to recover lost luggage.
- JoetteVernice’s roommate; strategizes that cousin Marylinda can pass as white to reclaim the luggage.
- MarylindaJoette’s pale cousin; future law aspirant; reluctantly agrees, for two dollars, to pose white at the bus station.