Summary

“The Right Person (Conference: Part I)” alternates between dialogue directly quoted with no speaker tags, and passages of dialogue narrated by Mildred, the female speaker. In the present conversation, her interlocutor, Charlie Jones, says very little, though she remembers past conversations when he spoke more (59). The opening dialogue reveals that Charlie is very light-skinned, with green eyes and freckles. Nevertheless, he was beaten at Selma as he participated in the protests. Mildred recalls her first meeting with him at the National Student Conference, where she was intimidated by his looks and his strong political stance. She thinks of the South as a discouraging and backward place, and since despite being black herself she has not experienced blatant racism at her all-white arts college, she tells Charlie “It must feel nice to be up north for a change” (61). Her next...