The Trees

Sheriff Jetty is the sheriff of Money, Mississippi. Sheriff Jetty is a seasoned officer who is embittered and frustrated by his years on the force. He has become fed up with his job, his colleagues, and his town. Sheriff Jetty attempts to do his job well, but Jetty is held back by the resources—both financial and intellectual—of Money. Sheriff Jetty grew up in a racist community and is therefore racist, but his racism pales in comparison to the ignorance and racism of the men he works alongside. Sheriff Jetty may not want to be racist, but his racism permeates his good judgment and illustrates the difficulty of escaping the trap of racist thinking. For example, he sends Digby to spy on Ed and Jim, implying a mistrust of the Black newcomers. He doesn’t send the overtly racist Brady, which suggests that Sheriff Jetty is at least partially aware that racism and ignorance make for bad cops.

Sheriff Jetty is the inheritor of a long history of racism and racially motivated hate crimes. Like the other white men in this novel, he has a direct connection to white supremacist groups like the KKK. Sheriff Jetty’s relationship with racism is complicated by the revelation that he is partly Black himself. Sheriff Jetty ultimately grows to respect Ed, Jim, and Herbie and appreciates their help. Jetty’s respect for the Black detectives signals his ability to look beyond the racism he grew up with. Despite his Black ancestry Sheriff Jetty is socially a white man in law enforcement and is therefore a part of the problem of institutionalized racism no matter what his own relationship with race is or becomes; he does not reprimand the overt racism in his police force, and he aids and abets known members of the Ku Klux Klan in covering up crimes in Money.

Herbie is a Black woman and FBI agent. She is sent to Money to assist the MBI with the mysterious murder cases. Herbie’s intersectional identity as a Black woman is complicated by her status with the FBI. Unlike Ed and Jim, Herbie is criticized by her community for being part of law enforcement. She is often seen as disloyal to her people, even though her goal in joining the FBI was to protect and represent the Black community much like Ed and Jim. The qualities that make Ed and Jim look heroic make Herbie look traitorous, exposing the double-standard that Herbie also must contend with. Herbie acts tougher than Ed and Jim, a way of proving that she belongs in power with a gun. Herbie also handles the racist and sexist comments of the people she meets in Money with a calm demeanor, but her frank conversations with Mama Z reveal that Herbie does think deeply about her intersectional identity and her job. Like Ed and Jim, Herbie is a reformist who believes she can enact change from within the system.

Mama Z is the novel’s antagonist. Mama Z is a 100-year-old woman who has borne witness to the history of racism in America. Her experience reveals how little has changed in America since Jim Crow laws. Mama Z’s father was lynched shortly after her birth, which inspired her to keep a thorough record of every lynching in America. Mama Z is also implied to be a Black Panther, signifying her militant activist spirit. Mama Z is also a root doctor or the local “witch”; root doctors are positions of power in Black rural southern communities esteemed for their ability to keep communal and medical knowledge.

Mama Z is kinder to Ed and Jim than she is to Herbie. She suspects Herbie is a traitor because they are both Black women yet chose very different paths. Mama Z is responsible for the mobs of zombie-like people lynching white people. Mama Z fulfills the archetypal role of the “witch doctor” who brings the dead to life to wreak havoc on white people from classic zombie tales and cinema. Mama Z is an antagonist in the strictest sense. She is not personally opposed to the protagonists and instead poses a moral dilemma for the Black detectives: She allows them to choose whether or not the zombie-lynchings continue.

Digby and Brady are two police officers in Money, Mississippi. They are token one-dimensional racist characters who are murdered by a mob of undead Black men. As law officers, they are enabled by their society to perpetuate racism. Digby and Brady represent the Endemic and Institutionalized Racism in America. As police officers, they cannot be trusted to uphold the law fairly and to treat citizens with equal respect because of their deep-rooted racism. Along with Jetty and Fondle, they symbolize the powers of the status quo in Money and display their racism without fear of repercussions.

Gertrude is a white-passing Black woman involved in the mysterious organization that stages the murders of Junior Junior, Wheat, and Granny C. She has her pulse on the racism in the town; she can identify who is racist and who isn’t, especially because most people don’t recognize that she is Black and do not guard their racism around her. Gertrude connects all of the significant Black characters in the novel with one another: She introduces the detectives to Mama Z and she invites Damon to Money. Gertrude believes the murders of her organization to be fully justified due to the murder of Emmett Till; Gertrude is militant and views the struggle for racial liberation as a war.