This Is My America

Tracy’s relentless advocacy for her father’s freedom is epistolary in form. Over the seven years of her father’s incarceration, she has written many letters to the organization, Innocence X, which seeks to overturn the rulings of wrongly convicted individuals. Although she waits seven years for a response, these letters (and her appearance on The Susan Touric Show) do gain the attention of Innocence X, and lead to her father’s appeal case and subsequent freeing from prison.

The effect of these letters is to show Tracy’s character—someone who does not give up in the face of hardship and pursues justice with a single-minded focus and dedication. She mentions her family by name, brings up Jamal’s admission to college for his track prowess, alluding to the length of time that Tracy has been writing the letters to the organization. Tracy also uses these letters to process her feelings and questions about the nature of justice. In a letter from May 7, she writes about the slow nature of progress: “Does it mean a hundred years from now someone else won’t go through the same pain that my family’s been through?” (105) and reflects on its implications for her own father’s case.