The Glory Field

Part 5 begins in Johnson City, South Carolina. Abby’s grandson, Tommy Lewis, is playing basketball for the Curry Cougars against Delaney High School. Delaney is the biggest black school in Johnson City, and the favorite to win the All-City Tournament. Curry wins the tournament as a result of Tommy’s play at the end of the game.

After the game, Coach Smith introduces Tommy to Leonard Chase, a white man who used to play for Johnson City State. Chase invites Tommy and his girlfriend, Mandy McKinnon, to his house for iced tea. He asks Tommy if he would be willing to skip his last year of high school to attend State as one of the first African Americans at the university: “We want to put together a group of young people we can bring in quietly, without a lot of commotion […] What we want to do is to get the right Negroes and get things prepared” (220). Chase believes that he can secure a full scholarship to pay for Tommy’s education but warns Tommy: “It’s not going to be easy. I won’t feed you any lies. A lot of people aren’t going to like Negroes going to school with whites, and that’s just a fact you and I have to live with” (220).