The Walls of Jericho begins by introducing the main character, Ralph Merritt. Mr. Merritt is a highly respectable lawyer, and has a good reputation in New York City. Many of his clients love what he does, but when he decides to move to a new neighborhood, he faces backlash. His neighbors want him to leave, and his housekeeper agrees that he shouldn't stay where people don't want him.
Why is Mr. Merritt facing all of these problems despite his good reputation for being an honest person and respectable lawyer? Because he is an African American. Merritt recently moved to a neighborhood on the outside edge of Harlem, knowing that it would be mostly white. Seeing the ethnic progress taking place in Harlem, he wouldn't have thought that such a despicable person as Miss Cramp would be there to shoot him down.
Miss Cramp, as her name somewhat implies, is an annoying older woman who has extreme racial prejudices. She sees but tries to ignore what is happening in Harlem, and certainly doesn't want any of it in her own backyard. Nevertheless, Mr. Merritt moves in, and the two are stuck with one another.
Throughout the novel, Miss Cramp does nasty things to try to get Mr. Merritt to leave, but he is seemingly unwilling to. Merritt's housekeeper Linda doesn't completely see why Mr. Merritt would want to stay somewhere he is hated, especially when he could be loved in Harlem. However, it is his goal to be able to prove that African Americans are not a nuisance in white neighborhoods.
Though the novel doesn't necessarily resolve the tensions between Mr. Merritt and Miss Cramp, is does provide insight into social tensions of the time. Many white neighborhoods feared African Americans moving in, which led them to a mass exodus to more suburban or rural areas. In this way, the demographics of cities almost completely shifted. Mr. Merritt coming to live in a white neighborhood at that time was seen as something unexpected and profound, almost like climbing over the legendary Walls of Jericho.
