James'+Summary

Summary on James' life:

James' family consists of twelve brothers and sisters including himself. His mother's name is Ruth, and suffered from polio her entire life. James' real father's name was Dennis McBride, who also fathered James' 7 other brothers and sisters. James' father died shortly before James was born. When he was still young, his mother remarried Hunter Jordan, and became James' stepfather. James' knew him best as "daddy". His stepfather fathered four more of Ruth's children, making the family grow from eight children to twelve.

As a child, James always struggled with questions about his mother's skin color and her background, since his mother was white and all of her children were black. And although he constantly asked, his mother always avoided his questions or met them with indirect answers. So James spent a great deal of time wondering. Throughout his life, the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's had a great influence. He was often worried about his mother's safety, considering the Ku Klux Klan and other racist groups were always around and threatening. Because of the Civil Rights Movement, Jame's sister Helen decided to quit school and run away and refuse to come back. Also, in school James constantly was picked on for his race and felt left out all the time. The only time he felt like he was where he belonged was when his classmates convinced him to perform a James Brown dance. But a few minutes after he was done, he instantly felt like he didn't belong again. When James was fourteen years old, his stepfather was hospitalized because he had had a stroke. When Hunter was released, he and James had their first really one-on-one talk, urging him to take care of his mother and the rest of his family. Two days later, Hunter had a relapse and died. After his stepfather had died, James started doing bad in school, getting involved with drugs, and doing petty crimes such as theft. After his mother realized what was happening, she sent him to Louisville, Kentucky to stay with his sister Jack for the summer. He spent the next three summers there, meeting his favorite local, Chicken Man. After a while, Chicken Man realizes his failures in his life, and tells James to fix his life, educate himself, and work hard. Chicken Man had also told James that bad things would happen if he failed to change his behaivor.



Deciding that Chicken Man was right, James decided to make something of himself. James got really into jazz music while moving around and living in different places. He even took a trip to Europe with a jazz band because he was so interested in it. As he got older, he decided he wanted to become a musician. Although he was worried about his grades and SAT scores when he applied to Oberlin College in Ohio, he was accepted. With the support and encouragement of his mother, he was eager but ready for this new experience.



p.s. i just used the book so i didn't really have any sources to cite