The Glory Field

Part 4 begins in Chicago, Illinois. It is May 1930. Elijah and Goldie are now married and have two children: Richard, who is nineteen, and Luvenia, who is sixteen.

Elijah and Goldie have returned to the Glory Field with their son and want Luvenia to join them, but Luvenia wants to stay in Chicago. She plans to attend college using the money she makes as a live-in servant and hairdresser. She dreams of being a teacher and knows that she is intelligent enough.

The narrative starts as Luvenia is doing Miss Etta Pinckney’s hair and complaining about a recent letter she received from her father. Elijah is once again requesting that she join them at the Glory Field. Luvenia wants Miss Etta, her best friend and her godmother, to write to her father to make him understand her wishes to stay in Chicago. Luvenia has visited a bank to ask about a loan to support her studies but was told she would need to prove a guaranteed income.

Luvenia works as a part-time live-in maid for the Deets family, who are white. She asks Mrs. Deets if she will sign an affidavit confirming her steady income so that she can apply for the loan.