Black Boy: Chapter 9 Summary & Analysis

It is 1925, and Richard is 17, looking for full-time employment year-round. He takes a position as an assistant at a clothing store, owned by a white family, which sells clothing to black people “on credit.” One day Richard observes that the white family brings a black woman into the shop and beats her in the back because she has not yet paid her bills. Richard becomes even more attuned to the cruelties white people inflict openly on black people in Jackson. Another day, Richard is making deliveries on a bicycle when he is picked up by a few white boys in a truck, who offer to give him a ride and appear to be nice to Richard. But when they offer him a drink and he declines without calling the boys “sir,” the boys throw a bottle at his face, causing him to bleed, and leave him behind, saying Richard should “be more careful” around whites; otherwise he could be killed.

Another evening when is making deliveries on his bike, Richard is pulled over by a white cop, who tells Richard to tell his boss not to send him on errands “in white neighborhoods at night.” Finally, Richard’s white boss calls him in and asks why Richard doesn’t “joke and laugh” like the other black employees. When Richard responds that “there isn’t much to smile about,” the man fires him, afraid of and angered by his “impudent” attitude toward white authority.

Richard tries to hold down a series of similar jobs working for whites in Jackson, but he is let go for his “rudeness”: his inability to appear jovial when chastised by white authority. Richard asks his friend Griggs, a former school classmate, if Griggs can find him a job, and Griggs replies that he might be able to, but that Richard must learn to get out of white people’s way in public, to appear always deferential to them, and to call them “sir.” After a few days, Griggs says he can set up an appointment soon with a northerner named Crane, who runs an optometrist shop and needs a black assistant. Griggs stresses that, although Crane will be relatively kind to black people, Richard must be well-behaved and deferential.

After several more days have passed, Griggs tells Richard that he has arranged the job with Crane, and that Richard will be paid five dollars a week—for Richard, a large sum. Richard meets with Crane, who seems reasonably polite, and Crane introduces Richard to the two white assistants who grind the lenses, Pease and Reynolds. Richard is tasked with keeping the shop tidy and running errands.

Although Crane tells Richard that he will learn about optometry from the white employees, Pease and Reynolds do not teach him, and when Richard asks each about their work grinding lenses, they only reply that black people should not learn such things, and that Richard “is trying to be white.” One afternoon, Reynolds and Pease corner Richard while Crane is out of the office, and accuse him of calling Pease “Pease” and not “Mr. Pease.” Richard is terrified, as both men threaten him with physical violence, and Richard says that he will quit the job, that he does not remember calling Mr. Pease “Pease,” and that he will go away peacefully.

Richard meets with Griggs later that day, who says Richard got a “tough break,” and Richard sneaks into the office the next morning to meet with Crane before the rest of the employees arrive. Richard tells Crane that he is afraid for his life working at the shop, and that both white men threatened him. Crane calls in Reynolds and Pease when they arrive, but Richard refuses to explain in front of them what they did to him the previous day. The two men leave, and Crane gives Richard a small severance, saying that “it must be difficult for Richard” in the South, and that perhaps it's better that Richard wants to find employment up North. Richard leaves the shop, devastated at this turn of events, since he thought this position might enable him to earn money and continue his education.