Dr. Junius Crookman

Dr. Junius Crookman, son of an Episcopal clergyman and product of careful Negro-aristocracy upbringing, has spent thirty-five peaceful years reading Negro weeklies and collecting African masks before his discovery thrusts him into notoriety he never wanted. He prides himself on being a Race Man, wedded to everything black except the black woman—his wife passes for white—and he naively assumes people will accept a good thing when offered it. His earnest faith that science can solve what agitation and legislation could not is precisely what makes his sanitariums both a sensation and a target.