Nightjohn was about slaves and how bad they were treated. Mammy would pray in the kettle because slaves had no right to pray. Anyone who disobeyed there owner would get whipped. One day a new slave arrived and was badly whipped, naked, and very dark brown. His name was nightjohn. John loved tobacco and offered to everyone that he  would teach them letters A, B, C for a chew of tobacco. No slave took that offer except Sarney. He was curious about what A,B,C was. So he gave Nightjohn some tobacco and he started to teach Sarney letters. Then Mammy caught John and Sarney. She was furious. Then she asked to john why would he teach him something like that because he could get killed for it. Nightjohn told mammy that he was in the free land but came back to teach young ones to read for they know everything the white man does. After his explanation, she just went to sleep. THE END


Philbert was a really good boxer but his brother wasn't the best . His brother got beat by a white boy and that was looked down upon the Negro community. After getting beat by a white boy, he started acting bad. He put a thumbtack on the teachers seat so he was sent to a detention home. The teachers liked him there but referred to Niger as it was nothing. He said that all whites think there better then everyone but there not. He finally went back to his regular school. He was elected class president and his siblings finally looked up to him, ex specially his sister which was an independent,intelligent black women.



The stories show how there was slavery and segregation. Even when slavery ended, there were still segregation. It didn't matter if the African American was intelligent, they were still a lot of people which treated them like animals. In the great Debaters, they had a chance to debate with whites. the great debaters and the mascot   both had a chance to challenge whites...but the mascot lost.