Welcome back to our second discussion of the second autobiography Maya Angelou has written about her life. Thanks to my co-runner, u/DernhelmLaughed, for the first and next section in this discussion.

I will briefly summarize the chapters below.

Chapter 16: Rita goes back home with her son, to Momma and Uncle Willie in Stamps, Arkansas. Marked by segregation, the town has been emptied out post-WWII. We learn she and Bailey were sent back after the incident we saw at the end of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, where Bailey sees a black man pulled form a river-who was not only murdered but mutilated brutally. Rita goes to work at the store, talking about the West. She feels a new-found maturity and acceptance despite her status as an unwed mother. She goes on a night out with her old classmates where they proceed to try and get her drunk on sloe gin. A friend, L.C. Smith, helps her in her inebriation and reveals- "You come back swaggering and bragging that you've just been to paradise and you're wearing the very clothes everybody here wants to rid of".

Chapter 17: Rita goes into the white district to order a dress pattern. She dresses in an impractical but stylish way for all to witness. She pities the girl taking her order, who has it sent from Texarkana. She signs her order Marguerite A. Johnson. We learn Momma and her grandson, Guy, dote on each other. After the three days, when her order comes in, she goes back to the store. She has a run in with another saleswoman after carrying on in the heat. The exchange reminds her of the segregation that lays over the South and she loses her temper. When she leaves in anger and recounts her exchange to Momma, the story has already reached Momma via a telephone call. Momma slaps her twice and tells her she has to leave immediately, for her and her son's safety. She leaves Stamps that afternoon.

Chapter 18: Back to San Francisco, feeling hatred for the prejudice she's faced and worrying about her return to California due to the madame situation. She moved back in with Mother and took a job as a cook. She isn't well paid and is sick of the experience. She makes friends with a woman in a record store and stocks up on jazz and blues. Mother helps her look for a new job and somehow Marguerite ends up wanting to join the Army. Interested in the side benefits, her Mother urges her to apply to the Officer's Training Corp. She is worried about lying about having been pregnant.

Chapter 19: She goes to the recruitment office, takes the tests, including the physical, which she dreads, and passes. She is scheduled to start at Fort Lee, Virginia, all she needs to do is sign the loyalty oath. She does this with pride. Mother is happy and Bailey is derisive about her choice. They have grown apart as he worked as a waiter on the Southern Pacific trains and was gone frequently. Rita is worried about him but the rest of the family tells her to leave him alone.

Chapter 20: She divests herself of her earthly belongings in preparation for her army career. She keeps her records and books and quits her job to spend time with her son, Guy, with the hopes she can provide a good life for him with the help of Uncle Sam. She studies her training manuals until she gets a call to come down to the recruitment center suddenly; there is discrepancy with her records. She worries they found out she had a son. It turns out that they think she is a Communist for having attended, at 14/15 years old, dance and drama at the California Labor School, which is on the list of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Considering she was that young, the Army declines to bring charges for falsifying her Oath and dismisses her from service. She returns home feeling unmoored and goes to clean Bailey's room, finding his marijuana stash.

Chapter 21: Rita starts working as a waitress at the Chicken Shack, smoking marijuana to escape. Drugs of all kinds are easy to obtain in the black community throughout the '40's. As she says, "For the first time, life amused me". She has optimism about her future again. She meets R. L. Poole, a Chicago-native, who is auditioning for a dance partner. The interview is awkward, even more so when she decides to spontaneously do a split in a straight skirt that ends in hilarity and danger. On to rehearsals, where he tries to tach her tap rhythms. She falls in love.

Chapter 22: She begins a new career in showbusiness. She commits to practice, and she and R.L finally decide to debut their act. Rita makes a homemade, showstopping suit. R.L. has other ideas. One the night, she has stage fright which R.L. propels out of her. She goes in big- dancing with gusto and can't be pulled off the stage. "I was a hungry person invited to a welcome table for the first time in her life".

Chapter 23: While Rita works on her dance career, Mother starts to see a new beau, Good-Doing David, who is stylish but jealous. One day, Mother exxpects her old friend and brother from another mother, John Thomas, who is coming in from the sea. She sends Rita to get chicken to fry and other goodies. When Rita comes back home, after picking up Guy, she finds an ambulance in front of the house and two police cars. Her mother gives her and Guy a kiss, and goes with the police, after instructing her to call her bail bondsman of choice. Nobody is in the house but Mother's bedroom is untidied and there is blood. Rita cleans up and before long, Mother is back to tell the tale. She is having a jolly time with her old friend, when G.D.D shows up and makes a scene. She orders him upstairs, where he gets accusative and possessive, and threatens her-well, Mother is quicker on the draw and slashes him with "Bladie Mae". She called the police and ambulance herself after allowing John Thomas to get away. She gives Rita a life lesson in "stepping". Bailey meets a nice girl, Eunice, and returns to the lighthearted brother she used to know. The three of them spend time together. She is happy Bailey hasn't been corrupted by the streets, as so many other young, black men have, with addiction following the disappointment of racism and lack of opportunity post-WWII.

Chapter 24: Rita and R.L are due at the Champagne Supper Club for a performance. She quits the Chicken Shack to focus on dancing. Practice heats up. Mother helps with loans to keep her going during this time but her stockpile of savings also dwindles. She turns to Bailey and discovers that Eunice is at the hospital and very sick. R.L. and Rita are lovers, as well as dance partners, although R.L. seems very lackadaisical in the former department. Everyone comes for their big performance. Rita is nervous again, but pulls it off-however, the audience is cool. Two more shows await that night and she feels depressed until the last show with the drunks. Their career isn't stellar, but they are able to book the Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of the Elks of the World, a community support group. Unfortunately, Cotton Candy Adams, her love and dance rival for R.L.'s heart-his ex-partner, rolls into town. Rita dismisses R.L as a "Bozo", thinks Cotton Candy is a user and tells them both to "break a leg". She feels despondent and recounts all the tragedies in her life, but R.L. doesn't call, and she decides to snap out of it and figure out her real life for her son's sake.

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Here are some of the cultural references mentioned in this week's section:

Depopulation of the US South post-WWII-a map

Sloe Gin

Shoes in Fashion History

Music Room: Charlie "Bird" Parker- Cool Breeze; Max Roach- Triptych 1964; Bud Powell Trio plays a Thelonius Monk cover- Round Midnight; Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie play Hothouse in 1952; Lester Young-Pennies from Heaven; Billie Holiday-Strange Fruit; Louis Jordan- Beware Brother Beware (1946); Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup-That's All Right; Fats Waller- You're a Viper (Reefer Dream)

Dial Records- A Catalogue

Lionel Barrymore

Army Officers Training School

Mother's Kolinsky sable

The Ferry Building in San Francisco

Rorschach Test

Women in the Military-a long view

The African American Railroad Experience

Snows of Yesteryear reference

House of Un-American Activities Committee

California Labor School

A.G. V.A.

Dance Studio: Flash Dance ; Flash Tap Move; Stormy Weather Flash Jazz scene (1943); Choreography to Buddy's Johnson's Shufflin' and Rollin'; Tap Dancing- Scrapple from the Apple move; Huckle Buck Tap Move; Tap Compilation

Lotte the Body

Fried Chicken with Biscuits and Gravy

Terpsichore

The Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World

Frances Nealy

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Useful links:

Gather Together in My Name Reading Schedule

Gather Together in My Name Marginalia

Goodreads Page for Gather Together in My Name

Wikipedia Page for Maya Angelou

Wikipedia Page for Gather Together in My Name