Chapter 1 is set on August 28, 1963, the date of the March on Washington. It introduces readers to two characters who will play critical roles in the St. Augustine civil rights drama.

One is Irwin Brunson, a fourth grader who becomes one of five pioneer Black integrators of St. Augustine public schools that fall. August 28th happens to be registration day—meaning it is the first day he sets foot in the Fullerwood Elementary School. Later that day, Irwin watches the coverage from the March on Washington with his siblings and his parents, both of whom are deaf. It is a day of adventure and excitement, but the beginning of an utterly harrowing year.

The other is Kathy Fentress, a 19-year-old rising sophomore at Duke University who grew up an hour south of St. Augustine in Ormond Beach. Kathy, who had participated in some of the first civil rights protests in St. Augustine that summer, takes a bus up to Washington to attend the March. She is the only white person on that bus. It proves a day of unparalleled inspiration for her, but she, too, is set up for a very challenging year ahead.