Jewell Parker Rhodes Quotes

“Jerome Rogers, 12, shot at abandoned Green Street lot. Officer says, ‘He had a gun.‘”

“Doesn’t seem fair. Nobody ever paid me any attention. I skated by. Kept my head low. Now I’m famous.”

“The kitchen table is covered with food—my favorites, potato salad, lemon meringue pie, pork chops. If everyone wasn’t so sad-faced, I’d swear it was a party. I reach for a cornbread square and my hand passes through it. Weird, but it’s okay. I’m not hungry. I guess I’ll never be hungry again.”

“Every black person in the South knows it’s true. Dead, living, no matter. Both worlds are close. Spirits aren’t gone.”

″‘He’s in a better place,’ says Reverend. ‘Jerome’s in a better place.’ Am I?”

“Does Pop know Officer Moore gets paid for not working? For killing me? I want to kick something, scream, break down. But what’s the use?”

“Believe this, Jerome. It matters that Sarah can see you.”

″‘Possibly you were responding to unconscious stereotypes of black men as large, threatening, dangerous?’ ‘No. I acted with just cause.‘”

“I thought I was bigger. Tough. But I’m just a bit of nothing.”

“I’m still here, Ma. I’m still here.”