Chapter Nineteen Summary

The charges Eugene now faces and is awaiting trial for are racist, he tells the reader. After all, the only real crime with which the white Eugene is being charged is leading the black prisoners' riot, not merely acting as an accomplice who had a gun literally pointed to his head. Eugene states how he did not participate unless his life was threatened, and how he further advised the rioters they were doomed from the beginning of their efforts, with or without his help. This contrasts sharply with the image the authorities have created of Eugene in the media, in which he had led the riots in an insane act of political rebellion. Eugene scoffs at this notion, and points out that it is racist because it presumes only a white man like himself could have masterminded the riots, not the...