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At first I thought the envelope was empty I had to feel around inside it before I found the card

It was a postcard, like any other postcard In place of a picture of the Grand Canyon or Weeki Wachee Springs, the card bore a photograph of a young black ured The whip marks on his bare chest were so vivid I felt like I could touch them

On the other side of the card was a handwritten e:

THIS IS THE WAY WE COOK COONS DOWN HERE

THIS IS THE WAY WE WILL COOK YOU

WE KNOW WHY YOU ARE HERE

GO HOME, NIGGER-LOVER

Chapter 40

I DIDN’T GO HOME, of course; I couldn’t— started So I actually talked to soeships And I continued ation for Roosevelt I even squeezed in a few hours at L J Stringer’s party and reood friend he was

A feeeks later, I felt I needed a haircut, and I knehere to go: Ezra Newcomb’s

During ratulated Ezra, Eudora’s only barber, on the sharpness of his blade This resulted ina nine-point instructional course on thea straight razor (The truth was, I had broughtto have Ezra sharpen it)

“You got to start her off real slow, then you swipe down the strop real fast,” he was saying

This was exactly the lesson I had gotten frohteen

“Just don’t understand it,” Ezra said “A boy goes all the way up to Harvard and they don’t teach him how to sharpen a razor”

“I ave that class”