New York City, 1964
On their way out the door after the meeting, Eve grabbed two application forms from the woman who had come from the national office to tell them about the Mississippi Summer Project. She and Daniella could look over the application at the West End, where they were meeting Pete for beers, Pete who would inevitably bring along a fraternity brother of his in yet another attempt to set Eve up, no matter how many times Eve told both him and Daniella that she was not interested in dating a Sigma Chi. Before exiting the building the girls buttoned up their coats and wrapped their scarves tightly around their necks; still, their exposed cheeks turned red from the cold March air as they walked at a fast clip toward the West End.
Warren had also been at the CORE meeting, positioned on the other side of the room, and though seeing him made Eve’s stomach flip, she had only slightly lifted her hand to give a half wave. He had his arm slung around Abby’s shoulder. Never mind. There were more important things at stake, like the action CORE was planning for that summer, sending hundreds of college students to Mississippi to join the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) field officers already stationed there. Once in Mississippi, they would canvass the state, urging Negro residents to register to vote.
“Of course, the Mississippi registrars will refuse to process their forms,” the woman from the national office had explained. “But if enough people are denied, we’ll have a federal court case on our hands.”
• • •
They arrived at the bar before Pete, so they grabbed a booth and ordered beers. Even though she had been to the West End a dozen times before, Eve was suddenly cognizant of how far she had come from her upbringing: Not only was she hanging out at a bar, but she was also—at least at that very moment—unaccompanied by a man. And once the waitress brought the Blatz she ordered, Eve would crack it open and drink it straight from the can.
Daniella did not seem as convinced as Eve that going to Mississippi was a good idea. She hadn’t said no but had not expressed any enthusiasm when Eve tried to impress upon her the importance of their going.
“Do you not want to do it?” Eve finally asked, halfway through her beer. She had shed her coat, revealing a black cashmere turtleneck that she wore over a heavy tweed skirt.
“It’s not that,” said Daniella, who drank her beer from a glass. “I just think we need to seriously consider how dangerous it’s going to be.”
“We should only take actions that are safe?” asked Eve.
“Of course not. I’m just saying that we should really think it through. I hate to bring it up, but we don’t want to rush into things like we did with Miss Eugenia.”
It was kind of her to say “we” when really it had been Eve who had rushed into things.
“This isn’t the same as interfering on behalf of Miss Eugenia,” Eve argued. “This isn’t just me with some half-baked plan. CORE has been around for twenty years. They’re smart, they’re organized, and they know what they’re doing.”
“We also need to think about whether or not we could handle it, not to mention our parents, who would surely be worried sick all summer.”
“That’s a gas. As if Patty and Lem would let me go.”
“You would go without their knowing?”
“I can always find a reason for being in Mississippi. There was a girl in Fleur from Greenwood. I could tell them I’m staying with her, doing the deb circuit or something.”
“Are you talking about Caroline Foster?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you remember the first time it snowed at Belmont and she came out of the dorm in a full-length mink coat and mink hat?”
“Caro was very concerned about the cold,” said Eve.
“I think I want to do it,” said Daniella slowly. “I just have to sit with it. Make sure it’s something I’m actually capable of.”
“I don’t think we know what we’re capable of until we try,” said Eve.
“That’s probably right,” conceded Daniella, and then her attention shifted from Eve because Pete had entered the bar and was rushing toward them, apologizing for running late, eager as always to kiss his girl. Behind him trailed a tall man wearing a varsity jacket—Eve’s consolation prize. The boys sat, introductions were made (Pete’s friend was named Tad), and more beer was ordered. Eve’s mind wandered as Pete and Tad discussed Dr. Strangelove. She was thinking of what she would say in her CORE application, how she would write of what happened to Miss Eugenia.
She would tell of how Miss Eugenia’s firing haunted her, how she would lie in bed at night worrying about how she and her crippled husband were supporting themselves now that she had lost her job. She would write of how she would do anything to take back having sent that letter, to have been more strategic, smarter, wiser. She was wiser now. She wanted to make up for what she had done. Perhaps by going to Mississippi she could help mend the tear. Perhaps going to Mississippi would render her a little less complicit.