Summary

In Chapter 1, Margo Jefferson begins by talking about the expectations for her deportment, mainly the requirement that she be decorous at all times. She told the story of rushing on stage during a children's talent show. She took the stage, though another child was in the middle of a performance, demanded that the pianist continue playing, and danced. Soon after that, Jefferon and her family were at a dinner party. During a lull in the conversation, she announced that she sometimes did not wipe herself when she went to the bathroom. She immediately recognized the difference between the reactions at the two events.

Jefferson defines Negroland as her personal name for “a small region of Negro America where residents were sheltered by a certain amount of privilege and plenty” (3). Adults warned that whites were always looking for a way to return them to...