Dr. Mable Jones is the mother of Prince Jones, and appears in the third section of the book. She is reserved, polite, composed, and incredibly determined. Coates presents Dr. Jones as a woman of steel who was born into poverty and fought her way out by winning scholarships and becoming a doctor. She gave the very best to her children and earned the money to do so. She is the epitome of being “twice as good,” a phrase Coates describes as being doled out to black children and not white children. Despite having fought her way to the top in spite of segregation and prejudice, Dr. Jones does not acknowledge that she was ever bothered at being the only black radiologist she knew, revealing her commitment to keeping insecurity from holding her back. She believes that it should not be notable for her to be a black doctor; she just wants to be a good doctor, on her own merits. Her composure also belies the immense struggle she has gone through in losing Prince. Coates describes her as having the same look in her eye that he had seen in photos of 1960s sit-in demonstrators. She gains her power from something greater than herself. As a woman who survived extreme prejudice and the violent loss of her child, Dr. Jones exemplifies sheer strength.

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