roll of thunder hear my cry
... and feathered a black man, Sam Tatum, for accusing Jim Lee Barnett, who owns the Mercantile in the neighboring town of Strawberry, of cheating him. Stacey takes the blame when he's caught with TJ's cheat-notes during a test and is whipped by Mama. He follows TJ to the Wallace's store, where he's been forbidden to go, and punches TJ, before Mr. Morrison catches him and brings him home. There, Mr. Granger has just finished threatening to take the land from Big Ma. Stacey confesses to Mama, who punishes the four children for going to the store by taking them to see Mr. Berry, who was burned so badly he can no longer speak. Mama begins to arrange a boycott of the Wallace and Barnett stores. Big Ma takes Stacey, Cassie, and TJ to the market in Strawberry. While Big Ma talks to Mr. Jamison, a friendly white attorney, TJ admires a pistol in the store. When Mr. Barnett waits on white customers while ignoring TJ, Cassie tries to remind him of their presence, he calls her a "little nigger," then throws her out of the store for arguing with him. In the street, Cassie bumps into Jeremy's sister Lillian Jean and is forced by Mr. Simms to say, "I'm sorry, Miss Lillian Jean," as Big Ma looks on. Uncle Hammer comes to visit for Christmas and is prevented from going after Mr. Simms by Mr. Morrison. Mama explains to Cassie that Big Ma had no choice but to not confront Mr. Simms. Uncle Hammer drives the family around in his new Packard and also gives Stacey a new coat. TJ makes fun of him in it, because it is so big on it, so Stacey gives it to TJ till it fits. Uncle Hammer makes him give it to him permanently for being irresponsible enough to let TJ take it. On Christmas, Mr. Morrison tells the story of how his entire family was killed when an angry white mob attacked his house, where two young men accused of molesting a white women had hidden, the Christmas he was six. Big Ma puts the land in Hammer and Papa's names to protect it. Mr. Jamison agrees to provide credit for the families who have agreed to have Papa shop for them in far-away Vicksburg. Mr.Granger, who owns the land where the Wallace store sits, threatens Uncle Hammer and Papa with the loss of their land. Cassie pretends to be friends with Lillian Jean, acting subservient, calling her Miss and carrying her books until one day she takes her into the woods and fights with her, pulling her hair until she apologizes for Strawberry and threatening to tell the secrets she's shared if she says anything to her father. Mama fails TJ on a test for cheating, and in retribution, he mentions at the Wallace store about her covering the inside of the books. Kaleb Wallace, Harlan Granger, and another man from the school board come to Mama's class when she is teaching a lesson about the injustices of slavery, look in the books, and fire her. Stacey stops being friends with TJ, and TJ starts hanging around with RW and Melvin Simms, who are eighteen and nineteen and white. Mr. Avery, Mr. Lanier, and several other people stop buying goods in Vicksburg when Mr. Granger and Mr. Montier raised the percentages of cotton they want from their sharecroppers and threaten to kick anyone who continues the boycott off their land. On the way back from Vicksburg buying goods for the few families left, Papa, Mr. Morrison, and Stacey must stop when the back wheels fall off the wagon. As they fix them, the Wallaces truck stops behind them and someone shoots at Papa, grazing his temple. The horse frights, and the wheel of the wagon rolls over Papa's leg, breaking it. Papa can't go back to work on the railroad, and it looks like they might just scrape by when the bank calls in the note on their mortgage. Uncle Hammer sells his Packard to pay for it. He brings the money the week of the revival, a religious and social event, but must leave quickly so as not to incite further tensions. TJ shows up at the revival with RW and Melvin, who he says are his friends and who will buy him anything, even the pistol at the Barnett Mercantile. When Stacey and everyone else ignores him and goes into the church, TJ is upset but finally leaves with the Simms brothers. That night, thunder rolls and Mr. Morrison watches outside the house. TJ taps on the door in the middle of the night and tells Cass...