Part 1, Chapter 12 Summary

Willie ran his profile of the Ruffin family in the Times in spite of several staff members who were uncomfortable with it. They were concerned that the paper might lose popularity. The profile took up half of the front page. Because he had so much material, Willie decided to run the profile as an occasional series. The black community applauded Willie for challenging racial stereotypes, but he simply saw it as a great human-interest story about a great family. Willie also received a letter applauding his courage and the article from the Padgitt defense lawyer, Lucien Wilbanks. Two weeks later, Willie ran the second article in the series. It included this interesting fact, that when their children grew up and left home, Esau instructed them to write one letter per week to their mother. She saved every letter.

Part 1, Chapter 12 Analysis