Chapter 1 opens with an anecdote of Morris’s work with incarcerated youth. In a group discussion, an 11-year-old girl described her job as a sex worker with pride, a moment that Morris says was one of the most impactful experiences of her career. She links this opening anecdote to the main questions behind her first chapter: why inner-city girls must fight so hard simply to survive, and where school sits in relation to Black girls’ struggles for survival.

The chapter first provides historical context, arguing that to understand the issue of survival, one must understand the conditions of Black American experience. Quoting scholars such as W. E. B. DuBois and Angela Davis, who explored multiple facets of Black American identities, Morris introduces the concept of intersectionality. Intersectionality is a theory viewing an individual’s whole self as composed of multiple interrelated facets, such as gender, race and ethnicity, class, etc. Situating this theory within the larger context of the book, Chapter 1 then explores how schools exert unique methods of control and oppression on Black girls because of their identities as Black, American, and female.