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Pete Spivey
Mrs. Wilhelmina Henry, called Mother Henry, is mother to Meridian Henry and grandmother to Richard Henry. Her parents were born in slavery; Mother Henry, hoping to learn more than them because she was born free, eventually decided that the purpose of her life was to provide for her family and teach her children religion. After Richard returns home after eight years in New York City to recover from a heroin addiction, he reveals to Mother Henry that he has a gun for self-defense against white people. She unsuccessfully tries to convince him to give it to her. After Lyle Britten’s trial for Richard’s murder, Mother Henry swears under oath that she never saw Richard with a gun—and swears again even after the racist white defense lawyer (The State) implicitly threatens her with a perjury charge.
Mother Henry Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Mother Henry or refer to Mother 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:
).
Act 1
Quotes
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?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Richard: My mother fell down the steps of that damn white hotel? My mother was pushed—you remember yourself how them white bastards was always sniffing around my mother, always around her—because she was pretty and black!
Get the entire Blues for Mister Charlie LitChart as a printable PDF.
Mother Henry Quotes in Blues for Mister Charlie
The Blues for Mister Charlie quotes below are all either spoken by Mother Henry or refer to Mother 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:
).
Act 1
Quotes
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?
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Richard: My mother fell down the steps of that damn white hotel? My mother was pushed—you remember yourself how them white bastards was always sniffing around my mother, always around her—because she was pretty and black!
