Midnight Without a Moon

Rose is excited to learn that Ma Pearl’s youngest daughter, Aunt Belle, will be visiting from Saint Louis. Queen warns that Belle needs to bring her better clothes than the “junk” garments Belle brought on her last visit. Rose will be happy just to hear about her aunt’s lifestyle. The Carters’ cottage does not have running water, electricity, or indoor plumbing, and Rose looks forward to the day that she too will enjoy these conveniences. Rose finds Fred Lee on the porch and worries about her brother; he did not speak until he was four and, at age 12, is socially detached. Ma Pearl blames her assessment that Fred Lee is “slow” on their father, Johnny Lee Banks. Fred Lee expresses his intention to leave Mississippi once he is able to find a paid position. He asks Rose, “How come she don’t want us?” and Rose lies (98), repeating their mother’s excuse that Sugar and Li’ Man need her more than they do. Fred Lee counters with, “We too black for her” (98). Rose repeats what Hallelujah said, “The Blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice” (98), but Fred Lee dismisses the notion. Rose thinks it is easy for Hallelujah, whose skin tone is much lighter than theirs, to repeat quotations to make Rose feel better, but she is convinced Hallelujah doesn’t truly understand what it is like to look like Rose and Fred Lee.

When Rose was eight, her Aunt Belle moved to St. Louis with Great Aunt Isabelle, Papa’s sister. There, after studying cosmetology, she opened her own salon. On return visits, Aunt Belle brings new clothes for Rose and Queen, which Ma Pearl keeps in her own closet, allowing Queen use of hers while restricting Rose’s access. Aunt Belle arrives in the company of a man who shares Rose’s own deep complexion and, as Rose predicted, three “northern just-gotta-see-Mississippi spectators” (102). Aunt Belle introduces her fiancée, Aaron “Monty” Harris. Monty’s mother is from nearby Money, Mississippi, but he grew up in Saint Louis. Ma Pearl and Papa wonder if he is related to Mose Wright. Ma Pearl interrogates Monty, asking about the age difference between himself and her daughter and if they share a bed. When Aunt Belle mentions the murder of Levi Jackson, her parents are surprised the news has reached northern newspapers. Ma Pearl blames the NAACP for the Jackson family’s recent exodus to Detroit. Aunt Belle presents her NAACP member identification card. Ma Pearl calls her daughter a fool, accusing Monty of “[getting] her into this” (109). When Fred Lee asks about the acronym, Monty begins explaining the organization’s mission. Ma Pearl becomes infuriated, demanding that her daughter and guests leave her house. Papa tells Ma Pearl to sit down. Ophelia, one of the guests, asks about the bathroom. Rose is told to take her to the outhouse. Ophelia exaggerates disgust and amusement; she never intended to use the outhouse but was just curious. Back in the house, Queen receives new pantsuits from Aunt Belle. Rose discovers that Ma Pearl told Belle not to bring Rose any new clothes because she isn’t going back to school. Monty speaks up, asking for assurance that Rose will be allowed to join the academic year once the cotton has been picked. Ma Pearl tells him to mind his business and that Rose will be taking on the housework once the harvest is over. Rose protests, and Monty asks whether Fred Lee or Queen will be going to school. Ma Pearl again tells Monty to mind his own business. Rose tries to enlist her grandfather’s help, but Papa defers the conversation to a later time. Rose is left sitting in the parlor in tears in front of strangers.

Passing notes during Wednesday night church service, Rose informs Hallelujah that Ma Pearl has barred her from returning to school. Hallelujah asks, “Has she lost her mind?” (119), and Rose insists that her grandmother broke from sanity long ago. Hallelujah is shocked to learn that Queen gets to continue, “The way she hates school!!!” (119). Rose writes that Papa promised they will revisit the conversation. Hallelujah wonders if his father might change Ma Pearl’s mind, and Rose decides not to tell her best friend about her grandmother’s low opinion of Reverend Jenkins. Hallelujah also suggests that their teacher, Miss Johnson, might speak to “Miss Sweet,” but Rose says that Ma Pearl considers their teacher stupid. Hallelujah assures Rose that she will get an education one way or another.

In the middle of the night, Rose creeps from her bed needing to use the chamber pot, kept in a closet-sized, doorless alcove adjoining Fred Lee’s bedroom. The makeshift bathroom is the only part of the house with electricity. When Rose gets back to her bedroom, she finds Queen climbing out their window. Queen is dressed in one of the new pantsuits Aunt Belle brought, and Rose assumes that Queen is running away. Queen snaps at Rose to keep quiet and mind her own business, calling Rose ugly and using slurs to emphasize Queen’s low opinion of Rose’s deep skin tone. Queen pushes Rose to the floor, and Rose collects herself in time to see Ricky Turner’s pickup truck pulling away from their house.

Rose jumps in the passenger’s seat beside Hallelujah after he pulls up in his father’s car. Rose kept the secret of Ricky Turner’s threat for over a month, but she recently told her grandparents what happened while Queen was present. Ma Pearl threatened Rose with a beating for failing to report that Miss Addie didn’t receive her eggs. Papa declared they would ensure that Rose gets a ride to Miss Addie’s from now on.

On the drive, Hallelujah tells Rose that another man, 63-year-old Lamar Smith, was shot at 10:00 am in front of the courthouse for helping fellow Black people register to vote.

Miss Addie Robinson, 102 years old, was born enslaved. Rose assumes that Addie’s last name and her long-term residence on the Robinson property indicate that her enslavers were likely members of the Robinson family. Miss Addie is a respected member of their community, an accomplished midwife, literate, and revered for her gifts of perception and precognition. When they walk into the humble dwelling, Miss Addie’s daughter, Jinx, asks why Rose didn’t bring the eggs last time. Miss Addie repeats that she told her daughter Rose was run off the road. Jinx says her mother could not possibly know that. Miss Addie asks Hallelujah, “You aint the boy, is you?” and suddenly enters a trance (134), insisting that something terrible is about to happen, her vehemence summoning Jinx. Jinx scolds her mother for scaring the children, but Miss Addie insists, “Somp’n ’bout to happen. Somp’n ’bout to shake up Miss’sippi jest like dat flood of twenty-seven shaked us up. It came heah to wash ’way da sins o’ dis place” (135).

Rose believes that no good can come of Queen’s late-night rendezvous, so she waits, pretending to be asleep, to see if her cousin will try to sneak out again. At the sound of a truck approaching, Queen emerges from beneath her bedcovers, fully dressed. Rose warns Queen about the possibility of becoming pregnant if she fails to behave responsibly. Insulting her younger cousin with attacks against her appearance and skin tone, Queen grabs Rose’s arm and twists, threatening her with violence if Rose says a word to their grandparents. Once Queen slips out, Rose lies awake, frustrated with herself for being so invested in what happens to someone who is so cruel to her, so ungrateful for their grandmother’s leniency, and so unappreciative of the opportunities Rose herself wants so much. Rose is also frustrated with Aunt Belle, who has spent much of her visit working with the local chapter of the NAACP instead of spending time with her family. Rose worries for her aunt’s safety and longs for the kindness and companionship that her aunt’s presence brings. She thinks, “My chest ached, and I wanted to go find her, snatch that little NAACP card from her black patent leather purse, and burn it before her very eyes. Like any other Negro, I wanted change, too, but not at the expense of my own family” (141). When Rose falls asleep, she dreams of Miss Addie and the warning that something is about to happen.

When Rose wakes up on Sunday morning and finds Aunt Belle seated at the kitchen table with Ma Pearl, she knows something is wrong. Her first instinct is to ask, “Where’s Papa?” (143). Rose is told that Monty received a call from one of his cousins, who said that a young man visiting from Chicago had been kidnapped during the night. Two white men appeared at the home of his great uncle Mose Wright and demanded that the teenager come with them. At Aunt Belle’s urging, Reverend Jenkins accompanied Monty to the Wright home, and Papa volunteered to go with them. Ma Pearl insists that the young man must have brought the trouble on himself. Aunt Belle dismisses this judgment as ridiculous. Ma Pearl warns Aunt Belle that young NAACP activists have no concept of the scale of violence and destruction that might ensue in retaliation from white people who will do whatever they feel is necessary to protect the status quo.

Aunt Belle tries to encourage her mother to envision another life for herself, one in which she does not have to accept the falsehood that she is inferior or deserving of less because of the color of her skin. Ma Pearl chastises Aunt Belle and others like her for what she believes is their arrogance and condescension toward those who choose to remain in the south. Ma Pearl insinuates that five years in Saint Louis does not give her daughter the right to tell others how to live. Aunt Belle asks why Ma Pearl is so afraid, and her mother says, “You ain’t see’d what I done see’d. […] That boy ain’t missing […] He dead” (148).

Rose tells Queen about the missing teenager. Queen is angry that their grandmother has neglected to prepare her breakfast and echoes Ma Pearl’s presumption that the young man was a “fool” whose actions earned him a death sentence.

When Aunt Belle appears at the curtain that serves as Rose and Queen’s bedroom door, Rose pretends to be asleep. Rose feels betrayed that her aunt has spent so much time away from the house. Rose asks her, “Don’t you care if you die or not?” (155). Aunt Belle explains that the recent Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. the Board of Education will initiate nationwide change, but the formation of organizations like the White Citizens Council proves that there are those who are determined to preserve life as they know it. Aunt Belle and fellow NAACP members’ commitment to increasing voter registration and participation is essential to changing the state and federal laws that keep the Jim Crow system intact. Aunt Belle believes that the violence and brutality must not be allowed to have the desired effect; those fighting for racial justice must defy the denial of their rights regardless of the risks. Aunt Belle once thought that she would never come home to Mississippi, but she tells Rose that it was Monty who helped her see that it would be a disservice to her community to embrace the opportunities she enjoys in Saint Louis without addressing the need for advocacy on behalf of those who remain in the south. Rose pleads with Aunt Belle to take her when she returns to Saint Louis, but Aunt Belle explains that she is not in a position to do so.

Rose falls asleep and then awakens to the sound of voices coming from the parlor. She hides out of sight, listening. Ma Pearl sounds vindicated in her assumption that the kidnapped young man was at fault, saying, “I knowed he did something” and blaming the teenager’s mother for not teaching him that he shouldn’t speak to white women (159). Monty defends the youth’s unfamiliarity with the customs of the south, insisting that his behavior must have been misinterpreted. Papa cites the fact that Mose’s grandsons didn’t hear any words exchanged between their cousin and the woman who ran the store, but Monty acknowledges that they did hear him whistle at her. Papa laments that the young men didn’t tell Mose what happened when they got home. Papa believes that if they had, Mose would have taken steps to protect them. When Aunt Belle expresses sympathy for the young man’s mother, Ma Pearl suggests that his mother is to blame for allowing him to visit Mississippi. Monty calls Ma Pearl evil; Ma Pearl calls Monty “stupid. And disrespectful” (161), ordering him to leave. Monty begins to depart, but Papa declares that he is the head of the household and Monty can sit back down. Papa tells Ma Pearl that he has “had enough of yo’ nonsense” (161-62). She remains quiet until she asks if Mr. Bryant was one of the men who took the young man. Papa confirms he was. Ma Pearl says the other man sounds like J.W. Milam, known to be particularly cruel and violent. With none of the gloating that she had demonstrated before, Ma Pearl says, with resignation, “Y’all know that boy dead. […] If Big Milam is the one that got a holt of him, he dead” (164).