Copy the fourteen vocabulary words and definitions (you don't need to copy the examples) in your notebook. After you copy the definitions (which is a good way to start learning them), complete the Vocab.com practice.

Background

Notwithstanding the abundant social and personal degradations and humiliations experienced by African Americans as a result of segregation and other racist denials of equal access and human dignity, nothing compares politically to the systematic denial of their right to vote. The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, established that “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” But all through the South, that right was thwarted by the use of poll taxes and literacy tests, and by various informal kinds of obstruction and intimidation.

This prize-winning story, published in 1961 (before the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965) by Louisiana-born writer and entrepreneur Junius Edwards (1929–2008), poignantly recounts an episode of the latter. Will Harris, like Edwards an Army veteran, tries to register in his hometown somewhere in the South, but is given a hard time by two good ol’ boys, Sam and Charlie. What is the purpose of their questions and comments? Why all the questions about Will Harris’ job? What is the effect of the interrogation on each of the participants? What do you think of the way Will Harris conducted himself? What do you think of the end of the story, and Harris’ encounter with the American flag? Has he lost his love of country? Were you in his place, would you have lost it?