The bus arrived and Adam claimed the corner seat in the back, as he always did, as every teenager he knew always did. It was weird to him that the whole civil rights movement had pretty much started over a fight to not have to sit in the back, and now the back was the only cool place to sit. Especially for black kids. A lot of times Adam had gotten on a bus, hoping for a back seat, but had to take something up front because a crowd of black kids had already staked the area. And, no, he could not just “join them.” Adam looked out the window. The inside of the bus was a pretty mixed group of people, but out on the streets every single person he saw was black. The storefronts read: JAY’S BARBER SHOP BEAUTY SUPPLY, DRUGS AND SURGICALS, SOLANGE HAIR DESIGN, HAIR AND BODY CONTROL, FOOT CARE CENTER (foot care center?), a fake Kentucky Fried Chicken called KENNEDY FRIED CHICKEN, and SHAE SHAE’S SALON. He wondered what part of New York this was. There were nine black kids who went to EBP.
