Chapter 17
On February 21st, Prince was walking down one of the halls of Westdale High. Although he felt slightly more optimistic because of his mother's campaign against the superintendent and the establishment of the WAACP, he knew that racism still existed at the school. Some people still grimaced at him as he passed them by. He could feel their stares even when he had his back turned to them while getting books from his locker.
As Prince headed toward his next class, he felt a pair of arms yank him aside. He turned and saw his worst nightmare: Buddy Hinton.
"Hey, boy! Why aren't you carrying my books to class?" demanded Buddy – shoving Prince and causing him to land on the floor. Several students – black and white – started approaching the two.
Prince stood up and merely said, "Because I don't have to."
Buddy shoved Prince to the ground once more – prompting a few students to gasp – and causing more students to form a crowd. "Yes you do!" insisted Buddy. "I'm your superior!"
Prince stood up once again and shook his head. "You're not my superior. If anything, you're inferior to me."
The halls suddenly became so quiet that one could hear a pin drop. Buddy stared Prince in the face. "What'd you say, boy?"
"Stop calling me 'boy,'" insisted Prince, "and you heard me. Because of your behavior, you are inferior."
In an instant, Prince felt a hard fist slam into his cheek, and he again landed on the floor – only to be yanked up again by Buddy. "That does it!" shouted Buddy. "I'm drafting you into a boxing match – right here and right now! We're gonna put on a show for these people!"
Prince just smiled and shook his head. "I don't know about you, but I'm not. I am not your slave that you merely 'draft' for entertainment." Prince then found some of Buddy's books on the floor and shoved them into his arms. "Carry your own books. I'm done. We're done!"
Prince then walked off, and several black students clapped their hands and cheered. "Prince! Prince! Prince!" As the young man headed into his next class, he felt like Muhammad Ali resisting being drafted for the Vietnam War. He smiled wider in content – knowing that he had the power to stand up to racism and injustice.
Meanwhile, at Clinton Avenue Elementary, Benjamin again was wearing his safety monitor uniform, but he was not walking along the main halls as he normally did. He was walking back in forth in an empty bathroom – trying to think about how he could help fight racism at the school. He didn't want to stay in the bathroom too long since he could easily be ganged up on by mean white kids, but if he ventured outside the bathroom without a plan, then he could still be harassed.
Benjamin was especially concerned for the black kids whom had been bullied when trying to walk through the school like any other white student. That was when an idea came to his mind: he would lead students to their classes along a special, secret path – similar to Harriet Tubman's Underground Railroad.
Benjamin continued pacing frantically as he thought of a way to get the black students safety to their classes. At last, he knew what to do, and he felt confident enough to leave the bathroom and put his plan into action.
Once out of the bathroom, Benjamin approached the hall that had posed a problem once before. Sure enough, standing at its entrance were a few white kids. They immediately noticed Benjamin and sneered. Benjamin gulped – especially when he saw in his peripheral vision that the same bullied black kids were cautiously approaching the hallway. Benjamin walked up to the black kids and stood in their way.
"What are you doing?" one kid asked. "We're trying to get to class."
"Don't go the normal way," Benjamin whispered. "Follow me, and you won't have to worry about being bullied by those kids."
With that, Benjamin led the kids into a janitor's closet. The white kids grinned and approached the closet – their sneakers smacking against the floor as they ran.
Benjamin's heart pounded as he heard them approaching. He looked up, grabbed a ladder, and pointed above. "Quick! Through the air duct!" He then took a broom handle and put it underneath the door handle to keep it from turning. Almost immediately, the kids saw the handle jiggling and the bullies pounding on the door.
"Come out here, and take your lumps! Your kind isn't welcome in our halls!" one of the kids shouted from behind the door.
"Quickly!" whispered Benjamin to the other black kids as he climbed up the ladder and opened the vent leading into the duct. The other kids followed Benjamin through the dark, musty duct – the sound of the door handle jiggling getting fainter as they crawled farther and farther away. A few kids coughed from all the dust present but nonetheless continued crawling through.
At last, less than five minutes later, Benjamin reached the end of the duct and opened the vent. He raised his hand to stop the other kids and said, "Hold on – let me go down first so that I can help you out." He then climbed backwards out of the duct and landed on his feet. With that, he then helped all the black kids out of the vent and opened the door of the other janitor's closet in which they now occupied. Benjamin and the other black kids smiled as they saw that they were now on the opposite entrance of the hall that they needed to pass.
"We made it! We made it past the hallway! Oh, thank you so much, Benjamin!" one of the kids said – giving him a hug. "You're the greatest safety monitor ever!"
Benjamin smiled and shrugged. "I don't know about that, but thanks. I'm just glad to help people who are bullied." Nonetheless, he did feel quite happy that he made a difference in his fellow students' lives.