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Jesse
The protest leader is a college-aged Black man who lives in the same town as Jesse and has been leading protests in the area for at least the past year. He first met Jesse around ten ago when he was a child, since his grandmother (Julia Blossom) was one of Jesse’s customers when he was working for a mail-order business. As a child, the protest leader refused to allow Jesse to refer to his grandmother as “Old Julia” and, as an adult, he asks Jesse if he has learned to call Black women by their real names yet. Jesse almost beats the protest leader to death trying to get him to instruct the other jailed protestors to stop singing, but the protest leader refuses. In this way, he represents the lasting power of the civil rights movement, a force that racist white men like Jesse cannot stop.
Protest Leader Quotes in Going to Meet the Man
The Going to Meet the Man quotes below are all either spoken by Protest Leader or refer to Protest Leader. 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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Going to Meet the Man Quotes
“They had this line you know, to register”—he laughed, but she did not—“and they wouldn’t stay where Big Jim C. wanted them, no, they had to start blocking traffic all around the court house so couldn’t nothing or nobody get through, and Big Jim C. told them to disperse and they wouldn’t move, they just kept up that singing, and Big Jim C. figured that the others would move if this nigger would move, him being the ring-leader, but he wouldn’t move and he wouldn’t let the others move, so they had to beat him and a couple of the others and they threw in the wagon…”
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Lying in bed, Jesse tells Grace about what happened at work that day—Black civil rights protestors lined up outside the court house in town to register to vote, and Jesse’s coworker Big Jim C. beat and arrested them. That Jesse laughs at Black people fighting for basic rights (and that Grace does not) shows the depths of his racism. This passage makes it clear that Big Jim C. is a symbol for the Jim Crow laws that upheld segregation in the South. Baldwin’s description that the protestors “wouldn’t stay where Big Jim C. wanted them” is a nod to the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem
“She’s gone out?”
The boy said nothing.
“Well,” he said, “tell her I passed by and I’ll pass by next week.” He started to go; he stopped. “You want some chewing gum?”
The boy got down from the swing and started for the house. He said, “I don’t want nothing you got, white man.” He walked into the house and closed the door behind him.
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This exchange occurs between Jesse and a child-aged version of the protest leader in a flashback. It is about ten years earlier and Jesse—then working for a mail-order business—has stopped by the boy’s grandmother’s house to collect payment from her. Though Baldwin does not have Jesse reflect on his reaction to this moment, the fact that it stayed with him all these years suggests that he was deeply affected by it. In fact, after recalling this scene, Jesse ramps up his violence toward the present-day protest leader lying in his jail cell. D
He began to tremble with what he believed was rage, sweat, both cold and hot, raced down his body, the singing filled him as though it were a weird, uncontrollable, monstrous howling rumbling up from the depths of his own belly, he felt an icy fear rise in him and raise him up, and he shouted, he howled, “You lucky we pump some white blood into you every once in a while—your women! Here’s what I got for all the black bitches in the world—!” Then he was, abruptly, almost too weak to stand; to his bewilderment, his horror, beneath his own fingers, he felt himself violently stiffen—with no warning at all…
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After remembering the boy-aged version of the protest leader calling him “white man,” Jesse’s anger toward the protest leader increases. In this moment, like the one at the very end of the story, Jesse loses control and, howling like an animal, reveals the sexual undertones of his racism. By screaming at the protest leader that he is lucky white men “pump some white blood” into Black women, Jesse reveals his need to prove his sexual prowess to Black men. His desire to have sex with Black women is, at the root, a desire to compete with (and beat) Black men. Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. S
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Protest Leader Character Timeline in Going to Meet the Man
The timeline below shows where the character Protest Leader appears in Going to Meet the Man. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Going to Meet the Man
...him to go to sleep, but he explains that this customer’s grandson is now a protest leader . His coworker Big Jim C. “had to whip that nigger’s ass today.”
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...to vote, blocking traffic, singing, and refusing to move. Jesse’s former customer’s grandson was the protest leader , so Big Jim C. decided to target him, beating him and a few other...
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Like Big Jim C., Jesse decided to target the protest leader , who was already bleeding and moaning on the ground of his cell. Jesse prodded...
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Jesse stops speaking and, in a flashback, he’s prodding the protest leader as the man rolls in the dirt of the cell, unable to even scream in...
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As Jesse moves to leave the cell, the protest leader calls out, “White man.” Jesse stops in surprise and grabs his genitals, though he’s not...
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Looking at the unconscious protest leader , Jesse suddenly remembers that this man—who he has seen at several protests over the...
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In the silence, Jesse sees the boy-aged version of the protest leader looking at him with malevolence and begins to feel that he is trapped in a...
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Back at the jail house, Jesse looks down at the protest leader ’s nearly dead body and thinks how he would like to pistol whip him until...
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Back in the present, thinking of the protest leader in his cell, the lynching victim in the fire, and the knife that was used...
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