To Do Justice (The Chicago Trilogy, #3)

SUMMER 1965
Pinkie, 11, of mixed race, longs to connect with the White woman who gave her birth. Pinkie looks White but is being 'raised Black' by shiftless Jolene, who also raises biological daughter Bettina, 8. Bettina and Pinkie are devoted to one another. But how does Jolene have custody of Pinkie?
Mollie, 23, a rookie Associated Press journalist, is a beautiful soul – plucky, honest, sensitive – trapped in a homely exterior. She longs for oafish colleague Steve, 27, who breaks her heart. But with the aid of 'Conrad the dying poet,' Mollie will make her name as a gutsy street reporter.
The "fire hydrant riot," Chicago's first of the tumultuous '60s, erupts outside Pinkie's home. Pinkie watches every night, realizing she could flee life with Jolene. She runs away.
Missus Sawhill, a powerful Democratic operative, takes Pinkie in, opening a new and seemingly better chapter for Pinkie.
Covering a street protest, Mollie encounters Judy the nun. Judy is to loom large.

SUMMER 1966

Mollie and Pinkie meet. Mollie senses a connection between Pinkie and Judy.
Dr. King moves to Chicago to campaign for fair housing. Symbolically, King rents a slum apartment four blocks from Missus Sawhill and Pinkie.
King's aide Rev Bivens seeks to get his hands on Pinkie.
Pinkie longs for Bettina. They meet surreptitiously.
Riots continue. Far worst is in North Lawndale. Pinkie and Bettina are separated in the melee. Pinkie searches all night but can't find Bettina. Bereft, she has no one to turn to but Mollie.
Pinkie falls into Bivens' clutches. Bivens has a plan.
Dr. King schedules a march through Gage Park, a White neighborhood known as racist. Bivens' plan is for Pinkie to be in the lead, her ambiguous identity symbolizing a meeting of the races. But Bettina is in the march too. After Dr. King is struck in head by a rock, Pinkie has her Mrs. Sawhill's way to do good is wrong vs. Dr. King's way; but even bad people may do good things.
Pinkie spots Bettina. In the confusion, the two run off, winding up in Mollie's protection.
Mollie tells colleague Steve about Judy the nun. Steve, shocked, reveals Judy was his high school sweetheart. They dig and discover Judy also is Pinkie's birth mother; and the birth father is Steve's Black high school buddy, Jesse "Sass" Trimble.
Pinkie and Judy meet in tears but Pinkie's joy is short-lived. Judy has committed her life to social justice. "I'll always be [your mother]," she tells a broken-hearted Pinkie. "But no, I can't be your 'mom'."
Steve and Mollie uncover massive corruption involving Missus Sawhill and her boss, Alderman Fiume. But then Missus Sawhill goes on TV to say armed Blacks will invade White neighborhoods. The story is bogus but a terrified city buys it 100%.
Missus Sawhill vanishes. Mollie suspects she knows where. She drags Pinkie and Bettina into filthy tunnels under South Side streets. There, ensconced in a long-unused electrical compartment, they discover Missus Sawhill's cozy hideaway, complete with champagne and foie gras.
Mollie and Pinkie seek to track down Pinkie's birth father. It is "Sass" Trimble, Steve's high school buddy, but Sass has died in Vietnam and Judy has given up baby Pinkie for adoption. A White couple has adopted her; and Jolene, in their. home as temporary help, has stolen the baby
EPILOGUE
Mollie marries a wealthy Greek shipping magnate. Jolene goes to jail for baby-theft and fraud. Ald. Fiume and Mrs. Sawhill go to jail too, but she gets out early for testifying against him. Pinkie and Bettina now have no one but Mollie. She offers to adopt them both but Pinkie declines; she has come into her own at last.