Red River

The Colfax courthouse is not only the setting for the first half of the book but also one of its most powerful symbols. It represents the law; after the end of the Civil War, black men had the same rights as white. As Polly says in the Prologue: “we had colored politicians. Yes we did. It was our men vote them in, before the voting right get snatched away” (3). When the black men of Colfax come together to defend the courthouse, they are truly defending the law—the law that gives them the same legal rights as any other men in Louisiana. By rights, the law should be protected by the Federal troops, but they never arrive. The White League eventually burns down the courthouse and rebuilds it to serve as a hub for the white Colfax community. This mirrors the broader historical reality that white men tore down the laws after Reconstruction and enacted new ones that limited the rights of black men.

The old brown fedora that becomes the funeral hat worn by the Tademy men started out as McCully’s voting hat. Throughout the book, it symbolizes hope in the promise of Reconstruction, which gave black men the right to vote (as well as other equal rights).