Paul McDaniel was 14 or 15 when he took a job working for a white boss. South Carolina. In the ’40s. One day, he was riding in the back of the foreman’s truck. Blacks with him on the job, whites, too. A car passed. Someone threw something. Car stopped, turned around, words exchanged, a peace brokered.
“You pick out the man you think did it,” the foreman told the offended driver.
The driver pointed to young Paul.
I didn’t do it, Paul said.
You’re fired, the foreman said.