The Walls of Jericho · Characters
Character guide
Key figures in The Walls of Jericho by Rudolph Fisher.
Skim names here — open a free preview to see character cards and Character Web beside the page as you read.
Pat
major
Also known as Shine
A big, feared street fighter called Shine, whose reputation for hardness hides a terror of being seen as soft, especially by the woman who reads him clearest.
Linda Young
major
Also known as Linda, Miss Linda Young, Miss Young, Sarah Long, Sarah Bell Long, Lindy
Sharp-tongued and self-aware, she calls out the wall of false hardness around the man she loves while confessing the lies she tells herself about wanting him.
Miss Agatha Cramp
major
Also known as Agatha Cramp, Miss Cramp, Miss Agatha, Agatha
A formidable presence in the novel's social world, Miss Cramp moves through the story with the weight of respectability and the complications it brings.
Fred Merrit
major
Also known as Merrit, Fred, Mr. Merrit
A man whose burned house and stricken figure haunt the story's memory, Merrit stands at the center of a wrong that demands answering.
Bubber Brown
supporting
Also known as Bubber
A lively storyteller in the neighborhood circle, Bubber retells the Jericho sermon with comic flair, turning scripture into street-corner philosophy.
Jinx Jenkins
supporting
Also known as Jinx
Bubber's partner in talk and mischief, Jinx trades the Jericho story with him, their banter carrying the novel's folk wisdom and humor.
Henry Patmore
supporting
Also known as Patmore, Mr. Henry Patmore, Mr. Patmore
Patmore moves through Harlem as a man others step around, his size and temper doing the work of a reputation he never has to fully earn. When Linda invokes Father Tod's sermon on Jericho, she names the wall around him: not cruelty but fear, a terror of being found out as someone who could be hurt and could love. That confrontation—his silence, her tears, the accusation that he plays safe by making her quote Scripture—sets the emotional stakes for his arc, forcing him to choose between the hard shell and the person it protects.
Mrs. Arabella Fuller
supporting
Also known as Mrs. Fuller, Fuller, Arabella Fuller
Mrs. Fuller occupies a place in the novel's social world where respectability and gossip carry real weight, and her opinions about who is behaving well and who is not ripple outward. She represents the pressure of communal watching—the sense that private choices become public property—which complicates the freedom of characters like Linda and Patmore to act on what they feel. Her role in the early and middle arc is to embody the standards against which the central figures measure themselves, whether they obey or defy them.
Nora Byle
supporting
Also known as Nora, Byle, Honey
Nora Byle belongs to the interconnected world of Harlem families whose ties—by blood, marriage, and long acquaintance—determine who trusts whom. The nickname Honey suggests a sweetness that others rely on, but the novel's social fabric is woven from obligations and secrets, and her position within the Byle family places her at the intersection of affection and duty. As the story develops, her presence helps illuminate how private desires and public roles collide in a community where everyone knows everyone else's business.
Tod Bruce
minor
Also known as Bruce, Tod
A minor character in the novel.
Joshua Jones
minor
Also known as Joshua, Josh
A minor character, also referred to as Joshua Jones.
J. Pennington Potter
minor
Also known as Potter, J. Pennington
A minor character, possibly a lawyer or official.
Noel Dunn
minor
Also known as Dunn, Mrs. Dunn, Mrs. Noel Dunn
A minor character, possibly part of the Dunn family.
Mr. Shine
minor
Also known as Shine
A minor character, possibly related to Pat.
Tony Nayle
minor
Also known as Tony
A minor character, described as debonair.
The Hon. Buckram Byle
minor
Also known as Buckram Byle
A minor character, possibly a politician.
Bess
minor
A minor but recurring character.
Cornelia Bond
minor
Also known as Cornelia
A minor character in the story.
Irene
minor
A minor character mentioned in the narrative.
Mrs. Byle
minor
A minor character, likely related to Nora Byle.
Conrad White
minor
Also known as Con, Conrad
A minor character in the novel.
Betty Brown
minor
Also known as Betty
A minor character, possibly related to Bubber Brown.
Gloria Dunn
minor
Also known as Gloria, Dunn
A minor character, likely part of the Dunn family.
Dr. Peter Long
minor
Also known as Mrs. Long, Peter Long
A minor character, a doctor, and his wife.
Jimmie Polio
minor
Also known as Jimmy, Jimmy Polio, Jim
A minor character in the novel.
Sam Tyler
minor
Also known as Sam
A minor character in the story.
Shrimpie
minor
A minor character with a nickname.
Old Man Isadore Isaacs
minor
Also known as Isaacs, Old man Isaacs
A minor character, an older man.
Lottie Buttsby
minor
Also known as Lottie
A minor character, described as voluptuous.
Babe Merrimac
minor
Also known as Babe
A minor character in the novel.
Mr. Byle
minor
A minor character, likely related to Nora Byle.
Joe West
minor
Also known as Joe
A minor character in the story.