CHAPTER FOUR UNCLE DREW
CHAPTER
FOUR
Uncle Drew
In Uncle Drew’s book-lined office, Cora sat in front of the desk, crossing and uncrossing her legs.
The worn brown leather of the low-slung chair creaked with the shift of her weight as she adjusted herself in the seat.
Lee sat beside her in a second chair, strength radiating from him like the sun. Roscoe had refused to come.
From behind the desk, Uncle Drew took notes as Cora talked, telling him what had happened at the real-estate agent’s and before that at the bank.
‘Officially, you should have access to the GI mortgage scheme. Unfortunately, the way they block you from it is completely legal.’ He sat forward and folded his fingers together.
‘The problem is that the benefits are administered locally, so even if the federal government really did mean for you to have access, the local government can legally exclude you with their high-risk zoning nonsense. And even though racial zoning has been illegal for nearly thirty years, it’s alive and well in every real-estate agency in the state, so you’re unlikely to get someone to sell you something in the low-risk white areas. ’
Cora was glad Roscoe hadn’t come. If he had, she would have gotten an earful after this.
‘So that’s it?’ Lee said. ‘There’s got to be something we can do.’
Uncle Drew glanced between Cora and Lee, tapping his fingers on the desk, drumming out a pattern. ‘Governments derive their power from the people.’ Tap, tap, tap. ‘So, if the people speak up loudly enough,’ tap, tap, ‘the government must act.’
‘I like it,’ Lee said.
‘But how do we get enough people to speak up?’ Cora asked.
‘With a little thing called the free press.’ He took out a notebook and began jotting down names: the Pittsburgh Courier, the Chicago Defender, the Baltimore Afro-American, the Norfolk Journal and Guide.
‘The white press won’t touch this unless it becomes a big story in the colored papers, so that’s where we’ll start.
’ He spoke as he wrote, adding names until the list ran the length of the page.
‘But we’ll need your husband. He’s the vet. The story doesn’t work without him.’
Cora thought of the way Roscoe had looked at her when they were turned down at the bank. And how he’d barely spoken to her since. How would she ever get him to agree to speak to a newspaper?
She looked at Lee. ‘Maybe you could do it. You don’t have to want to buy a house. If you just ask, they’ll turn you down, and then it’s your story.’
‘No, Cora, I can’t,’ Lee said. ‘Officially, I can’t get a GI anything.’
‘But you served. Longer than most others. You volunteered straight away and fought and got shot at and everything.’
‘I have a blue discharge, which means I’m locked out of all the benefit programs.’ He explained what happened in his final army days and how he was kicked out, with no chance of appeal.
‘But I’d do it again,’ he said. ‘Especially knowing that the GI bill doesn’t do much good for an honorable discharge either. ’
He said it casually, but she knew it hurt him.
‘Now that’s an idea,’ Uncle Drew said. ‘We should broaden the story. Make it about all the Negro soldiers getting left behind on all the different GI benefits, not just you and the mortgage.’
‘A wider base for a bigger story,’ Lee said.
‘I have a few contacts at some of these,’ Uncle Drew tapped the page with the newspaper names, ‘but I want to start with the bigger papers. The smaller ones will follow their lead, and if we have any chance of getting this to cross over into the white press, we need the big names to be leading the charge with it.’
Cora was getting nervous. She’d come in for legal advice and suddenly they were planning a national news campaign. ‘Are you sure this is a good idea? Our names in the paper like that? Printing all this won’t change anything anyways.’
‘We need public opinion on our side if we want to pressure politicians to make legal changes. Doing this could make a real difference. But I don’t want to force you into anything. If you’re not comfortable taking this forward, let me know now.’
Lee leaned in and took her hand. ‘We could keep her name out of it, though, right? She could be anonymous. Or have a fake name for the paper.’
‘Of course. That shouldn’t be a problem. And if we expand the story, hers would just be one of many voices.’
Cora looked at Lee. He smiled encouragement at her and squeezed her hand. He believed in her and he made her feel brave. She could do this. With his support she could do anything.
‘Okay, let’s call them.’ She felt a rush of excitement that she could be part of something so important. She’d worry about what to tell Roscoe later.