William is a blue-eyed white man with a fine profile, former vice president of the Long Island Rail Road and later trustee of Tuskegee University in charge of its finances. Baldwin disagrees with his own abolitionist ancestors and thinks blacks are inferior. He is sure they will never reach social equality and hopes for a smoothly run south where Blacks work in manual labor jobs, according to Lewis. With his friend and fellow philanthropist, Ogden, he dislikes Atlanta University and intellectuals like Du Bois.
Bumstead is a congregational preacher and the president of Atlanta University who hires Du Bois in his time of need. Kindly, determined and supportive, he pushes Atlanta to become a fine liberal arts school totally integrated between races, a choice which Lewis thinks costs him funding support......
