And in that instant she understood completely why she was doing this, that this country forced you to make decisions about color that you did not want to make. Suddenly, after all these years she knew how black she was. It was not her idea to judge people on color; it was America and Tennessee and Nashville which had decided to judge her on her color and the color of her friends. She gave them her fingerprints, and walked away from the desk more sure than ever of what she was doing and why she was doing it.
