Alston dresses in an ostentatious manner that upsets the other white commissioners, who find his manner of dress to be gaudy. However, they are more upset because Alston is a black man who will loudly advocate for his community. Alston’s presence on the county commission leads to an intense focus on poverty and civil rights in the black community. The black residents of McIntosh return to their everyday lives and leave the politics to Alston. His revolutionary fervor does not match most people’s simple desires to care for their home and family. Alston speaks his mind and upsets his white colleagues on the county commission, who are used to more compliant and submissive “token” black leaders like Thorpe. He also irritates his black friends from time to time with his heated worldviews, though people like Pinkney continue to support him. Alston sees himself as a revolutionary, or a “thorn in the side of white establishment” (248).

After Alston gets elected, Sheriff Poppell no longer runs the commission like his private council. Poppell’s influence is on the decline, and Alston’s is on the rise. Doctors diagnose Poppell with leukemia. On his deathbed, Poppell requests to see Alston, but Alston refuses to visit him out of fear for his safety.