W.E.B. Du Bois

The author and narrator of the book. Du Bois writes several chapters in first person, therefore becoming a main character. He is a well-educated Black man who wants education for his people. He strives to be an example for both Black and white people of how they should treat one another. His ideas for creating a more egalitarian society are pragmatic, but his optimism in the face of adversity reveals him to be idealistic as well.

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Booker T. Washington

An educator and author. His primary objective is to see his people receive industrial education so that they can amass material wealth and appease white Southerners in the process. He is a foil to Du Bois because he, despite being a Black man himself, advocates for assimilation into white culture. Du Bois does not describe Washington personally, but he reveals aspects of Washington’s character by detailing his actions and beliefs.

Alexander Crummell

A Black clergyman whom Du Bois treasures as a friend. He was educated in the North and felt a calling to become an Episcopal priest, but the Episcopal seminary he sought to attend denied him entry because of his race. He moved past this devastating formative event to start his own church. He worked nobly his entire life, and despite receiving pushback from the churches where he sought institutional support, he did not doubt his calling.

John Jones

A former student of Du Bois. He is a good-natured man who experiences satisfaction with the world early in his life, but he travels to the North for an education and becomes aware of the realities of life as a Black man after he graduates from college. After experiencing prejudice, he goes home and realizes education has made him unhappy. When he kills a white man who lays hands on his sister, he accepts his fate – a lynching – with stoicism.

Judge Henderson

A white judge. He begrudgingly hires John Jones when he returns from college, but only so that Jones can teach the other Black people to be loyal servants. His racism is on full display when he fires Jones a month later for teaching about the equality of Black people. The Judge embodies the history and legacy of slavery when he forms a mob to attack and lynch Jones after Jones kills his son to defend his sister, Jennie.

Judge Henderson’s son

Judge Henderson’s son is a privileged young man who feels entitled to what he has and what he wants. After he assaults Jennie, John Jones’s sister, Jones is enraged and kills him.

Jennie Jones

John Jones’s sister. Her brother saves her from an assault by Judge Henderson’s son.