I read it when I was of middle-school age, living in a segregated town in Oklahoma just before the civil rights era came into full bloom. It helped usher me into fully-aware adulthood.

BTW, at that time the N-word was not used only as a pejorative, though it was understood to be not very polite. At Christmastime, I sold a candy at my local five and dime that farmers would come in and ask for by the name “N-toes”. I recall being just mildly scandalized at their lack of class.