Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Change, Coming of Age, and Maturity
Family, Friendship, and Support
Bullying and Injustice vs. Kindness and Compassion
Race and Class
Summary
Analysis
Kenny is in the kitchen with his mother one night when Byron walks in wearing a hat. When he sees his mother, he tries to back out undetected, but it’s too late—she has already seen him. She tells him to take off his hat. She’s incensed to discover that he has gotten a perm. He’s been wanting to for a long time, but he has known his parents would never let him. But now he has done it anyway. Wilona says Byron’s father is going to be enraged. Before his father comes home, though, Wilona wants to know something: was it worth it? Does Byron really think he looks good with straight hair? As she starts playing with her son’s hair, she lets out a little laugh and says he looks like a clown.
Byron’s decision to get his hair straightened has some significant implications. As a Black person, his hair is naturally curly, but it was popular in the early 1960s for Black men to get what was known as a “conk”—a hairstyle that relaxed curls through the use of a chemical. Once the hair was straight, many barbers would style it to look like a white person’s hairstyle, with a part on one side and the hair combed neatly to the other. It is most likely because the hairstyle emulated white styles that Wilona has a problem with Byron’s new look, as it suggests that he covets white style over natural Black hair.
Themes
When Daniel finally comes home, he and Wilona call Byron downstairs. Kenny keeps taunting him, so Byron punches him in the stomach as they descend the stairs. In the end, Daniel shaves Byron’s hair and then laughs about how big his ears look. He and Wilona also send the children off so that they can have an adult conversation. When the children return, Daniel and Wilona are on the phone with Grandma Sands—Wilona’s mother in Alabama. The kids think that’s the end of the entire ordeal until a week later, when Daniel mysteriously outfits the Brown Bomber with a portable turntable.
Even as Wilona and Daniel discipline Byron, they never lose sight of their humor. They’re unhappy with Byron for straightening his hair, but Daniel doesn’t let this overshadow his ability to playfully laugh at his son after shaving his head, suggesting that, although Daniel and Wilona are serious about disciplining Byron, they’re still kind and warmhearted parents.
Themes
