At the funeral, the new widow Lee left her children to walk up to Moses and McDew, beating her chest in anguish and shouting, “You killed my husband! You killed my husband!” Her cries echoed in the cold misery of Moses’ reflections. He labored to reach a philosophical perspective on his guilt, acknowledging that he was a “participant” in the killing, in the sense that it probably would not have occurred without his registration classes. Still, Moses could not convince himself that he should have acted differently unless he also accepted the reality of Amite County as permanent—that Negroes
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