Chapter 1

In this chapter we read about the murder of Henry Marrow, “Dickie,” and the ensuing riots in the town of Oxford, NC, as seen through the eyes of a ten-year-old, who later writes this book.

Tim’s mother describes his friend Gerald as “not really our kind of folks.” Were there kids when you were 10 years old whom you knew those closest to you would consider not your kind of folks? In what ways were they not “your kind of folks”? In hindsight, was that a fair assessment? As a Christian, how do you deal with people who are not “your kind of folks”?

“I pondered, too, the blood that beat in my own veins and the ways in which my family’s history was implicated in Henry Marrow’s killing—and perhaps ever redeemed, since by the end of things, if anything ever really ends, his killings set our faces toward a strange new Jerusalem.” What do you think Tim is referring to as ‘a strange new Jerusalem?”

Are there taboo subjects that are not talked about with your family, church, etc.?

Can you think of anything that has happened in your life in terms of injustice towards others that you feel might resonate twenty or thirty years later when you will have a better understanding such that you might want to write about it?