illustrated close-up of Kenny Watson with fire in the background behind him

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

by Christopher Paul Curtis

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Chapter 9 Summary

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On Sunday, Kenny again gets up early, and he finds his father in the Brown Bomber listening to records on the Ultra Glide. Kenny joins him, and after they sit companionably through “a couple of jive songs,” Kenny asks Dad if Byron really has to go to Alabama. After thinking for a minute, Dad tells Kenny that though they will all miss Byron, he has some important things to learn, and despite all that Momma and Dad have done in an effort to guide him, Byron is not progressing in the right direction. Dad asks Kenny if he remembers some of the things he has seen on the news about events going on in the South right now, and Kenny recalls seeing “really mad White people . . . screaming and giving dirty finger signs to some little Negro kids who were trying to go to school.” Dad tells Kenny that it is a tough and hostile world that Byron will soon have to face and that he will need to be ready. Dad hopes that by spending time down South, Byron will not only get “an idea of the kind of place the world can be” but will also be away from the temptations that he cannot seem to escape in Flint.

Later, Joey and Kenny are playing in the living room when their neighbor Mrs. Davidson comes over. Having heard that the Watsons are leaving for a while, she has brought a gift for Joey so Joey will not forget about her. Joey carefully opens the gift and discovers an angel made of white clay with “big wings and a halo made out of straw.” Joey is a little disturbed when Mrs. Davidson tells her that the angel looks like her, but she is polite and thanks the woman kindly. When Mrs. Davidson has gone, Momma goes upstairs to talk to her little girl. She tells Joey that she is proud of her behavior and asks her what is wrong. Joey is troubled that the angel reminds Mrs. Davidson of her; in Joey’s estimation, it doesn’t look like her at all because it is white. Momma gently tells Joey to keep the angel and suggests that she might get to like it someday, but Joey hides it in a drawer under her socks.

Everyone has been busy getting ready for the upcoming trip except Byron. On the night before they are scheduled to leave, Momma and Dad tell Byron that he will be sleeping in their room that night. Joey, in an attempt to keep her brother out of trouble, has told their parents that Byron is planning to run away to Buphead’s house so he will not have to go to Alabama; now his plans to make a “prison break” have been foiled. At nine o’clock the next morning, the family sets out on the highway. Momma has every detail of their trip planned in a notebook titled “The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963.” She has predetermined how far they will travel each day, where and when they will stop, what they will eat, and who will get the window seats on each leg of the journey. She has brought books, puzzles, and games to keep the children busy. She even went to the library to research the places they will be passing through so she can tell everyone about them as they go along.

Kenny had heard Byron tell Buphead that if he did end up going to Alabama, he was going to get back at his parents by refusing to talk the whole way there. The family gets no further than Detroit, however, before he breaks down and asks excitedly if he can be the first to choose a song for the Ultra Glide. Kenny takes the opportunity to give Byron a hard time about not doing what he said he would. The two brothers get into a tussle in the back seat, and Dad has to reprimand them. Byron continues to make faces at Kenny, but Kenny is happy because for once he has been able to bug Byron more than Byron has bugged him.

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