Alonzo Zuber Hickman
Hickman starts out in life as trombone-playing jazzman with more than eye for the ladies. The lynching of his brother for allegedly raping and impregnating a white woman lead him to the pulpit where he fancies himself “God’s Trombone.” He takes on the responsibility of raising the child born of the alleged rape and, indeed, cultivates him to become a child preacher. He leads his congregation to Washington to protect one of the most vicious racists in Congress, Senator Adam Sunraider, after learning of an assassination attempt that has been planned against him.
Bliss
Bliss is the child born from the rape alleged against Hickman’s brother. He is raised to become a boy preacher by Hickman. Following an attempt by his mother to kidnap him during a church service, Bliss leaves the protective custody of Hickman and briefly dabbles in filmmaking before going off on his own to establish his own identity.
Senator Adam Sunraider
The identity that the young preacher Bliss establishes for himself later in life is none other than that of infamously racist Senator Adam Sunraider. The great irony of his life, of course, is that he is a racist who is actually of mixed black and white parentage with white enough pigmentation to successfully “pass” as white in white society. It is thus the assassination of the young boy whom Hickman raised that he is in Washington trying to thwart.
