It was all over. He had to save himself. But it was familiar, this running away. All his life he had been knowing that sooner or later something like this would come to him. And now, here it was. He had always felt outside of this white world, and now it was true. It made things simple. He felt in his shirt, yes, the gun was still there. He might have to use it. He would shoot before he would let them take him; it meant death either way, and he would die shooting every shot he had.
***
He looked down and read, REPORTERS FIND DALTON GIRL’S BONES IN FURNACE. NEGRO CHAUFFEUR DISAPPEARS. FIVE THOUSAND POLICE SURROUND BLACK BELT. AUTHORITIES HINT SEX CRIME...
He paused and reread the line, AUTHORITIES HINT SEX CRIME. These words excluded him utterly from the world. To hint that he had committed a sex crime was to pronounce a death sentence. It meant a wiping out of his life even before he was captured; it meant death before death came, for the white men who read those words would at once kill him in their hearts.
***
"Come on, now, boy. We’ve treated you pretty nice, but we can get tough if we have to, see? It’s up to you! Get over there by that bed and show us how you raped and murdered that girl."
"I didn’t rape her," Bigger said through stiff lips.
"Aw, come on. What you got to lose now? Show us what you did."
"I don’t want to."
"You have to!"
"I don’t have to."
"Well, we’ll make you!"
"You can’t make me do nothing but die!"
And as he said it, he wished that they would shoot him he could be free of them forever.
***
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