“ …For example, there was Amelia parker, a tall, fair girl with corn yellow hair and turquoise blue eyes, who sat next to him in Dr. Boaz’s class on ethnology.” (p. 125)
Chesnutt bases Dr. Boaz on Dr. Franz Boas who mentored Zora Neale Hurston among others.
“She was a New Englander and bore the name of a famous preacher who had been a great friend of his race.” (p. 126)
Chesnutt is referring to Theodore Parker.