Character guide

Kenneth Harper

major

Also known as Kenneth, Kenneth B. Harper, Dr. Kenneth B. Harper, Ken, Dr. Harper, Harper

Kenneth has spent eight years earning his degree and now arranges his instruments with a lover's care, believing hard work will be met with trust. But Central City's white patients won't come, and the color line he thought his credentials might cross hardens into something more dangerous. His sober, disciplined ambition is the engine of the story's early arc, and the question of whether that discipline can survive the South's hostility drives everything forward.

Jane Phillips

major

Also known as Phillips, Jane

Jane moves through Central City's Black community with the steady purpose of someone who has chosen to stay and build rather than leave. She and Kenneth share a vision of what the South could be, but her willingness to act on that vision tests the careful patience he has staked his future on. Her presence sharpens the novel's central question: whether love and purpose can survive in a place determined to break both.

Bob Harper

supporting

Also known as Bob, Harper

Bob works the soil with the same stubbornness Kenneth brings to medicine, but his battles are fought against cotton prices, debt, and the quiet violence of a system that wants him gone. He is the brother who stayed, and his struggles make the Harpers' stake in Central City concrete rather than abstract. His fate is bound up with Kenneth's choices in ways neither man can fully control.

Sheriff Parker

supporting

Also known as Bob Parker, Bob, Parker

Parker wears the badge in a town where enforcing the law and protecting white supremacy are treated as the same job. He is not a cartoon villain but a man who has learned to survive by never choosing the harder right. His calculated neutrality — and the moments it cracks — makes him a barometer of how much room the Black community actually has to breathe.

Dr. Bennett

supporting

Also known as old Dr. Bennett, old Bennett, Doc Bennett, Doc

Bennett has held the town's medical trust so long he treats it as property, and Kenneth's arrival reads as trespass. His skepticism is not pure malice but the reflex of a man whose world is being rearranged without his consent. How far his respect for Kenneth's skill can stretch against his inherited assumptions becomes one of the novel's quieter, more telling tensions.

Dr. Williams

supporting

Also known as Williams

Williams has survived in Southern medicine long enough to know exactly what it costs, and his guarded professionalism reflects lessons Kenneth hasn't learned yet. He represents the path of accommodation — the compromises required to keep seeing patients at all — and his presence forces Kenneth to ask what kind of doctor he is willing to become. Their professional exchanges carry the weight of two generations of Black ambition negotiating the same impossible terrain.

Roy Ewing

supporting

Also known as Ewing, Mrs. Ewing, Roy, Lee, Mrs. Roy Ewing

Roy Ewing runs the general merchandise store on Georgia Avenue and moves among Central City's white leadership, yet his household is fracturing around a nineteen-year-old daughter, Mary, who lies gravely ill in a darkened bedroom. He has quietly stopped his nighttime visits to Dr. Harper's office, and the old physician he trusts, Dr. Bennett, admits he cannot diagnose her. Ewing's helplessness before his child's suffering exposes the limits of the privilege and connections he otherwise commands.

Mamie

minor

Also known as Minnie Baxter

A Black woman in the community, possibly a domestic worker, who interacts with the Harper family.

Mary Ewing

minor

Also known as Mary, Ewing

Roy Ewing's wife, a white woman who shows some sympathy toward the Black community.

Judge Stevenson

supporting

Also known as Judge, Stevenson, Judge Stev'nson

Judge Stevenson holds court in Central City, a man whose rulings can bend toward decency but never far enough to threaten the color line that structures his town. His authority puts him in the path of Black residents seeking justice and of white power brokers expecting deference, leaving him caught between conscience and consequence. His choices in the early and middle chapters show how even a sympathetic official becomes an instrument of the system he might wish to temper.

Dr. Scott

minor

Also known as Scott

Another physician in the area, possibly white, who interacts with Kenneth.

Mrs. Bradley

minor

Also known as Mrs. Bradley Kenneth, Kenneth, Ken

A woman who appears to be connected to Kenneth's family, possibly a relative or neighbor.

Tom Tracy

minor

Also known as Tom, Tracy

A white man in the community, possibly involved in the Klan or local politics.

Ed Stewart

minor

Also known as Brothers, Ed, Stewart, Brothers Ed Stewart

A member of the community, possibly a farmer or laborer, who interacts with the Harpers.

Emma Bradley

minor

Also known as Mrs. Emma Bradley, Mrs. Bradley, Emma

A woman in the community, possibly a friend or acquaintance of the Harper family.

Nancy Ware

minor

Also known as Nana, Nancy, Nancy Ware's

A Black woman, possibly Bud Ware's wife, who interacts with the community.

Henry Lane

minor

Also known as Henry, Lane, Commissioner Henry Lane

A local commissioner, possibly involved in politics or law enforcement.

Hiram Tucker

minor

Also known as Tucker, Mrs. Tucker, Mrs. Hiram Tucker

A white man in the community, possibly a farmer or businessman.

George Parker

minor

Also known as Parker, George

Possibly related to Sheriff Parker, a white man in the community.

Reverend Wilson

minor

Also known as Reverend Ezekiel Wilson, the Reverend Wilson

A white preacher in the community, possibly involved in racial politics.

Jim Archer

minor

Also known as Jim, Archer

A Black man in the community, possibly a friend or associate of Kenneth.

John Anthony

minor

Also known as John, Anthony

A character in the community, possibly a businessman or local figure.

Mr. Wilson

minor

A white man in the community, possibly a merchant or official.

Bud Ware

minor

Also known as Bud, Ware

A Black man in the community, possibly a worker or neighbor of the Harpers.

Jim Bradley

minor

Also known as Jim

A Black man in the community, possibly a friend of Kenneth's.

Mr. Stewart

minor

Also known as Stewart

A white man in the community, possibly a landowner or employer.

Bill Van Vleet

minor

Also known as Good old Bill Van Vleet, old Bill, Bill, Van Vleet

A white man in the community, possibly a friend or acquaintance of the Harpers.

Brother Gordon

minor

Also known as Gordon

A religious figure in the Black community, possibly a preacher.

Mr. Phillips

minor

Also known as Mr. Phillips who had said nothing, Jane—and Mr. Phillips

Jane Phillips' father, a white man who is initially silent but later involved.

Mrs. Johnson

minor

A woman in the community, possibly a neighbor or acquaintance.

Mr. Taylor

minor

Also known as Taylor

A white man in the community, possibly a merchant or official.

Brother Tucker

minor

Also known as Brother, Tucker

A religious figure in the Black community, possibly a preacher or deacon.

Mrs. Amos

minor

Also known as old Mrs. Amos, Old Mrs. Amos

An older woman in the community, possibly a neighbor or patient.

Jerry Bird

minor

Also known as Jerry

A Black man in the community, possibly a worker or friend.

Joe Todd

minor

Also known as Joe

A Black man in the community, possibly a laborer or neighbor.

Joe Harper

minor

A relative of Kenneth, possibly a cousin or uncle.

George Baird

minor

Also known as Baird, old Baird

An older white man in the community, possibly a landowner or official.

David Gordon

minor

Also known as Gordon, David

A man in the community, possibly a friend or associate of the Harpers.

Old Reverend Adams

minor

An older preacher in the Black community, possibly retired.

Will Hutchinson

minor

Also known as old Will Hutchinson, Will, Bill

A white man in the community, possibly a farmer or worker.

Jeff Anderson

minor

A Black man in the community, possibly a friend or associate of Kenneth.

Mrs. Phillips

minor

Also known as Soon's Mrs. Phillips

Jane Phillips' mother, a white woman in the community.

Mr. Anthony

minor

A white man in the community, possibly a businessman or official.

Nat Phelps

minor

A man in the community, possibly a worker or neighbor.

Professor Fuller

minor

Also known as Fuller

An educator, possibly at a local school or college.

Charley Allen

minor

Also known as Charley

A young man in the community, possibly a friend or acquaintance.