Minor Characters
Shannon Pushcart
Shannon is another of Rashad’s best friends.
Tiffany Watts
Tiffany is a student at Springfield Central High who Rashad has a crush on. He describes her as “the baddest girl in the eleventh grade.”
Will (“Willy”) Collins
Will is Quinn’s 12-year-old brother. He plays soccer and loves video games, and feels a lot of admiration and loyalty toward Quinn.
Mrs. Cambi
Mrs. Cambi is Quinn’s neighbor, who often looks after Willy on weekend nights while Ma is at work.
Dwyer
Dwyer is one of Quinn’s best friends. He is white, plays on the basketball team, and expresses anxieties about how the protest will impact the team. Ultimately, he chooses to remain loyal to Paul and Guzzo during the tensions over Rashad’s arrest.
Clarissa
Clarissa is the nurse who treats Rashad while he is in the hospital. She is kind and friendly, compliments Rashad on his drawing, and attends the protest.
Dr. Barnes
Dr. Barnes is the doctor who treats Rashad in hospital.
Berry Jones
Berry is Spoony’s girlfriend and English’s older sister. She is smart, attends law school, and, like Spoony, is passionately involved in anti-racist activism. Rashad describes her as beautiful and “everybody’s first crush.”
Coach Carney
Coach Carney is the coach of the basketball team. After the incident at Jerry’s, he encourages members of the basketball team to focus on the scouts who will be attending the upcoming season’s games and forbids them from attending the protest.
Pastor Jerome Johnson
Pastor Johnson is the Butler family’s pastor. He comes to visit Rashad in hospital and tells him that everything happens for a reason, which annoys Rashad. However, Rashad is happy when Pastor Johnson comes to the protest, bringing a large group of people with him.
Mr. Galluzzo
Mr. Galluzzo is Paul and Guzzo’s father.
Mrs. Galluzzo
Mrs. Galluzzo is Paul and Guzzo’s mother. She chastises Jill, her niece, when Jill fails to express sufficient loyalty to Paul.
Jill’s Mom
Jill’s mom, whose name we do not learn, also scolds Jill for not showing enough support for Paul.
Nam
Nam is a student at Springfield Central High and the point guard on the basketball team.
Marc Blair
Marc Blair is a teenager who once bullied Quinn. In defense of Quinn, Paul beat him up. Although it isn’t listed explicitly, there is an implication that Marc is black.
Ms. Webber
is one of Quinn’s teachers. She refuses to talk directly about Rashad’s arrest and appears to unjustly pick on a black student, EJ. She sends EJ and Molly out when they protest this unfair treatment.
Molly
Molly is a white student at Springfield Central High. Along with EJ, she objects to Ms. Webber’s apparent racism and is sent out.
E.J.
EJ is a black student at Springfield Central High who is unfairly picked on by Ms. Webber. When he protests, he is sent out.
Ms. Tracey
Ms. Tracey is
Quinn’s English teacher. Following
Rashad’s arrest, she assigns the first chapter of Ralph Ellison’s novel
Invisible Man, “Battle Royale,” which depicts a disturbing scene of racist violence. She sobs in class thinking about Rashad, and attends the protest at the end of the novel.
Mr. Fisher
Mr. Fisher is a history teacher at Springfield Central High. He encourages the students to organize the protest, telling them that they are living in a “historical moment.” He attends the protest along with Ms. Tracey.
Claudia James
Claudia James is a woman who filmed Rashad’s arrest on her phone and distributes the video through social media. She supports Rashad, affirming that he was a victim of police brutality.
Chief Killabrew
Chief Killabrew is Rashad’s ROTC leader. He sends Rashad a message of support while he is in the hospital, and attends the protest.
Tooms
Tooms is a black student at Springfield Central High and a member of the basketball team. Along with Quinn, he reads passages from Ralph Ellison’s “Battle Royale” aloud in Ms. Tracey’s English class, dedicating it to Rashad.
Mrs. Erlich
Mrs. Erlich is Quinn’s trigonometry teacher. During class, she writes statistics about police brutality on the white board, telling her students that “the numbers don’t lie.”