renting in a white neighbourhood; despite hiding, Peter is eventually found out by the other neighbours and the landlady. She evicts him, and he goes back to Jules's, who says he will let him stay at his place. Jules and Peter engage in a long philosophical discussion about the nature of Blackness and Jewishness in America. Later, he goes to dinner with his friend Ida, who suggests suing the landlady, but he prefers not to. He then leaves, takes the subway, and goes to a black bar where he buys a drink for two women. Racism and African-American life are major themes of this story. Characters Peter, the protagonist. He is a short black man. He was named after his father. He works as an actor in theatre plays. Jules Weissman, a Jewish boy who finds the room in New York for the protagonist. Ida, a white girl of Irish descent, from Boston. She married a gay ballet dancer for money. the landlady the white couple on the subway the two ladies in the bar in Harlem Cultural references The title of the work is most likely a reference to the 15th amendment of the U.S. Constitution, stating that the right to vote cannot be denied due to "previous condition" of servitude. Some neighbours are playing Beethoven. "Hamp's Boogie", Ella Fitzgerald's "Cow-Cow Boogie". Peter says he cannot live up to Booker T. Washington. Fyodr Dostoyevsky “Crime and Punishment” Sonny's Blues (1957) "Sonny's Blues" was originally published in Partisan Review (1957). The story is written from the first-person singular perspective. Major themes of the story include darkness and light; music; ice; pain, passing it on, and growing from it; and absence. Throughout the short story there are several mentions of "the war," although it is not stated which one. This Morning, This Evening, So Soon (1960) "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon" was originally published in The Atlantic Monthly (September 1960). Its title is a reference to the chorus of the traditional folk song "Tell Old Bill", which recounts the lynching of a man who does not heed the narrator's advice to "leave them downtown girls alone." The Narrator is spending his last night in Paris with his family and his sister, who is visiting. He then thinks back to the time he returned to America after his mother's funeral, and the way the Statue of Liberty made no sense to