Jed Wilson, “A Party Down the Square”
The main characters in this story are the unidentified black victim of a lynching and the unnamed young white narrator through whose eyes this abomination is seen. It is Jed Wilson with the name who is really the important figure, however, simply by virtue of earning the dignity of a name. Well, dignity may not be the right word: it is to the back of Jed’s truck that the victim was tied, it is the words of Jed that the mass blindly follows, and—most importantly—it is Jed who is expected to be elected sheriff in the next election.
James, “Boy on a Train”
James is the title figure of this story and it is through his perspective that the reader sees the world, much as it is through the limited perspective afforded train windows that a passenger sees the world. James is young black boy at the moment he is first coming to grips with the full extent of the reality that black people and white people see and are seen differently by the world.
John, “The Black Ball”
John is a tender loving father who believes in the American Dream. He is used to the word “uppity” being used synonymously with “educated” when applied to black people. He is initially wary and suspicious of the intentions of a white union organizer, but a confrontation between his son and white supremacy changes his mind.
Toussaint L’Ouverture, “Mister Toussan”
The legendary revolutionary and liberator of Haitian natives is not really a character in this story but is rather a character as imagined by two schoolkids. One of them has just learned for the first time from a teacher about a black historical figure who is the hero of the story and shares it with the other. This introduction to previously unimaginable spikes their imagination.
