Chapters 9 & 10

Summary: 9. The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963

Kenny talks to his father and asks if they are really going to leave Byron in Alabama. His father tells him that Byron needs to learn that there are serious consequences in life. Dad asks Kenny if he knows about all the problems in the South. Kenny has seen angry white people on TV, protesting over Black kids going to school. Dad reassures Kenny that Birmingham is safe but says that Byron needs to “realize that life doesn’t have a lot of jokes waiting for him.” Kenny marvels at how much more his father knows than he does. 

Momma has everything figured out for the trip, including where the family will stop each night and how much money they can spend each day. On the second night, they plan to sleep in the car at a rest stop near Tennessee. Kenny asks why they cannot just stop whenever Dad gets tired of driving. Dad does a sarcastic Southern, hillbilly accent and talks about how “colored folks” cannot expect to stay where they want. Byron plans to keep silent for the whole trip, but early on the first day, he asks how they will determine who gets control of the record player. Dad says it will be seniority based. Byron and Kenny taunt each other during the ride.

Summary: 10. Tangled Up in God’s Beard

As the Watsons drive through Ohio, Kenny is upset by the state of the bathrooms at the rest stops. Since Joey drools when she sleeps, Kenny and Byron take turns letting Joey stretch out across them. When the Watsons reach Cincinnati, where Momma had planned for the family to stop, Dad says that he is not very tired and can continue. Kenny recalls a conversation that he overheard between Dad and a neighbor, Mr. Johnson. They had discussed whether or not the Brown Bomber would be able to drive to Birmingham without stopping for the night. Mr. Johnson had told Kenny’s father that the car would make it if he could drive that far without sleeping.

The family stops at a rest stop in the Appalachian Mountains. It is dark and the many more stars are visible than back in Flint. Byron tells Kenny that he needs to worry about “rednecks” catching and eating him, and they both become scared. Momma reprimands Dad for trying to drive extra, since they are stopped in such a remote place in the dark. As they drive through the mountains, Dad tells everyone to put their hands out the window to feel the cool night air. He compares it to running your fingers through God’s beard. Once back on the highway, everyone is relieved.

Analysis: Chapters 9 & 10

In addition to being a coming-of-age story, this novel places fictional characters into a real-life historical context. In this case, the fictional characters are the Watson family and the historical the context is the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, making a road trip through the South would have been dangerous and complicated for a Black family. Due to legal segregation, the Watsons wouldn’t be able to stop and eat or use the restroom or spend the night just anywhere. The further south they got, the fewer places they would be allowed into and the more hostility they were likely to encounter from white Americans. Because of this, Momma carefully plans every stop on the trip so that the family will always be welcome and safe. It is also why Dad decides to drive straight through with as few stops as possible. Both characters are responding to the threat of racism differently, but realistically. Here and throughout the novel, the fictional Watson family is experiencing historical circumstances and events in a way that is historically accurate.

It is significant that Chapter 9 shares the novel’s title, as it is this visit to Birmingham in 1963 that sets a life-changing series of events into motion for the Watsons. The threat of racial violence comes into sharp focus as the family makes their journey southward. The conversation between Kenny and Dad in Chapter 9 is a critically important one in which Dad explains why it’s so important for Byron to understand that his behavior has consequences. This may sound like any father disciplining his child, but when Dad brings up the racial upheaval happening in some parts of the South and Kenny imagines the pictures he has seen of angry white people yelling at and intimidating Black children, it becomes clear that Dad is afraid Byron doesn’t understand how high the stakes are for a young Black man in the United States. He is hoping that spending some time with his strict grandmother in Birmingham might open Byron’s eyes to the reality he will face as a Black man and help set his son back on the right path. The white, blue-eyed angel that Mrs. Davidson gives Joey before the family leaves on the trip and Joey’s viscerally negative reaction to it ties into the theme of race and suggests that racial tensions will play a larger role on the family’s journey. The angel, which Mrs. Davidson says she named Joetta because it reminded her of Joey, also foreshadows the racial danger Joey will face later in the novel. 

The scene at the end of Chapter 10 highlights the sustaining importance of family as the Watsons share a joyful and restorative moment in the car together after having just experienced the desolate and terrifying darkness of a rest stop in the Appalachian Mountains. In stark contrast to the threatening darkness of the rest stop, being together inside the Brown Bomber feels safe and good. Kenny’s overwhelming feeling of contentment, safety, and joy at sharing the experience with the people he loves most in the world reemphasizes the tremendous power of the Watson family bond. This moment speaks to the strength of the Watsons’ connection to one another as well as to the love that holds them together. This connection is what gets the Watson family through dark and challenging times, both the ones they have already faced and the ones that are still ahead of them.