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First Corinthians is Milkman’s sister. She is the first in their family to go to university, and she attends Bryn Mawr, a prestigious women’s college in Pennsylvania. She also has the opportunity to travel to France. However, despite her higher education and worldliness, she struggles to secure a job after she graduates from college and returns to Mercy. The opportunities for educated Black women were scarce, and racist systems enforced a hierarchy in which Black women were expected to partake in laborious, practical, and non-intellectual services regardless of their abilities or credentials. Thus, First Corinthians must take a job as a maid in the home of Michael-Mary Graham, Michigan’s Poet Laureate. While this position is demeaning due to its racist connotations, it does allow her to begin to empathize with other Black people in her community. Having grown up in a wealthy family, First Corinthians was shielded from the worst outcomes of racism, such as poverty and hard labor. Her new job forces her to contend with her own privilege and the shocking reality of white supremacy, but it also encourages her to form bonds with other working Black people.
Like Ruth and Milkman, First Corinthians struggles to disengage from her classist upbringing, initially keeping her domestic job and relationship with the working-class Henry Porter a secret. She’s ashamed to be seen with Porter, but also feels trapped by her own family. Eventually, this painful dissonance forces her to make a decision, and she chooses a chance at love and companionship with Porter over her family’s wealth and status, which is ultimately suffocating and unhealthy. While higher education is no doubt a privilege, First Corinthians’ liberation truly comes from rejecting classism and internalized racism, and reconnecting with the Black community via pursuing a relationship with Porter.
