“Going to Meet the Man” by James Baldwin (1965)

A southern white deputy sheriff tries and fails to have sex with

his wife. As she goes to sleep he talks about the vicious

beating he gave a black protestor earlier that day, and

returns to a deeper and even darker memory from his

childhood: the ritual killing of a black man. After the killing,

there was a picnic. Baldwin doesn’t deny his character

humanity, but as the story’s shocking climax shows, neither

does he forgive him.