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Thruway Diaries Summary In Thruway Diaries, the Cadillac, that Black American symbol of achievement and success, "having made it," provides no immunity to Big T and his family as they travel from Chicago to his native Mississippi in the early sixties and find themselves the target of police officers hell bent on making sure they "know their place." It is even more unfortunate for Big T and his family that they are making the trip only a few years after Rosa Parks has refused to give up her seat to a white man on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking a bus boycott that fuels the Civil Rights Movement. Even a car representing success can be seen as an affront to the status quo. God forbid one should display an ounce of visible pride, which could easily be interpreted as an act of defiance, an action that could land the unwary in a shallow grave. There are other places to vacation New York and Chicago to show off the Cadillac, as Big T knows and hears in no uncertain terms from his children. But home is where the heart is and millions of African Americans returned home each year to visit family and display their new found status. Some, like my Uncle Albert and Uncle John Dew, escaped Mississippi under the cover of darkness to avoid the penury system that held blacks in a state of economic servitude that was little better than slavery. So returning home in a modern car, sometimes a Cadillac as my Uncle Albert did, displaying the latest fashions, was an act of liberation, of financial independence, if not outright defiance. But Big T learns a harsh lesson that compels him to put his Cadillac on the blocks. Family comes first. Big T's wife, Naomi, while willing to share in her husband's wishes to see his Mother, harbors a disturbing secret of her own from her days as a maid in a white household when the white master still took advantage of young black women without fear of being charged with sexual abuse. She has fled to Chicago to escape in the arms of Big T. Her experi