Alexander Crummel

Alexander Crummel is the first African-American man ordained an Episcopalian priest.Over the course of his long life, he established his own parish, seeks counsel and inspiration in England, and ministers in Africa out of the ardent desire to uplift his people. As a man who strives to aid his people with very little support or recognition, his life is a great inspiration to Du Bois.

W. E. B. Du Bois

W. E. B. Du Bois is the author of The Souls of Black Folk and, because the essays reflect his own experience, the hero, he narrates the collection, moving from the third to the first person and back, in an effort to represent the fullness of the African-American experience by representing his own.

John Jones

John Jones is the protagonist in the fiction story "Of the Coming of John." He is a young black man from...