A few classmates had been curious about the song Derek played, and so overnight they did a little research. The songwriter Mason Jennings? He had performed at civil rights rallies and written a tribute song about Martin Luther King Jr. The lyrics of “Adrian”? They were inspired by Toni Morrison’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel, Beloved, about the psychological effects of slavery. “That song he chose?” one forum email read. “It’s a song about a LYNCHING. He’s trolling us.”
