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The children and adults are both very excited about this big day, graduation. The children in the story are students that are graduating from both grammar school and the high school. The black students attend Lafayette Country Training School in Arkansas, which was nothing compared to the white schools in the same area. “Unlike the white high school, Lafayette Country Training School distinguished itself by having neither lawn, nor hedges, nor tennis court, nor climbing ivy.” Marguerite Johnson was 12 years old, and graduating with honors. “My work alone had awarded me a top place and I was going to be one of the first called in the graduating ceremonies.” Henry Reed was the class valedictorian, and Marguerite remembers how she vied with him for the best grades in the class. Marguerite and her mother had been working on her beautiful butter-yellow pique dress that she would be wearing on her glorious day. A couple weeks before graduation they had tons of things planned for this great event. “A group of small children were to be presented in a play about buttercups and daisies and bunny rabbits, the older girls (non graduates, of course) were assigned the task of making refreshments for the night's festivities, and axes and saws split fresh timber as the woodshop boys made sets and stage scenery.” Traditionally, Negro families gave presents to children who were going from a lower grade to a higher grade.
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