Multiple Stories in We've Got a Job Answers

In Cynthia Levinson’s We’ve Got a Job, students began to receive cues to leave schools. Which statement best describes how this event affected others?

Read the excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.Most mornings, young people who set their radio dial on WENN might wake up to the popular black DJ Shelley Stewart warbling, "Good goobly woobly!” Or, maybe they’d hear him cry, "Timberrrr, let it fall!” as he dropped a needle onto a spinning James Brown or Sam Cooke platter. On the morning of Thursday, May 2, however, his teenaged listeners heard, "Kids, there’s gonna be a party at the park. Bring your toothbrushes because lunch will be served.”Stewart’s white fans must have wondered what he meant. The black ones got it. This was the signal to launch demonstrations in Kelly Ingram Park, down the street from the station’s offices. They knew there was no more chance of getting lunch in the park than there was of being served a banana split at the counter at J. J. Newberry’s. But they needed their toothbrushes because, after demonstrating, they would probably be going to jail—possibly for days.The use of Shelley Stewart’s direct quotes in the first paragraph helps readers understand that

Read the excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.On the morning of Thursday, May 2, however, his teenaged listeners heard, "Kids, there’s gonna be a party at the park. Bring your toothbrushes because lunch will be served.”Which statement best describes the shared experience of the radio listeners?

Read the excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.Meanwhile, Wash had arrived at Kelly Ingram Park to watch. "[W]e saw those people willingly turn themselves over to the police . . .,” he said. His reaction: "Wow, they must be crazy.” Experience had taught Wash that "the police was vicious murderers.” He knew how much pain they could inflict on young black bodies—as Arnetta discovered the next day.What does the author’s use of Wash’s quotes help readers understand?

Read the excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.At that point, things got even scarier for the marchers. Connor rolled up in a massive white car shaped and outfitted like a tank, complete with gun turrets. "Connor told them to arrest [us],” James said. "We were crammed into the paddy wagons that were meant to hold maybe eight people at the most—two in [each of] the four cubicles that they had. They crammed three and four of us into one cubicle and they continued to press the door until they got it shut and locked and [had] us taken off to jail.”As soon as James’s group was hauled away, Bevel released the next group of fifty students. When that batch was arrested, the next group burst from the church.Which pair of adjectives best describes the shared experience of the student groups?

Read the two excerpts from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.Arnetta didn’t go to the mass meeting that night. She was disappointed she hadn’t been arrested. Somehow, she had gotten separated from the rest of the Peace Ponies, many of whom did get arrested and jailed. Instead, she went home and talked with her parents about the excitement of marching. They repeated their advice: "You’ve done your part. You need to leave this alone.”*****Meanwhile, Wash had arrived at Kelly Ingram Park to watch. "[W]e saw those people willingly turn themselves over to the police . . .,” he said. His reaction: "Wow, they must be crazy.” Experience had taught Wash that "the police was vicious murderers.” He knew how much pain they could inflict on young black bodies—as Arnetta discovered the next day.How did Arnetta’s and Wash’s opinions about being arrested differ?

Read the excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.Audrey and James didn’t go to the mass meeting either. They were in jail.Audrey was taken to a large dayroom. She didn’t know anyone, and everyone was older. Dinner was unappetizing. "They gave us grits . . .” she said. "They were horrible—all soupy, no salt.” That night, she slept on a bunk bed "on one mattress, with one sheet,” and no covers.The first-person quotations in this excerpt help explain

Read the following excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.When Arnetta saw Hosea Williams, one of her nonviolence trainers, arrive at her school, she thought, “It’s here, it’s about to happen!” She was joyful at “seeing all those children coming out to participate in the Movement.” She described Dr. Bell, the principal of Ullman, as “running around like a chicken with his head cut off.”Through the use of quotes in this excerpt, the reader is presented with

Read the following excerpt from We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson.James stood upstairs at the very front of all the marchers, next to his friend Gertrude. “We were thinking about the seriousness of what we were about to do,” he said.At one o’clock, a DJ at WENN dropped the needle on the gospel song “All Men Created by God.” This was the cue to start the march. The double doors of Sixteenth Street Baptist swung open.James immediately saw the trouble they were about to step into.“When the door was opened, I was shocked at the number of people,” he said. Beyond sawhorse barricades that surrounded the church, policemen sat at attention on motorcycles. Hundreds of black adults crowded the park. “I could see reporters . . . I remember hearing a man saying, ‘They’re coming out! They’re coming out!’ There were lights and people all around.”Which detail from this excerpt suggests that the speaker’s feelings were shared by other children involved in the march?

Which idea should be included in a summary of We’ve Got a Job by Cynthia Levinson?