Although life was better in the projects than in the tenement house, Wash began to glimpse more of the other world and realize what he was missing. "You'd walk by the Alabama Theatre, and the door would open, and you'd feel that cool air." He also noticed white people eating at the counter at J. J. Newberry's Department Store. "More than anything," he said, "I wanted a banana split behind that counter . . . But you couldn't go back there." Instead Wash and other blacks had to eat in the basement standing up. How does this excerpt best help readers make a connection to world events?