Standing near the roadside to provide would-be trespassers with food for thought are her private protective figures, two scarecrowlike effigies that wear red hats reminiscent of the berets of New York’s Guardian Angels. These figures, according to Sewell, are actually based on “the Black Panthers out there in Hollywood. They’re famous when they was tearing up things out in Los Angeles, out there in California. Folks scared to go to them. They was turning over cars, breaking windows out, going in stores getting what they want. Sheriff been scared to arrest them. That’s a mean, mean game, you see. And folks just stood up and let them burn what they want, and tore up what they want, and sheriff was scared to go to them. If you ever come in contact with them, you know, get a fight with them, they’ll kill you. Peoples know about it. If they see it they know what it mean.”
