Ophie's Ghosts Quotes

“then there was poor Colin, a colored boy who had come to the manor as a child. He had died long ago in Virginia, but his bondage had carried on into his death, so that his spirit was forced to follow the mistress of the manor when she moved north.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie’s Ghosts

“When she was twelve, Ophelia Harrison saw her first ghost. And it was the last time she saw her father.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie’s Ghosts

“I love you, Ophie. Be a good girl for your mama.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie’s Ghosts

“She cried because girls who believed in happily aver afters could be murdered in attics, and because men who just wanted to have their voices heard could have their words choked off forever. She cried for lost boys like Colin and for all the dead who still waited for someone to help them. And she cried because so many of them would be forgotten, their stories never remembered, never told. The task seemed impossible, and overwhelming, but someone would have to help them.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie's Ghosts

“Some truths, left ignored too long, had no choice but to win out.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie's Ghosts

“Ophie realized she had never ever seen such a thing before. It filled her with a sense of ease, and as they approached, she spun around, taking in the small part of Pittsburgh where it seemed that being a Negro was no more usual than wearing a hat. A tension that Ophie always carried with her melted away. It was the constant fear of saying the wrong thing or looking the wrong way at a white person, the inevitable consequences of such a trespass. There was something nice about realizing that there really was nothing wrong with being colored, despite what some folks thought.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie's Ghosts

“But Ophie had learned that the best way to survive in this world was to treat white folks, especially important white folks, the same way she treated snakes: cautiously, and with respect, whether they deserved it.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie's Ghosts

“...well, Ophie and her mama were just the same. They knew firsthand how white people acted when colored broke the unspoken rules, forgot their place.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie's Ghosts

“Ophie knew better than to ask such a thing, to wonder why it was that all the grown folks said nice things about people even even they were lies. She just took it as part of the unspoken rules of life, the same as "don't talk back to elders" and "clear off the sidewalk for white folks to get by" Things that had always existed, that she couldn't question or ague, any more than she could argue with the rain.”
― Justina Ireland, Ophie's Ghosts