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An Hour Before Daylight Review
Ryan Jones
Minority Groups 16
Drury University
Essay writing services for An Hour Before Daylight papers
An Hour Before Daylight Review
SUMMARY
In the book An Hour Before Daylight by Jimmy Carter, Carter describes his childhood in a rural Georgia community during the 10’s to the 140’s. Carter writes about the southern style of life. It tells about his entire family, his growing up, and life around black families working his fathers land, and all the black friends he made early in life, and the wonderful influence they had on him throughout his life.
Other areas of the book demonstrated and discussed how he, his family, and friends dealt with the difficult segregation of the era. Because many of Carter’s friends were black, it was hard for him to understand why the friends he played with and worked with, could not attend the same school as he did, but he never questioned it, it was how he and everyone else was brought up.
A large portion of Jimmy Carter’s childhood was during the depression years. Although Jimmy’s father had a prosperous cotton and peanut farm and small store, the effects of the depression were still very hard on the family.
The book covers such a wide and interesting amount of information about not just Jimmy Carter, but how people lived in the south and the issues they faced everyday during one of the most difficult periods in American history.
Analysis
Because the book covers so many areas, I have decided the best way to provide a good analysis is by picking out certain areas that caught my attention.
One such area of the book discusses a time during the most busiest time of the year for crop gathering. On one Monday morning late in September of 140, none of the hands showed up for work, and were demanding a pay increase from $1 to $1.5 a day for labor. Jimmy’s father did not make a big deal out of the situation, he simply told the workers that they would be at work the next day or be forced to leave the property. Everyone returned to work the next day.
I had trouble remembering that the blacks were not slaves at this time because of the lack of respect they received. It is hard to realize that blacks had the right to choose where they worked but didn’t at the same time. They were basically forced to stay with one “employer” regardless of the pay because they may not find an opportunity elsewhere.
However, Jimmy’s father was a man who realized that the blacks could not survive on their current pay rate and decided, after talking to a pre-eminent black leader, to increase the pay as long as it was understood that the decision was done under pressure. Afterward other landowners implemented that same increase.
Another area of the book that caught my eye was when Jimmy and his black friend A.D. were allowed to go to the movies. Jimmy and A.D. would go together but would have to separate to watch the movie. Jimmy would pay at the front and A.D. in the back and then Jimmy would sit on the lower level while A.D. was forced to sit in the third level. As soon as the movie was over they would leave together and discuss the movie. They never questioned the mandatory racial separation; Jimmy said they “accepted it like breathing”.
Segregation is an awful way of life, although not the worst, it comes close. The downgrading of an individual by forcing them to receive second hand treatment on everything is not justifiable by any means. However, during these times, that generation had not questioned it because that is how they were brought up. It was also a great deal better than slavery.
Another part of the book talked about the many lynchings that occurred in the region. Because of the depression, many of the jobs were being lost and the lynchings were quadrupled. One slogan from an Atlanta organization said “No Jobs for Niggers Until Every White Man Has a Job.”
This was a difficult time, and certainly because the black race was of lower class, they received the blame and retaliation for the difficult times everyone was facing during the depression. Whites took out their angers by blaming and lynching blacks. The less blacks there were in the region, the more jobs for whites there would be.
I enjoyed how the time Jimmy spent with blacks influenced the way he talked and acted. He remembered having to be two different people. When he was at home relaxed he would use a lot of the black culture he was exposed to, but during church, school, and other public activities he would have to watch how he spoke and act “proper”. It amazed me how easily anyone can share a way of life if just given the opportunity, but the “required forms” of society made it virtually impossible for many.
It also surprised me that the black and white Baptists worshiped together in church, but after the Civil War, emancipation led to separate services. Had it not been for politics, the black and white Baptists could have continued worshipping together, but because it required segregation, the black and white community was forced to separate even though they were at peace with each other.
This was a very interesting and informative book, not just about Jimmy Carter, but about the way of life in the south. I have always regarded Jimmy Carter as one of the better presidents but I have even more respect for him now. He wrote his book the way it happened which shows great honesty about a subject of great sensitivity and conflict.
From a small boy growing up on a peanut farm in rural Georgia who thought it was easier to hoe and plow than to provide the other workers with water, to the thirty-ninth President of the United States who has contributed so much to the American people, Carter is a man who has successfully lived the American dream through its hard, controversial years and even the prosperous years full of changes for the better.
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