When Lily confides in Zach that she want to become a writer, he shares with her that he would like to be a lawyer. Lily tells him she has never heard of a Negro lawyer before, which is not surprising, since she has been raised in the South, in a rural and segregated environment, in the fifties and sixties. Zach does have a bit of a mentor, Mr. Forrest, a local attorney, who talks to Zach about his cases, lets him look through his books, and has even given Zach some old law books to take home. Sadly, Zach gets to see the other side of the law when he is jailed after an altercation with a group of racist white men in town. The charges against him are dismissed, but not before his being jailed has led to the suicide of May, who can no longer bear all the racism and sadness of people's lives. But Zach is even more determined to become a lawyer and fight for justice, saying,
Nobody will believe how hard I'm gonna study this year. That jail cell is gonna make me earn grades higher than I ever got (231).
Lily sees his determination, that he will use this experience, to become part of the wave of change she sees coming, fights against racial injustice, even in the South, and that Zach would be someone who would help bring those changes about.
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