by Gary Sapp
attainted at least a little information, he knew it was time to start keeping his word to warden. He stuck a toothpick in his mouth.
“Julian, you are too smart to let a tremendous opportunity to advocate change—real change in this place, pass through your fingertips.”
Julian’s large eyes sunk a little as he tried to mask the hurt, the betrayal he’d obviously felt at that moment. “What in hell are you talking about, bro? And whose side are you on anyway?” He kept his pistol out, but thankfully with the barrel pointed towards the floor as he approached Xavier. “Your father taught us to seek retribution for sins committed against our brethren. This is what we are doing here.”
“Isaac Prince did say just that.” Xavier stood on his toes and said it loud enough for the entire room to hear. “And I thought I taught you better than that, Julian. Have you completed the first to parts of the mandate? Have you and these Black Knights of yours gained self-respect first, respect of your family after that, and finally the respect of your community. Have you really?” When Julian failed to answer immediately, Xavier said, “My father taught us only after these tasks are completed in full, may we seek the retribution against those who have sinned against us.”
Warden Bright finally spoke into the silence that followed. “Julian, you have my word that my office will bid out three or four of these maintenance issues by the close of business hours today.”
“I’ll hold him to his word, Julian.” Xavier said.
Julian kept his pistol raised but dropped his head. Xavier knew from his long conversations with the man that the former gang banger was giving their proposal a long consideration. And where Julian Moore lead the Black Knights were likely to follow—
And then it all went to hell.
Rose Dixon moved quicker than any woman her size had the right to. She snatched Julian’s pistol out of the grasp out of an inmate idly standing next to her, batted Julian’s pistol from his hand, and had the first man’s pistol lodged against Julian’s head in one lighting motion.
“Damn you, Rose,” Warden screamed at the woman. “What are you doing?”
Rose backed both her large frame and Julian, who she had in a choke hold, to the wall so no other inmate could slip in behind her. “Inmate Moore, you will order these men of yours to release these civilians right now or I will blow your brains all over this library.”
Two of the Black Knights grabbed Xavier and he could feel the cold steel of guns planted on each side of his temple. A shiver ran down his spine. He had known fear before, but rarely had he experienced an episode bathed in such urgency. Warden Bright wasn’t doing much better as three inmates surrounded him. The two guards that had accompanied them down here had drawn the remainder of gang bangers attention.
“Everyone,” Xavier struggled to keep his voice from quivering. “Lower your weapons.”
“Rose,” The warden used his indoor voice, ironically suited for a library. “Mr. Moore and I were very close to reaching a gentleman’s agreement weren’t we, Julian?”
“How about it, Julian,” Xavier asked, he tried to tilt his head away from at least one of the barrels trained on him. “Do we have an agreement, or are you going to sit back and allow a slaughter to begin over cold cells, clogged toilets, and frozen meals?”
“Sure,” Julian struggled to say through the choke hold. Rose loosened her grip some. “All of the hostages we are holding here and the security personnel that are being held near the copy room will be released only after the warden here agrees to all 31 of the issues that I’ve written on that paper.”
Just as a victorious grin begins to play on Warden Bright’s face it disappeared as if it never existed in the first place. He scanned the list again…and again from top to bottom with a trembling hand.
“Julian, you must be in error, son.” He said. “You’ve got it numbered. I only count 30 requests on this paper.”
Julian makes a hand motion for Warden Bright to flip the paper over to the other side.
The Warden exhaled in exasperation and looked away. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m dead serious.” Julian didn’t blink. Rose had released her grip enough for Julian to walk away from her without incident. The Black Knights still had their guns pointed at the three of them, but Xavier felt as if the chance of a slaughter had been downgraded a notch or two. He hoped that trend would continue. A lot depended on what Julian said next. “In exchange for the lives of your sweet, innocent civilians, Warden, I want these five known Klansmen brought here from the west wing. They were found guilty in a court of law and are now serving life sentences for the lynching and murder of three Black activists over in Albany seven years ago.” Julian finally found his place, directly in front of Xavier Prince.
“You just said it, Julian,” The warden said. “They were convicted in a Georgia court of law. They are serving life sentences, justice has been served. What else could you possibly want from these men?”
“I want justice for what they’ve done here.”
“What in the hell are you talking about?”
Xavier said, “Do you really want to do this, Julian.”
“I tried to wait until you were released, my brother.” Was all that Julian Moore could manage, he hugged Xavier Prince around his neck and whispered in the other man’s ear. “You’ve done so much for me. I owed you this. I owed you…justice.”
Julian released Xavier and turned back so that every inmate, prison guard, hostage and…every warden would hear his words…and remember.
“Let me tell you all a story, a true story, a tale full of glory and sadness. A few years ago a young man by the name of Xavier Prince was accepted into Princeton University prestigious law school. He was only one of 138 who were accepted into a small, but impressive class that included another name that would be familiar to most people in this room, a hatemonger named James Carter.” Julian Moore said, letting the names and faces burrow themselves in his listeners conscious. “Two men with very different roomed together, but rarely interacted, or at least it appeared that way to the other members of the freshman class and staff at the law school. Xavier and James Carter even roomed together.” Julian looked back at Xavier with large, sympathetic eyes. “This man was the only Black man in the entire law program at the time; we are talking about Princeton here. Xavier Prince thrived during the day. He quickly rose to the top of his class. Some of his instructors have commented, even when they are interviewed now, that this man may have had the brightest law mind they had ever seen. I only wish he had done as well after dark. There were nights when he did feel…isolated. There were nights when he felt so very alone.”
Julian began to pace the floor, slow at first, but soon his stride quickened until it was nearing a fever pitch. “James Carter hadn’t had a whole lot to say to Xavier over the first year. In fact, there were times that the other young man seemed downright hostile to the young Georgia native, the son of a renowned Black activist, who had founded A House in Chains years earlier. Carter had grown up in Georgia as well. He’d been raised as the son of a man who ran a local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan.”
Julian Moore had stopped in one sudden motion. All eyes in the room were fixed on him. Even Xavier Prince watched his every move.
One night, one very fateful night, Carter finally spoke at length with Xavier Prince. Carter knew about the other man’s past and told Xavier that they should not allow their father’s decisions affect how they lived their lives moving forward. They were going to be lawyers if not judges someday. They were going to change the world! Why should they not act like friends and go out and celebrate the future.” Julian said and looked at Xavier Prince for a long time. It was Xavier who gazed away at last because he already knew how this tale ended, the horror that soon followed. He had lived it, of course.
“Carter had laid an ambush in waiting for Xavier Prince. Four local men from a New Jersey chapter of the Klan helped Carter beat the black man within inches of his life.”
The woma
n hostage who had cried earlier looked as if a fresh round of tears were building in the corners of her eyes. An inmate cursed. Warden Bright said, “God Almighty,” and looked away.
Julian continued when the room quieted again. “This is all heartbreaking but true. Yet, friends and neighbors, we haven’t reached the tragic climax of this story just yet.” He put a long emphasis of his pronouncement of the word just for effect. “The four local men stripped Xavier of his shirt, then they stripped him of his pants and his underwear…and then they stripped a Black man…a Man of Color…of everything left that was meaningful to him. They stripped Xavier Prince of his dignity.” Julian stopped for breath. This was a harrowing tale for Xavier Prince to hear. And if he hadn’t experienced it…lived through it himself…he might not have believed such a horrible thing could have truly have happened.
“James Carter took a bullwhip that was a going away gift from his father, and whipped Xavier with it. He lashed him…once...twice...thrice…again and again...and again. He told Xavier that he was in control here. The man on the wrong end of the bullwhip was actually the governor of his own fate. Carter told him that the lashes would only continue until the beaten man screamed.”
One of the inmates, a man who looked the part of a fish out of water, walked behind Prince,