Spear by Julius Lester Summary

When Spear's friends mock a white girl, Norma Jean Ray, for taking their African-American Literature course, Spear defends her, causing them to mock him. Spear is the senior class president in a school where the majority of the population is black, and his peers look to him as a leader because his father, Black Spear, was a leader whose anti-white speeches caused race riots in the 1970s. After school, Spear finds Norma in the library and is shocked to learn that she is not a new student. He tries to apologize for his friends, claiming they did not mean it, but Norma insists they did without anger or hurt, using only the tone of truth that Spear would prefer to avoid. The next day, Spear sits next to Norma because the fact that she is alone reminds...