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Richard Henry
Meridian Henry, father to Richard Henry and son to Mother Henry, is a Black Christian minister in an unnamed town in the U.S. South. When his son is about 14, his wife dies in a fall at a white hotel. Meridian suspects that a white man pushed her but doesn’t know for sure. In his grief and horror, he allows Richard to live with his Aunt Edna in New York City and throws himself into his ministry. During the Civil Rights Movement, he organizes college students protesting for social justice, including Juanita Harmon, Lorenzo Shannon, and Pete Spivey. He grows close to Juanita and develops romantic feelings for her but never acts on them. After Richard comes home to recover from his heroin addiction and reignites a love affair with Juanita, Meridian encourages the match. After racist white store owner Lyle Britten murders Richard, Meridian becomes progressively disillusioned with his religion and his nonviolent approach to protest, wondering whether Christianity robs Black people of their dignity and whether he made a mistake in cautioning Black protestors not to get guns. At Lyle’s trial for Richard’s murder, Meridian speaks out strongly against the sensationalized and racist characterization of Richard by Lyle’s defense attorney (called The State), thereby feeling that he may have finally earned the title of minister.
Meridian Henry Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Meridian Henry or refer to Meridian Henry. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Act 1 Quotes
Ken: How much does your wife charge?
Meridian: Now you got it. You really got it now. That’s them. Keep walking, Arthur. Keep walking!
Tom: You get your ass off these streets from around here, boy, or we going to do us some cutting—we’re going to cut that big, black thing off of you, you hear?
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Lorenzo: Mother Henry, I got a lot of respect for you and all that, and for Meridian too, but that white man’s God is white. It’s that damn white God that’s been lynching us and burning us and castrating us and raping our women and robbing us of everything that makes a man a man for all these hundreds of years. Now, why we sitting around here, in His house?
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Richard: Every one of them’s got some piss-assed, faggoty white boy on a string somewhere. They go home and marry him, dig, when they can’t make it with me no more—but when they want some loving, funky, down-home, bring-it-on-here-and-put-it-on-the-table style—
Juanita: They sound very sad. It must be very sad for you, too.
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Meridian: Of course, if you go back far enough, you get to a point before Christ, if you see what I mean, B.C.—and at that point, I’ve been thinking, black people weren’t raised to turn the other cheek, and in the hope of heaven. No, then they didn’t have to take low. Before Christ. They walked around just as good as anybody else, and when they died, they didn’t go to heaven, they went to join their ancestors.
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Parnell: He’s a poor white man. The poor whites have been just as victimized in this part of the world as the blacks have ever been!
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Parnell: Meridian—what you ask—I don’t know if I can do it for you.
Meridian: I don’t want you to do it for me. I want you to do it for you.
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Act 3 Quotes
Juanita: I am not responsible for your imagination.
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Meridian: I don’t think that the alleged object was my son’s type at all!
The State: And you are a minister?
Meridian: I think I may be beginning to become one.
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Lyle: You ain’t no better than me!
Parnell: I am aware of that. God knows I have been made aware of that—for the first time in my life.
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Meridian Henry Character Timeline in Blues for Mister Charlie
The timeline below shows where the character Meridian Henry appears in Blues for Mister Charlie. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Act 1
...Later, in a church—from which is visible a courthouse flying an American flag—a Black minister, Meridian, coaches Black students on not reacting when white hecklers call them slurs, call their sisters...
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Meridian’s mother, Mother Henry, enters. More Black students—including Juanita, Lorenzo, and Pete—enter carrying signs and looking...
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Meridian asks whether the police arrested any protestors. Pete says the police are too busy trying...
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...thanks Parnell, he asks her not to—he only did as he felt compelled. He leaves. Meridian wonders whether Lyle will be convicted. Juanita says that they haven’t yet arrested Lyle, who...
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On the Black side of town, in church, Meridian, Mother Henry, and the Black students reminisce about Richard’s favorite songs. In a brief flashback,...
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...if he doesn’t. Richard calls Mother Henry “smart.” Then he says that while he convinced Meridian that New York was a better place for a Black person, it really wasn’t.
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Mother Henry asks why Richard didn’t come home. He says he wanted Meridian to be proud of him—because he wasn’t proud of his father, whom he wishes had...
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...begs him to give her the gun. He refuses and insists that she not tell Meridian. After a moment, she exits. Later, Juanita walks in looking for Meridian and Mother Henry...
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In a flashback, Richard returns home from Papa D’s juke joint and runs into Meridian. They chat, and Richard mentions that if he’d stayed in the South, he might have...
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When Richard insists that Meridian let Richard go North because he was afraid Richard was ashamed of him, Meridian says...
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Back in the play’s main timeline, the students say goodbye to Meridian and Mother Henry and leave the church. Parnell enters. When Parnell says he heard things...
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When Parnell asks what will happen if Meridian breaks down, Meridian says maybe the Black townspeople would find someone competent to lead them....
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When Parnell reminds Meridian how he used to say that his race was “the human race,” Meridian repeats the...
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Parnell asks for “mercy.” When Meridian points out that white people never show mercy to Black people, Parnell begs Meridian to...
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When Parnell claims that they don’t know Lyle killed Richard, Meridian points out that there’s no other suspect, Lyle killed Old Bill, and Lyle hates Black...
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Parnell asks Meridian to consider whether Lyle didn’t do it and claims that Lyle “suffers.” When Meridian asks...
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Act 2
In church in the Black part of town, Meridian is preaching at Richard’s funeral. He preaches that while he and his people have undergone...
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Act 3
...She thinks she’ll end up caring for another man someday, whether that man is Pete, Meridian, or Parnell—and she comments that Parnell’s life must be terrible: all bodies are “bloody” to...
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...whether Juanita had other boyfriends between Richard’s departure and his return—and whether her loneliness and Meridian’s caused her and Meridian to draw closer together. Without waiting for an answer, the State...
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...that he was. She heard about the fight in the evening and went running to Meridian’s house to see Richard. In a flashback, Meridian greets Juanita, tells her Richard is sleeping,...
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When Juanita replies, “oh, my God,” Meridian says he wants to ask her a question just one time: was he imagining their...
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Juanita asks Meridian whether they’ll always suffer. Meridian says he doesn’t know, but they have to keep going....
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...for tonsil surgery when he was six. She recalls how, the day Richard was born, Meridian prayed “to raise him to be a good strong man.” The judge dismisses her.
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Meridian is called to the stand. In a flashback, Meridian is teaching the Song of Songs...
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The State says that Meridian, as a minister, certainly wouldn’t have encouraged his son to carry a gun. Meridian says...
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The State insinuates that Richard strayed from Christianity because Meridian, in preaching “social equality,” served as a bad Christian example. Meridian replies that he’s not...
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The State asks Meridian about his relationship to Juanita and whether he’s had sex since his wife died. When...
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The State asks Meridian about Richard’s obscene photos of himself and white women. Meridian says Richard never told him...
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...The State asks Parnell about Richard and Lyle. Parnell says he’s friends with Richard’s father Meridian—and with Lyle. When the State asks whether the two friendships were equally strong, Parnell says...
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...them to anyone due to the “danger”—and that Richard wouldn’t have showed the photos to Meridian as the women in them were “beneath him.” The State pontificates that any white woman...
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The State asks whether Richard’s attempt to rape Jo damaged Parnell’s friendship with Meridian. Parnell says he never heard anything about a rape attempt until today. The State asks...
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...say nothing. Soon the courtroom is mostly empty. Lyle thanks Parnell for “com[ing] through,” and Meridian asks Parnell to ask Lyle for the truth. When Lyle snaps at Meridian that the...
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...Lyle by pretending to entertain the lie. Parnell isn’t sure whether he betrayed Lyle or Meridian more, in fact. Lyle asks whether Parnell has forgotten he’s white—something Lyle’s father taught Lyle...
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Meridian demands to know whether Richard pleaded for his life before Lyle shot him. Lyle exclaims...
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...from Black people lest they “get to like it.” Then he calls out for Juanita, Meridian, and his mother.
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...church that they need “to march” now. When Lorenzo makes a sarcastic comment about prayer, Meridian suggests that things began and may end for Black people with “the Bible and the...
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