Stella by Starlight

Though the Mills family was up late with the potluck supper, everyone heads to New Hope Church the next morning in the mule-drawn wagon. Mama encourages Spoon Man to attend the service on his way out of town. Stella wears her new bracelet. She appreciates the weathered look of the church, worn from many families’ attendance over time.

Pastor Patton’s sermon surprises the congregation that morning. He mentions the advancements of the modern century but wonders aloud if the African American members of their town are free when so many live in debt due to sharecropping and in fear due to Klan activities. He encourages them to be unafraid: “I shall be going into Spindale tomorrow morning […] And I’m fixin’ to register to vote […] Anybody who wants to come with me is welcome. I am a man. Amen. Amen” (111). The people of New Hope Church leave quietly, full of thought. When Stella asks Papa if he will register, he says he does not know.

Back home, Papa is moody. He chops wood while Stella tries to talk to him about the tough life of a tree: growing tall, then eventually cut up for wood. Papa tells her to consider the “big picture,” and when Stella says she has trouble with that, Papa sympathetically tells her adults do as well: “We just figure it out one day at a time” (115).