Suggested Answers to the Second Short Quiz

[johnkarls]

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Question 1

Does Ruth Simmons conclude her Prologue with –

“I hope that recounting the events and people of my early life…..will help young people understand that, whatever the circumstances of their lives, they are born not to be the person that history, limited resources, and others dictate but, rather, the person that they are willing to pour their heart and soul into becoming.”

Answer 1

Yes.

Question 2

Is this “understanding” that she wants to inspire actually realistic? Can anyone become a major league baseball player or ambassador or college president or astronaut by simply “pouring her/his heart and soul” into such a dream?

Answer 2

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 3

Wouldn’t it be more realistic to say she wants to inspire young people to have dreams – no matter how unrealistic they may seem – and to “give them your best shot”?

Answer 3

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 4

Is it difficult or impossible for you to imagine the racism of 1940’s/1950’s rural Texas despite the descriptions in Chapter 1? And is it understandable that it would leave scars that do not heal despite best efforts?

Answer 4

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 5

So is it any surprise that Ruth Simmons owns some undeveloped land in Texas that her mother had inherited from her own mother? Does Ruth return there as often as possible to marvel about her roots?

Answer 5

No and Yes.

Question 6

BTW, in explaining her frequent returns “up home,” does she mention the seemingly odd (at least to Yours Truly) title of our book as simply meaning it was north of Houston, and if it had been south of Houston, the title of our book would presumably have been “Down Home”?

Answer 6

Yes.

Question 7

Who were the “Miss Fannie” and “Mr. Ike” featured in the Chapter 2 title?

Answer 7

Please read on Q&A-8.

Question 8

In addition to Ruth’s mother (Miss Fannie) and father (Mr. Ike), does Chapter 2 provide in-depth descriptions of all her relatives and what they were like and did?

Answer 8

Yes.

Question 9

Does Ruth recount her mother crying unconsolably upon learning her third son had been posted to Korea during the war as the first time Ruth herself felt any vulnerability despite living in a Black sharecropping culture?

Answer 9

Yes. [And so no one is left wondering, no - the brother did not die in Korea.]


Question 10

BTW, were Fannie and Ike married in an AME church??? Do we already know from elsewhere that AME churches were African Methodist Episcopal Churches which historically were separate from regular Methodist Churches in which Blacks were NOT welcome??? And do we also already know that many United Methodist Churches became All Black when the racial composition of their neighborhoods changed???

Answer 10

Yes – Yes – Yes.


Question 11

Was Mr. Ike’s goal to become a Baptist Minister which he accomplished “after many years”? This despite the facts that his wife (Miss Fannie, Ruth’s mother) had survived [his] beatings, the separations, the quarrels, and the other women”?

Answer 11

Yes and Yes.

Question 12

For the sharecroppers of Grapeland TX, is it true that “children did heavy labor from sun-up to sun-down like grown-ups as soon as they were able”??? Did that labor comprise picking cotton???

Answer 12

Yes and Yes.

Question 13

Do we already know that Eli Whitney invented the “cotton gin” in 1793 (patented 1794) to separate cotton fibers from their seeds – thereby GREATLY INCREASING the demand for slave labor as cotton fabrics displaced other types of cloth??? And that it was not until the late 1940’s and 1950’s that International Harvester marketed widely the cotton-picking machines developed by John and Mack Rust in the 1920’s???

Answer 13

Yes and Yes.

Question 14

Does the title of Chapter 3 (Greater New Hope) refer to the name of the church that Ruth and her family attended??? Although her mother was AME Methodist and her father a long-time sharecropper who eventually realized his dream of becoming a Baptist Minister, did an exhaustive Google search fail to unearth any info about “Greater New Hope” in or around Grapeland TX, much less its denomination???

Answer 14

Yes and Yes.

[Though there were quite a few “Greater New Hope” churches in Texas today that are Baptist.]

Question 15

Does Ruth disclose in Chapter 3 whether she had any religious beliefs and, if so, what they were???

Answer 15

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 16

Does the Chapter 4 title “Latexo” refer to a nearby community where Ruth’s father enjoyed a slightly higher status with the owners of the sharecropping farms? Was Ruth permitted as a six-year-old to attend school in Latexo?

Answer 16

Yes and Yes.

Question 17

Does the Chapter 5 title “Miss Ida Mae” refer to Ruth’s first teacher, Miss Ida Mae Henderson? Does Ruth explain in Chapter 5 that children of sharecroppers were only permitted to attend school when not needed for work in the fields -- but that her father’s enhanced status in Latexo meant that Ruth could attend school every day?

Answer 17

Yes and Yes.

Question 18

In how many different ways do you believe Miss Ida Mae was an inspiration to Ruth???

Answer 18

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 19

Does the Chapter 6 title “Bloody Fifth” refer to Houston’s Fifth Ward to which Ruth’s family moved the summer after her first school year with Miss Ida Mae?

Answer 19

Yes.

Question 20

So why the adjective BLOODY for the Fifth Ward??? Chapter 6 covers various aspects of Ruth’s life from second grade through junior high school (1952-1960), but does it ever describe anything as “bloody” in a criminal sense??? Or “bloody” in the British sense of being an “intensifier” like “very” or “extremely”??? Or in any other sense???

Answer 20

What do you think??? Let’s discuss!!!

Question 21

Does Ruth add to her Pantheon only one Grades 2-9 teacher to keep company Grade 1 teacher, Miss Ida Mae? Does she add only Junior HS teacher, Mrs. Modria Caraway, a Social Studies teacher, because Mrs. Caraway taught that current events were just as important as events described in the social studies textbook – introducing Ruth to the importance of newspapers, magazines, etc.?

Answer 21

Yes and Yes.

Question 22

Does Ruth make the interesting point that the all-Black segregated schools she attended had superb teachers because they were extremely bright and well-educated Blacks who, due to segregation, were not permitted to teach in White schools?

Answer 22

Yes!!!