Billy Williams A Long Walk To Water Quotes

Set in the early 1900s in Chicago, Billy steps into uncharted territory when he is forced to transfer to James Ward Elementary. Money is getting is tight for his family after his father is hospitalized after the Great War. He had gotten used to his all white school, all white neighborhood, and white best friend, Timmy. Billy and Timmy hung out everyday together going on adventures and even building sleds to play with. It is at James Ward where he meets another unlikely best friend, Foster Williams. This friendship leads Billy to see racism first hand for the first time in his life. Although Billy and Foster become best friends, they are forced to hide their friendship from the other people in the neighborhood, even Timmy. Billy even becomes

It turned out that he was wrong and Foster ended up getting beat up and hung by the back on his shirt in a bathroom stall. This is when Billy realized the severity of racial oppression in his own town and the whole world. One day, Billy decides to take the raft him, Foster, and his brothers built onto the water with them, despite the Williams’ not being able to swim. The raft gets stuck in the current and they start drifting into Lake Michigan. When trying to paddle to a beach, the raft crosses an imaginary line where African Americans were not allowed. Timmy’s dad and many other white people started throwing rocks at the raft. Odell pushes Foster and Billy down to save them while he gets hit with a rock, falls off of the raft, and starts to drown. When the other three boys make it to shore white and black people were all fighting or running away to find safety. Emmett tries to stand up to Timmy’s dad, the person who threw the rock, but he gets arrested instead. Foster and Billy run away from the scene to find safety. Billy is forced to go home by the police and when he gets there, his mom says they have to move because it is too dangerous to stay because now the whole town knows that Billy was friends with a black child and some people might hurt him because of this. Despite him having