March on Washington

The March on Washington enters the narrative through a family photograph and Malaika’s account of her grandparents’ participation. The image turns a historical march into a point of personal memory, while Nella Rogers’s reaction links it to an unsettled recollection about Hazel.

Family Photograph and the March

Looking at an old black-and-white photograph of a smiling couple, Nella first asks whether the people pictured are Manny’s grandparents. Malaika corrects her: they are her own. She explains that the photograph was taken the day before her grandparents rode to Washington for King’s march, and says that all four of her grandparents marched together. The passage gives no year for the photograph or the march.

Nella’s Recollection

Malaika’s account makes Nella pause. She recalls that Hazel had spoken months earlier, at Nico’s, about her grandfather dying while protesting busing, and Nella tries to remember whether Hazel had said 1961. The text presents this as Nella’s uncertain recollection, not as a resolved contradiction. In this brief exchange, the march connects family history to Nella’s growing scrutiny of what she has heard from Hazel.